LOS ANGELES _ Maybe it was an unconscious effort to beat the Monday night blues, but the most noticeable trend on the 70th Emmy Awards red _ well, make that gold _ carpet was an emphasis on bright, bold and otherwise unusual (at least for an awards show) colors ranging from Dakota Fanning's jade-green pleated chiffon crossover Dior dress with a tied back to Tracee Ellis Ross' voluminous fuchsia Valentino gown.
Other head-turners in candy-colored clothes were Regina King in a curve-hugging chartreuse strapless gown with a graceful arc of fabric across the breastbone; Tatiana Maslany in a custom lime green and black jumpsuit; and Leslie Jones in a custom iridescent pantsuit that seemed to waver between silver and pink depending on the light _ all by the color-loving designer Christian Siriano, who also gets credit for one of the night's hands-down stunners, Angela Sarafyan's black, crystal-studded strapless gown.
Prabal Gurung, another designer known for his love of bold color, gets the credit for Allison Janney's eye-popping purple sequin-covered number as well as Tiffany Haddish's boldly color-blocked red, blue, green and yellow gown, which, she told E!'s Giuliana Rancic, had been custom-made to incorporate the colors of the Eritrean flag as an homage to her father.
There was a noticeable number of women wearing pants at this year's Emmy Awards arrivals. In addition to Jones and Maslany, standouts in the trouser-clad department included Issa Rae in a custom pale-blue silk V-neck Vera Wang jumpsuit with a split-away skirt and hand-sewn, crystal-embellished bodice; Felicity Huffman in a double-breasted suit; Amanda Crew in a silver pantsuit worn over what appeared to be a blue tube top; and perennial awards-show pants-wearer Evan Rachel Wood, who brought along as her guest activist Amanda Nguyen, a recent Nobel Peace Prize nominee for creating the Sexual Assault Survivor's Bill of Rights.
Wood also sported a blue ribbon on the lapel of her custom, floor-length Altuzarra black tuxedo coat with satin lapels and tuxedo high-waisted pants in support of the ACLU and its fight to reunite immigrant families separated at the border.
Although she managed to highlight two causes in a single trip down the gold carpet, she couldn't hold a candle to a fellow pants-clad attendee, "black-ish" star Jenifer Lewis, who turned out wearing a custom black and red Nike sweatshirt with a crystal-covered "swoosh" logo.
"I am wearing Nike to applaud them for supporting Colin Kaepernick and his protest against racial injustice and police brutality," she said.
