The Best and Most Questionable Looks at the Golden Globes

This time last year, I was fielding updates from the unfolding genocide in Gaza. I still am, over 15 months later. At the time, pins of Palestinian flags began to appear on the red carpet, which I rightly identified as a trend, and which the fashion press roundly found impossible to mention without immediate calls for censorship (or worse). At least celebrities and E! News personalities had it easy this year and walked a carpet free of protestors. It’s an act of service, really, so there’s all the more time to argue about Seán McGirr’s run at Alexander McQueen and category fraud in the red carpet arm’s race around Best Supporting Actress. Shall we?

The Best: Ayo Edebiri

The comedian extraordinaire and generational talent has become a pioneering face for Loewe, alongside peers like Greta Lee. For her propeller awards season kickoff, she donned a fit strikingly similar to Julia Roberts’ own 1990 Golden Globes ensemble, where she won Best Actress for Steel Magnolias.

Loewe’s take on the moment is sublime, with the prominent garment tag on the waist being my favorite detail besides the feathered tie. But the real reason she tops this list is the prominent Artists 4 Ceasefire pin she has on the breast. She was one of exactly two celebrities to wear it on the carpet this year, besides Guy Pearce, continuing her solidarity with Gaza over the last year. It’s small, hopeful and utterly tragic, in the face of more death than I can still wrap my mind around.

Demi Moore

The talk of the town this year stepped out in Armani Privé, styled by Brad Goreski, looking like the woman who was once the highest paid actress in Hollywood. The very model of awards statue, it’s poignant that this is the first time she’s won a major award in her career, besides an Independent Spirit Award for Margin Call in 2012.

I was a big fan of Armani’s work with clients like Michelle Yeoh in 2023 and Janelle Monaé and Zendaya in 2024. Even Jonathan Bailey pulled off that fabulous cummerbund at the Emmys! The streak continues with the gorgeously tailored gown on Moore. My favorite detail is the way the embellished, asymmetrical neckline trails off into the crystallized seam down her left leg. Kudos to Brad Goreski, who’s similarly seen a star turn for his work with Demi Moore on the press tours for Feud: Capote vs. The Swans and The Substance.

Colman Domingo

Colman Domingo has often topped the best dressed lists of PAPER these days, and for good reason. His recent outing in Valentino is amongst his best, after a rocky low at the 2025 Palm Springs International Film Awards earlier in the week. (Ack! Those gloves!)

As noted by Derek Guy, the beauty of this look hinges on the bow around his neck, which is opulent but focuses the attention squarely on Domingo’s extremely handsome face. Besides, the suit fits him exquisitely.

Mikey Madison

This is Mathieu Blazy’s final Bottega Veneta look before moving to Chanel, and it's fitting that Madison graced the kickoff to awards season with it. One curtain closes while another rises on her soon-to-be spectacular career, and what highs she's achieved already!

Thanks are owed to stylist Jamie Mizrahi. If anymore proof is needed that the young ingenue has joined the stars in the sky, Mizrahi’s other clients include Adele and Jennifer Lawrence. I hear they're already minting Miss Anora’s star on the Walk! Hopefully she steps out in Chanel.

Naomi Watts

I watched a video where Daniel Roseberry, visionary designer at the helm of Schiaparelli, walked through the ruffling and pleating technique used to create that structured, mushroom gill effect. Then and now, his groundbreaking application of design principles and boundary-pushing techniques boggles the mind.

Watts is often the muse for American fashion’s very best. Roseberry’s designs might have oversaturated the carpets in 2024, but they continue to be the very best there is in glamour and craftsmanship.

Zendaya

Zendaya’s symbiotic styling partner Law Roach said this look was inspired by 1940s actress and nightclub singer Joyce Bryant. The glamour of the time is evident here and so well executed. Every inch of the look oozes fabulous extravagance, down to that dazzling Bulgari choker.

Alexandra Daddario

Please do not google my longstanding opinion on Maria Grazia Chiuri, who pumps out so much money for Dior that I often overlook rumors that they’re shopping for her replacement. No matter, because this look makes up for all the model-sized houses and runway gimmicks. She looks expensive in the way silent films stars look perpetually expensive. The craftsmanship is deliciously subtle, with the overlaid lace adding just the right amount of volume to the silhouette. But the real star is the feathered shawl, which continues the red carpet tradition of the little black gown being elevated by its accessories. Honey, that’s Jean Harlow as a brunette!

Lee Jung-jae

Menswear is often scarcer on best-of lists, but here comes Lee Jung-jae in Gucci! The boots are a real knockout, as is the silhouette and wide notched, crossing lapels. It’s also noteworthy that in a year of monochromatic fits, some of which made our list of questionable outfits, Jung-jae looks this good in all-black. Perhaps I’m just a sucker for the tux and bowtie.

Literally Can't Decide: Emma D’Arcy

This look waffled between the best and most questionable looks list all morning, and so instead, I’ve invented an entirely new category: I literally can’t decide. Sean McGirr’s controversial turn at McQueen is exemplified in every detail of D’Arcy’s suit. The shoulders are too wide, and also just wide enough. The flared trouser confounds and delights, as does the peep of the shoe and absurdist lapel. They’re dressed like the villain in an anime about giant robots fighting in space, or Lydia Tar’s successor in Tar 2: More Tar. Brava, I guess!

The Most Questionable: Melissa McCarthy

Oh, boy, do I love Melissa McCarthy. So much, in fact, that my hands literally started shaking when I sat down to type out an essay length screed on Siriano’s continued terrorizing of the red carpet. It’s not that it’s bad; it’s that it’s frightful. And McCarthy deserves to scare the girls from time to time, as one of the greatest comedians to ever walk carpets past and present and future. But like many other outings from Siriano’s clients, the look unfortunately trends towards costume.

Elle Fanning

Balmain darling Elle Fanning finally faltered in this ode to the archive. I will probably be reamed for this, but just about every inch of this reads as totally dated, from the voluminous skirt to the deep side part and heavy-handed glam. Fanning is stunning and has wowed in the house’s designs across the major carpets of the last year, like that draping marvel at the Met Gala. Here, the classical design touches drag the whole thing down. That belt! My god, the horrors wrought by belts last night.

Andrew Garfield

Garfield wore the more daring iteration of Jung-jae’s understated black suit. Fitting, as his styling ethos relies on oozing the sort of sleazy sexiness that hinges on him having a beard that’s groomed to look ungroomed. Where Jung-jae shines in his notched lapels, Garfield looks like he just fucked an actress that’s young enough to start discourse online. Not a knock against him, except that the stylistically dissheveled look bores me and reads lazy. If there’s anything I hate on the carpet, it’s lazy, and he’s a primary proponent of it! Better luck next time.

Kathryn Hahn

I love you, Kathryn Hahn. Kathryn Hahn, I love you so much. I love you, Kathryn Hahn. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. Please, I beg you. Please forgive me, please. Please, I love you, and I’m begging for your forgiveness. Please, promise me you’ll forgive me. I need you to forgive me, and forget about this soon, please? Please, I love you so much. You are a star, and we all love you so much. Please, please forgive me!

Glen Powell

Finally, someone else I don’t mind whacking just a bit. Hollywood’s scariest smile made another big showing on the red carpet last night in the worst suit so far. From the cummerbund to the badly fitted pants and aviators and white buttons and open blazer. Just everything about this is the worst thing I’ve ever seen. Not that shocking, really, that he was out-dressed by his own lookalike.

Awkwafina

Miley Cyrus wore a similar dress to this, and while hers was just not good enough to make the list, Awkwafina’s Jenny Packham gown was just questionable enough to make this one. I don’t have much to say not already said by this dress through the screen. Listen closely, and you can hear it speak in her once-signature blaccent!

Jeremy Strong

Jeremy Strong’s monochromatic nightmare made the rounds on X last night, and everything funny has already been said by people who get paid when we engage with their posts. Search his name, and you’ll see all the references to Paddington that made me chuckle on the bus this morning!

Eddie Redmayne

Can somebody please tell this person that the run on Cabaret is over, and he doesn’t need to dress like the backdrop in Hilary Duff’s “Sparks (Fan Demanded Version)” music video from 2015.

Photos via Getty Images