While the Emmy Awards are about celebrating the best work on the small screen, the star-studded affair is also a big night for fashion. Unfortunately, there are always a handful of celebs whose outfits fail to dazzle us as much as their performances have, making us wish the Emmy-winning team behind those fab costumes on “The Masked Singer” could help them all with a red carpet redo.
Before they arrived at the Peacock Theater for the 2026 Emmy Awards, all of the potential worst-dressed honorees had to feast their eyes on a look that might have left them questioning the ensembles they already had picked out for the big night. When she won her Emmy, Shailene Woodley accepted it in a revenge dress that’s already one of the best outfits of 2026. But even if they can’t top that look, you’d think many of this year’s big nominees would be eager to dress to impress after not being given the opportunity to do so on TV — “The Pitt” crew was mostly stuck in scrubs; “The Bear” cast threw on aprons to sweat it out in television’s most chaotic kitchen; and then there’s the cursed antler crown Kate O’Flynn wears in “Widow’s Bay.” So at least even the night’s bad dressers can point to some of television’s most popular series and say that they’re at least a smidge more stylish.
Derek Hough needed to zoot suit boogie back to his closet
There’s no way “Dancing with the Stars” pro Derek Hough is going to dance in those pants! Hough hit the Emmys red carpet in this outfit with an exaggerated silhouette similar to that of the zoot suit, which can look pretty dapper when it’s done right. But Hough just looks like he purchased a lot of green clothing with cartoonish proportions. If Jim Carrey’s character in “The Mask” filmed a holiday special (which is a very Hough thing to do), it’s easy to imagine him wearing this suit while twirling Cameron Diaz around in her festive red dress.
It’s hard to bear seeing Abby Elliott in a look worthy of this list
Perfection is the name of the game on Abby Elliott’s FX series “The Bear,” but we have to say “No chef!” to this soggy noodle of a look. When Sydney Sweeney (she of crumbling reputation fame) wore the same pale pink Erdem gown to the Toronto International Film Festival in 2025, the skirt wasn’t quite as wrinkled, and the limp red ribbon didn’t look quite as sad. It also doesn’t help Elliott that the color is so close to that of her skin. We’d love to say she served, but she never made it to the table.
Chris Perfetti’s suit was giving petri dish growth
Is Chris Perfetti teaching science class over on “Abbott Elementary” now? We love a fuzzy suit when it’s plush velvet, not when it looks like furry mold splotches are taking a jacket and pants from haute couture to hazardous material. The print on his suit is probably supposed to be vaguely vegetative in nature, but it’s just so hard not to see patches of white mold in different stages of development.
Kristen Bell looks like she fell, leaving her mini cape askew
Kristen Bell’s slip dress brings to mind a nightgown you might see on a damsel in danger of becoming a tasty morsel for Dracula. If its only embellishment were the ruffle on the neck (aka Dracula’s napkin), it would actually be kind of pretty. But then you have that messy mass of material that looks like tattered, centuries-old lace or, even worse, crispy bits of skin. The finishing touch is what appears to be a small cape covering one shoulder — perhaps it ended up there while Bell was fleeing from her fate in this bad B-horror movie.
Nicky Campbell is not suitable for work but is totally ready for the Roxbury
What is love? Probably not what you’re feeling when you look at “Not Suitable for Work” guest star Nicky Campbell’s Emmy ensemble. Campbell co-hosted the red carpet alongside Trishas Paytas for NBC, but he was dressed like everyone’s favorite “Saturday Night Live” nightclub pests, the Butabi brothers. On the show, former friends Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan were walking red flags (or rather reflective beacons) in their shiny synthetic jackets, which weren’t unlike Campbell’s choice of outerwear. His shades were also very Butabian — all he was missing was the sheer mesh shirt to be ready for a night at the Roxbury.
Forget the velvet rope — Odessa A’zion drug velvet strings down the red carpet
Because it wasn’t already a totally bonkers night for fashion, sure, why not have “I Love LA” star Odessa A’zion traipse around on the red carpet with strings dangling from her outfit? In her velvet suit with flared pants, she looked like a gender-swapped gothic Elvis Presley marionette who escaped from an evil rock ‘n’ roll Geppetto.
Shailene Woodley’s red carpet reign ended in record speed
We began by praising one of Shailene Woodley’s Emmy looks, so let’s end the night on a low note with — whatever is going on here. With those gloves and that hospital-blue top, she looks prepared to scrub up with “The Pitt” doctors (but bending forward over a patient would definitely be a bad idea). From the waist down and neck up, however, she’s ready to shine like the movie star she is.
The 2026 Emmys were such a mixed bag for fashion, so we’ll just say that Woodley’s wardrobe choices summed up the evening rather nicely (in a very unsettling way). If those gems around her neck work like the infinity stones, can we just erase all of these looks from our memories?
