Golden Globes Recap: Gowns with a Side of Bucket Hat

Earlier in Back Row:

Award shows feel increasingly like trade shows and less like mass entertainment. Hollywood honoring and promoting films that only a sliver of moviegoers have seen feels not entirely unlike visiting a booth at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas promoting the latest air purifier technology. Only, there’s a big difference between Adrien Brody and air purifiers, which can’t be dressed by Thom Brown and walk red carpets with Georgina Chapman for mass judgment. Toward the end of the night, presenter Gal Gadot actually read from a teleprompter, “In a night that’s given us some amazing moments, let’s continue with the amazing moments.” Fortunately, she was wearing a gown with cutouts and a big pearl at the waist to distract from that writing.

Each year, Hollywood journalists and critics wonder why we’re still doing these shows when they’re long, snoozey, and dated. It hit me last night as I studied the permutations of Timothee Chalamet’s tie: because even if you haven’t watched a single nominated show or movie, you can still tune in, recognize a number of the stars, and have an opinion on what they’re wearing, who they’re dating, their reaction shots, etc. If brands decided the Golden Globes didn’t matter and stopped dressing the attendees, that would hurt the event so much more than, say, giving the night’s top award to The Brutalist, a movie that is supposed to be excellent but also runs 3.5 hours and is only playing in eight theaters.

The Golden Globes are under relatively new ownership post its pandemic-era controversy that led to the cancellation of the telecast in 2022: Todd Boehly, CEO of Greenwich, Connecticut-based holding company Eldridge with a net worth of $8.5 billion, and Jay Penske, CEO of Dick Clark Productions and CEO and Chairman of Penske Media, which includes Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Rolling Stone, and more. When these two acquired the Globes, they promised to look for ways to expand (ahem, monetize) it around the world — and have done that by giving out random Globes-branded awards in Turkey and Egypt (events that were conveniently ignored by Penske publications).

That grossness aside, this show was an improvement upon last year’s, when Jo Koy bombed as host. Nikki Glaser did not bomb — she wasn’t hilarious, but you could feel the goodwill toward her in the room, which is 75 percent of the thankless battle of hosting this thing. Her steady rotation of pageant gowns gave her a shot at keeping the television audience’s attention from drifting over to TikTok. Watching the stars react to her carefully calibrated jokes about them was a reminder of what Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande internalized so well on their Wicked press tour — that being a celebrity quite often hinges on these reaction shots and mere glimmers of them on video perhaps as much as their creative output. It’s about the Tok as much as the art! Zendaya, who debuted an engagement ring on the red carpet, also gets this, as do Timothée Chalamet and Nicole Kidman, whereas Harrison Ford is 82 years old and doesn’t seem to give a fuck anymore.

The broadcast tried to hold attention over the course of its three-plus-hour runtime in other ways: graphics told us where stars were sitting, as though they were GPS coordinates. Rather than watch them squeeze around tables to get the stage with no added entertainment, the broadcast overlaid chyrons of what I guess would fall into the category of “fun facts.” Some were interesting — Hacks star and best actress winner Jean Smart, apparently, never had a day job aside from acting. But mostly they were evidence that whoever wrote them didn’t get paid enough.

As for the fashion, here are my highlights and lowlights.

Timothée Chalamet wore the first-ever Tom Ford by Haider Ackermann design.

Timmy and Haider are pals. They once designed a splatter-paint hoodie together to support Afghan women. Haider famously dressed Timmy in the red backless halter top and tailored pants that fit so well you know shiny fabric enthusiast The Rock put it on a mood board. His Globes suit was slender without looking dated. He walked the carpet with his tie flung over his shoulder, but as the night wore on, it wandered to his chest where it hung like a pendant necklace. It was no red backless showstopper, but he has style and looked much more natural in this than many men did in their colored suits and unfortunate double-breasted jackets.

Though she didn’t walk the carpet, let’s take a moment for his date Kylie Jenner, who wore a Versace dress previously made famous by Elizabeth Hurley. This was a good choice! It suited her and gave news outlets something to write about other than Demi Moore apparently snubbing her.

There was a lot of mid Balenciaga.

Nicole Kidman’s mesmerizing hair was more interesting than her Balenciaga gown, which included illusion netting in the back that wasn’t enough of an illusion. You know Kidman is going to choose a column gown because, like many of us, she usually wears a variation of the same thing. But the gown was like lukewarm soup — a nice idea that needed an extra minute in the microwave. Balenciaga missed for Ali Wong and Kerry Washington, despite — I’m told — their dresses looking incredible on the runway. It’s hard to translate some of that Cool Fashion Stuff to red-carpet actresses. That said, the brand was a win for Michelle Yeoh. I loved how her turtleneck tickled her face just so, like it was about to swallow her.

The Bottega looks were among the best of the night.

The Bear’s Eban Moss-Bachrach and his wife Yelena Yemchuk both looked amazing in Bottega Veneta. Her minimalist yet glitzy look was flawless down to her sandals and teeny woven bag. Moss Bachrach managed to avoid wearing a traditional tux while still looking sharp and stylish instead of awkward. Fashion people were also loving Anora star Mikey Madison in a gold Bottega column.

Louis Vuitton mostly came out swinging.

Louis Vuitton red carpet I personally find to be an adventure — you never know if you’re going to get Ariana Grande sprouting out of a beanbag or Zendaya at the Globes creating an all-new lust for burnt orange. Emma Stone wore a red strapless gown that fashion people seemed to like that looked puffed up with air, like she was standing on a fan. Cate Blanchett wore her favorite blousey-on-top silhouette. But the most interesting Vuitton number of the night was on Cynthia Erivo, whose dress included a piece in the middle that looked structured enough for Jeremy Strong to hang his hat on, should he have decided he wanted to stand out less.

Men don’t want to wear traditional tuxedos — and their looks are all over the place.

Penguin suits are out, resulting in a wide range of menswear on red carpets that’s finally as interesting to observe as the womenswear. The Bear’s Matty Matheson wore a bolo tie, which at one point would have been a big “worst-dressed” situation. But in 2025 it was fun but also a shrug (it was no turquoise bucket hat). Benny Blanco’s suit was textured, as though it was made of towels. Aquamarine suiting on Jeremy Strong, Jeff Goldblum, and Andrew Scott was a surprising “three is a trend” moment. Nobody Wants This star Adam Brody wore a green double-breasted Prada suit that fashion people seemed to like but the double-breasted design and how he buttoned it sort of gave tunic top. The Rock wore a lavender shiny shirt and matching jacket with a brooch that fit him much better than the shiny gray suit he wore to the Oscars last year. Eddie Redmayne wore a well-tailored checked suit by Valentino that would have looked spectacular on Tilda Swinton. It was a lot of look — maybe too much look. Maybe even more look than Jeremy Strong’s look! Colman Domingo, also in Valentino, struck the perfect balance.

That Alexander McQueen runway showstopper was not quite right on Angelina Jolie.

Her hair and makeup was giving Chanel tweed suit and her dress was longing for that headpiece.

Viola Davis’s Gucci dress didn’t get enough attention.

Sabato de Sarno doesn’t get the best marks for his Gucci runway collections, but he is a really good red-carpet designer. Davis wore her black Gucci dress previously to a LACMA event in 2024. For the Globes, she swapped the black cape for one with subtle rainbow sequins. She looked like a firework, as befit her status as the night’s lifetime achievement honoree.

Saint Laurent is a film producer now.

Zoe Saldaña won Best Supporting Actress for Emilia Pérez wearing a perfectly fitted black sequin column gown (award shows may be the greatest repository of columns next to the Coliseum). I only realized when I saw designer Anthony Vaccarello posting about it on social media that he and Saint Laurent Productions were listed as producers on the movie. What is Saint Laurent Productions? Per the Saint Laurent site:

If Chick-Fil-A makes its own shows, why wouldn’t fashion brands produce movies? One imagines designers being more excited about that than figuring out how to monogram waffles for an in-store restaurant. Everything is an ad for something and no one cares!

Tilda Swinton saved Chanel.

Chanel rarely looks this good in the wild.

No one seemed to understand Naomi Watt’s Schiaparelli.

This dress looked better in the sketch the brand sent to media, but the bottom looked like, as one friend said to me, “a singular animal hoof.” I asked ChatGPT to compare the pink part to something funny, and I’m not saying the Emily in Paris writers should be worried, but:

Kathy Bates made Sneex work.

I didn’t notice her shoes during the broadcast, but how great does she look? These are not normal sneakers but Sneex, the polarizing heeled sneakers by Spanx.

It was a great night for unnecessary diamonds.

Obviously jewelry brands pay to appear around the necks of actresses at award shows — and good for them, it’s way easier money than actually making art — but I do contend that Zoe Saldaña in Saint Laurent, Selena Gomez in Prada, and Anya Taylor-Joy in Dior all would have looked great with bare necks!

Women are toying with the idea of not wearing gowns for these events.

Ayo Edeberi wore a gray Loewe suit and flat shoes. Kate Winslet wore a custom Erdem pantsuit. Kathryn Hahn wore a two-tone dress by Altuzarra with a waist belt. These looks were less rigid than the capital G Gowns that we see on most actresses at these events. Their choices felt freeing, like wearing sweatpants and a button-down to take work Zooms from home.

When you have a night like Demi Moore, your dress is beside the point.

She wore Armani Privé and it wasn’t the best-ever dress, but it fit her well and had a surprising flounce when she walked given how heavy the fabric looked. But she wore the dress instead of the other way around. Plus, her bit presenting with her The Substance co-star Margaret Qualley was charming and funny. It was nice to see her get her due after a 45-year career. (If you haven’t seen The Substance, walk, don’t run! It’s gross, yes, but you can close your eyes.)

Finally, some tweets about Jeremy Strong’s stupendous Loro Piana look.

Update: This post has been updated since publication to clarify that Kathy Bates was wearing Sneex.