Arden Cho wore a lilac Vivienne Westwood gown with silver Jimmy Choo platform sandals to the 2026 Critics Choice Awards.
Arden Cho is on the carpet at Barker Hangar. It is January 4, 2026, the occasion of the 31st Annual Critics Choice Awards. She wears a Vivienne Westwood Gown in a shade of purple so faint it might just be a trick of the light. Lilac, maybe wisteria. It’s the brand’s signature architecture—the corset, the scoop, the drape—but softened until the punk edge is entirely gone. This is the romantic Westwood, the one that leans heavily into historical reenactment.
The silhouette is familiar to anyone who follows celebrity red carpet cycles. The bodice features that distinct, off-the-shoulder cowl that serves to frame the décolletage with a kind of nonchalant grandeur. It’s draped, swathed, and pulled tight at the waist before releasing into a skirt that splits aggressively at the thigh. It exposes Jimmy Choo Claressa Platform Sandals in metallic silver, chunky anchors for such a floaty dress. Around her neck sits the Shiphra Circle Necklace , a delicate loop of diamonds that looks almost fragile against the expanse of skin.
There is a tension here between the structure and the wearer. Westwood corsetry is demanding; it usually requires a certain physical resistance to look right. Here, the bodice feels a little roomy, the “swag” of the neckline drooping perhaps a millimeter too low, hovering on the edge of a wardrobe malfunction. It lacks that snap-tight precision. The fabric—a lustrous satin—crumples at the hip in a way that feels more accidental than sculptural. It is undoubtedly pretty, a vision of pastel femininity, but it feels like she is wearing the dress carefully, rather than inhabiting it fully. A beautiful, slightly precarious balancing act.
Elle Fanning posed in a shimmering gold Ralph Lauren gown with Cartier rings during a Miles Diggs photoshoot for the Critics Choice Awards in January 2026.
January 2026. A hallway, clean lines, wood floors catching the train of a gown. Elle Fanning stood there, not on a carpet but in a lived‑in space, light pouring in from wide windows.
The dress — Ralph Lauren Fall 2003 — gold, shimmering, straps thin, neckline deep. Fabric falling long, train stretching behind her, catching the floor like spilled metal. It wasn’t loud, more like steady glow. Hair loose, wavy, blonde, framing the look without fuss.
Cartier rings visible, Panthère and Broderie, small glints against the gold. Jewelry didn’t compete, it punctuated. The setting itself mattered — staircase, white walls, natural light. A photoshoot that felt less staged, more like someone paused mid‑evening, caught in a moment.
Leighton Meester wore a lavender Carolina Herrera strapless gown with Chopard earrings to the 2026 Critics Choice Awards.
Leighton Meester is standing on the Barker Hangar carpet. It’s January 4, 2026. She is wearing Carolina Herrera , a strapless column of embellished tulle that looks like it was constructed by a particularly meticulous pastry chef. The color is lavender. Not a vague purple, but a definitive, sugar-coated lavender. It is a look that insists on its own sweetness.
In a celebrity style landscape currently obsessed with dystopia and armor, this feels like a defiant retreat to the country club. It evokes the socialite uniforms of the late 2000s, polished until the surface offers no friction whatsoever. It suggests a refusal to be “edgy,” opting instead for a kind of radical pleasantness.
The dress itself is technically the Carolina Herrera Embellished Tulle Strapless Gown , and it fits with the rigidity of an appliance. The bodice cuts a straight line across the chest, flattening the silhouette into a perfect rectangle. The texture—a grid of tiny, knotted embellishments—gives it a fuzzy, tactile quality, like expensive upholstery. She pairs it with Chopard Earrings , small drops of light that get somewhat lost in the polished waves of her hair. Somewhere beneath the floor-grazing hem are Jimmy Choo Minny Sandals , doing the structural work invisibly. It is a pristine, hermetically sealed image. A bit static, perhaps. It asks nothing of the viewer but to acknowledge that it is lovely, in a very quiet, very disciplined way.
