Awards season fashion was off to a strong start at the Emmys with Armani tributes, Pedro Pascal bringing sex appeal to Celine, Veronica Leoni’s best Calvin Klein design yet and a Gap Studio Gen Z coup. Read on for the takeaways – plus Hollywood portraitist Matthew Rolston’s new multi-venue meditation on death and Khaite’s L.A. retail debut.
Awards Season Fashion Blasts Off
The Emmys red carpet did not disappoint.
First off, the number of people who wore Armani made it feel like Oscar night. In a touching fashion tribute, 15 stars paid homage to the late designer who died earlier this month by wearing his clothing, including heavyweights Cate Blanchett and Harrison Ford. My favorite look, however, was Keri Russell’s sculptural Armani Prive black gown with a silk-satin bow and black velvet skirt. It was simply sublime, the Hollywood red carpet maestro at his best.
Jenna Ortega has become quite the fashion plate since she and stylist Enrique Melendez dialed it up for her “Wednesday” Season 2 press rollout. She stunned with her revealing goth glam Emmys look, a midriff-baring jeweled top by Sarah Burton for Givenchy, paired with a black skirt slit to the thigh.
Scarlett Johansson and hubby Colin Jost both wore Prada, the same week the brand announced the actress’ Galleria bag campaign with award-winning director Yorgos Lanthimos, and the next Prada Fondazione exhibition with Alejandro González Iñárritu in Milan. Opening Sept. 18, “Sueño Perro: Instalación Celuloide” features never-before-seen footage from the film “Amores Perros” and will be on view until Feb. 26, 2026.
Ruth Negga and stylist Karla Welch also worked with Prada to create a special gown in the lovely 2008 fairy print by artist James Jean, underscoring the growing allure of archival and vintage fashion on red carpets.
Also in the European luxury brand camp, Pedro Pascal was a tall drink of water in a white suit by new Celine designer Michael Rider, complete with the coolest white sneakers and round wire sunglasses, adding some sex appeal to the brand’s new story. And this may have been Colman Domingo’s best Valentino look yet, his ice blue polka dot mandarin collar shirt and windowpane check jacket dripping with fringed crystal embellishments and grounded by chocolate brown trousers, which kept it all from veering into costume.
Speaking of earth tones, designers have really been trying to make rust orange a thing, and thanks to Seth Rogen’s custom Etro velvet tuxedo and Britt Lower’s modernist Calvin Klein off-the-shoulder silk gown, it just might get there.
Her gorgeous custom Calvin dress with crease details was the best thing to come out of creative director Veronica Leoni’s first year designing for the American label. Lower, whose office-core style on Severance came to mind when I saw Leoni’s first collection in February, sat front row for the second runway show just last week in New York. She repped the brand well there and at the Emmys.
Perhaps because it’s less global and high stakes than the Oscars, TV’s biggest night is often a place where up-and-coming designers can have a moment in the red carpet spotlight. To wit, “The Penguin’s” chic villain Cristin Milioti chose a sleek red gown by New York designer Danielle Frankel. The cool girl’s answer to Vera Wang, Frankel has made wedding gowns for Julia Garner, Alexandra Daddario and Alex Cooper, and is becoming popular for her eveningwear, as well. If you haven’t been yet, her store on Melrose Place is a gem.
Both Alan Cumming and Chris Perfetti wore up-and-coming New York label Tanner Fletcher by designers Tanner Richie and Fletcher Kasell, who have become celebrity darlings of late for their genderless clothing combining masculine cuts and feminine frills. Cumming’s elegant white-piped black silk pajamas-meets-tuxedo with a charming oversized bow at the neck should be a new classic.
Also of fashion note, “Adolescence” star Owen Cooper, who at 15 became the youngest actor ever to win an acting Emmy, here for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or TV Movie. He wore a Gen Z take on a tux with a black trucker jacket and baggy pants by GapStudio, the elevated collection from Gap VP and creative director Zac Posen that’s also been worn on the red carpet by Demi Moore and Timothée Chalamet.
This moment was another stroke of marketing genius (and a bit of luck that Cooper won) for the American brand, which is in the midst of a turnaround led by CEO Richard Dickson. Formerly of Mattel, where he helped get “Barbie” to the big screen, Dickson has put Gap at the center of major pop culture moments from the Met Gala to the Emmys and tapped stars including Katseye and Parker Posey for campaigns.
“TheWrapBook Vol. 4: The Art of Television” Issue Debuts at NYC Party
TheWrap’s premiere luxury publication, “TheWrapBook,” celebrated its fourth edition during New York Fashion Week.
“TheWrapBook Vol. 4: The Art of Television” debuted at a party Sept. 12 at New York City’s VFA Gallery.
Fashion editors, artists and representatives from Dior, Gabriela Hearst and other luxury brands joined Sharon Waxman, founder and editor-in-chief of TheWrap; Stefano Tonchi, editorial director of “TheWrapBook” and Alexandra von Bargen, publisher of “TheWrapBook,” to celebrate the launch of the latest volume of TheWrap’s bespoke book.
Cocktails and conversation flowed as guests enjoyed art from the new release’s pages lining the walls of the gallery.
“TheWrapBook” exhibition “Artists by Artists,” curated by contributor Sayuri Tanabe, includes artwork from the last four issues, all commissioned by “TheWrapBook.”
The exhibition will be on view through Oct. 8 at VFA Gallery, presented by UOVO: Fashion, Art and Wine.
“TheWrapBook Vol. 4: The Art of Television” features a fashion editorial inviting the cast of “The White Lotus” to a 1970s-themed party; an essay on the Emmy Award-winning series “Adolescence” and its investigation of incel culture with artwork by Hernan Bass, a portfolio of artists’ work inspired by the classic box TV; a look at how the season’s biggest shows inspire fashion trends and more. Order it here.
Death Becomes Him
L.A. photographer Matthew Rolston is best known for his celebrity portraiture of Madonna, Michael Jackson, Cindy Crawford and more, which makes the subjects of his latest exhibitions – plural since there are multiple venues – a perhaps disquieting departure: the no-longer-living residents of Palermo’s catacombs.
The works that appear in “Vanitas: The Palermo Portraits“ were photographed by Rolston over the course of one week during a 2013 visit to the historic Catacombe dei Cappucini, The macabre attraction is home to 8,000 mummified Sicilian luminaries interred between the 1500s and the 1930s, many buried in their finest clothing.
Rolston’s images are a later-in-life reflection on what he did before, he explained during an interview. “The practice of Hollywood imagery and image-making is a powerful denial of death. And as much as Hollywood elevates the human experience, it prevents us from having a healthy relationship with the passing of life and negates aging. Because stars are eternal, they will never die … even the nature of fame seems immutable,” he said, explaining that the realization led him to an exploration of death through books, art and culture. That included visits to see the Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic, where the entire interior is made of human remains, Europe’s jeweled Catacomb Saints skeletons and eventually to the crypt in Palermo.
“The minute I walked in, I cried. I knew I found the subject. I thought, OK, I’ve dealt with the denial of death, I’m going to go nose to nose and look death in the face. And after I spent time there, I discovered they were trying to cheat death just as much as Hollywood,” he said.
The first monk to be embalmed and laid to rest there did not decompose after one year, which was interpreted as a miracle, setting the place up as a portal to the afterlife, Rolston said.
“The thought was if you were placed there and preserved, you would be one of the first to enter the kingdom of heaven,” the artist added, explaining how the crypt became the burial spot reserved for the elite who were mummified and placed upright and ready to go in their finest clothes – as if on judgement day, God would restore them to their perfect bodies.
“If that isn’t vanity, I don’t know what is, hence the name of the project, ‘Vanitas,’” Rolston said. His images of the deceased were photographed with expressionist lighting. The result is incredibly painterly and beautiful, with similarities to the work of artists Otto Dix and Francis Bacon.
The four-venue exhibition of 10 “Vanitas” works begins Sept. 20 at ArtCenter College of Design’s South Campus, which will display a wall-sized triptych of two children and an adult. From Sept. 25, Fahey/Klein Gallery will unveil four works, including Untitled (Long Face), a hauntingly beautiful portrait of a scarf-sporting corpse, which also appears as the cover photo for the accompanying limited-edition monograph published by Nazraeli Press.
Two venues will exhibit a single “Vanitas” work each; Daidō Moriyama Museum/Daidō Star Space and Leica Gallery
Rolston’s meditation on death kicks off Sept. 20 at 6 p.m. with an opening reception at the ArtCenter College of Design (free, RSVP required) and coincides – wholly ironically, we can only assume – with the artist being celebrated with the ArtCenter College of Design’s Lifetime Achievement Award Sept. 28.
Khaite Lands Prime L.A. Retail Spot
Buzzy New York luxury brand Khaite has opened its first Los Angeles store in a marquee spot at the corner of Melrose and Melrose Place, following openings at South Coast Plaza and on the Upper East Side of Manhattan as the growing business spreads its wings. The brand got the clutch billboard, too.
Designed by founder Catherine Holstein’s architect husband, Griffin Frazen, who grew up here and had a stint as a child actor, the space plays with L.A.’s legendary light, which has inspired filmmakers and artists for decades, along with the noir that is Khaite’s stylistic calling card.
The entrance of extruded steel frames acts as a portal, drawing shoppers from daylight into shadow, before opening into the luminous interior. The space has large-scale windows, bringing in even more light. And ceiling slots focus beams onto surfaces below to spotlight the brand’s new Blake crossbody bags and Jett D’Orsay pumps, among other pieces on display.
Overlapping sliding glass screens act as doors, partitions and veils, bringing what’s behind them in and out of focus. The full fall collection of luscious leather jackets and pants, argyle sweaters and cocktail frocks is on the racks.
The interior is also furnished with pieces by pioneering Italian female architect and designer Cini Boeri, Japanese minimalist furniture maker Kazuhide Takahama, Danish designer Poul Kjærholm and British designer Max Lamb.
Most recently the short-lived Gucci private salon store, the location at 8409 Melrose Ave. has a lot of history. The arrival of Marc Jacobs in the corner spot in 2005 transformed Melrose Place from a sleepy antiques store row to a luxury fashion destination, ushering in the arrival of The Row, Chloé, Bottega Veneta, Balmain, Maison Margiela, Irene Neuwirth and recently Danielle Frankel and Thom Browne.
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