Hits and misses on the Emmys red carpet

Amy Poehler, wearing Brian Rennie for Basler, left, and Tina Fey, wearing Narciso Rodriguez, arrive at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards at Nokia Theatre on Sunday Sept. 22, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) (Credit: Jordan Strauss/invision/ap)


The public loves its Monday morning quarterbacking about a red-carpet hit, and, maybe more so, a miss. (Yes , Lena Dunham, we’ll be talking about those oversized flowers on your dress.)

There are plenty of hits to mention from Sunday’s Emmy Awards — Julia Louis-Dreyfus in a beautiful metallic-beaded column gown by Monique Lhuillier, Rose Byrne in an of-the-moment cropped-top Calvin Klein, Emilia Clarke in chalk-blue Donna Karan, Zooey Deschanel mastering her signature retro look in thoroughly modern J. Mendel.

Plus some sort-of-hits: Claire Danes in a great champagne-colored, delicately beaded gown by Armani Prive had a bit of a Gwyneth Paltrow Oscar-winner moment. Both actresses seemed to not quite fill out the dress.

But this display of fashion finery on Sunday night actually gave us other things to talk about.

“It was all over the place … and not what you expect,” said Hal Rubenstein, editor-at-large for InStyle magazine. “It went all the way from extreme simplicity, Julianna Margulies in Reed Krakoff and Allison Williams in Ralph Lauren, to uber beading on Heidi Klum in Versace and Connie Britton in Naeem Khan.”

Joe Zee, creative director at Elle, says the variety is largely because designers and stars are really collaborating now versus the days when celebrity stylists would pull 50 dresses — and fail to make up their minds until the last minute. “Unless Bjork gets nominated, we’re not going to have one of those crazy fashion moments again.”

Here are five things to talk about from the red carpet:

—COUTURE CLOUT. Kerry Washington wore the finale gown from Marchesa’s spring fashion show — held just earlier this month. To get that dress out to Los Angeles, fitted just right and have the whole coordinated look in such a short time shows that Washington is the fashion world It Girl.

Jessica Pare also scored a brand new gown for next season, hers a blue strapless Oscar de la Renta, and Julianne Hough had a sheer silver Jenny Packham, but neither had the same impact.

—NEW NAMES. The best surprises of the Emmys red carpet-turned-runway are the names you didn’t know: Thakoon dressing Taylor Schilling from “Orange is the New Black,” Zosia Mamet of “Girls” in Honor, and Aubrey Plaza of “Parks and Recreation” in Marios Schwab.