This is The Close-Up, where the biggest names in entertainment explain the story behind their latest personal style statement.
On the Netflix honky-tonk thriller The Hunting Wives, Brittany Snow's character doesn't have much time to think about her outfits. She plays Sophie, a Boston mom thrown into the heart of a deep Texas social circle. Her Birkenstocks and sensible shirts stand out among a sea of Tecovas cowboy boots and extra-large belt buckles.
Sophie ends up a little too preoccupied with solving a murder within her newfound frenemy group to think about what she's wearing. Snow, on the other hand, wouldn't have minded a yeehaw makeover montage.
"I think throughout the entire show, I was pretty jealous of the other girls getting to wear those Texas numbers," Snow tells me as she's getting ready for the 2025 MTV VMAs red carpet. "I always looking at the girls every day being like, oh my God, how fun to wear such loud, brash outfits."
For her first time attending the VMAs, Snow and her stylist, Yael Quint, decided it was the right moment to embrace the series' over-the-top styling.
"We wanted her look to be classic and timeless," Quint says in an email. On the phone, Snow describes her custom Monot dress as "'90s glam, but a little more spicy and sexy." The gilded strapless dress coated in gold is her ode to her show's Texas setting, as well as her character's on-screen entanglement with the girl group's ringleader, Margo, played by Malin Akerman.
A few days before the VMAs, Snow and Quint were choosing between two sequin dresses: the gold one she ultimately picked, or a pink option by another designer. Then Akerman showed Snow her silver gown by Raissa Vanessa, and it was decided. "We thought to ourselves, it has to be the gold one because it's just gonna look so fun that we're playing off of each other," Snow explains, "not only on the show, but on the carpet."
There aren't many chances to do that with your friends, and I think that's why we chose this one," Snow says of coordinating with Akerman. "It's also the better look, I think." Quint amped up its glam quotient with Betzabe heels and Dorsey earrings sourced from the jewelry brand's new collection.
The 2025 VMAs would be Snow and Akerman's second consecutive event together that weekend. They had both attended the Creative Arts Emmy Awards in Los Angeles the night before, in contrasting dresses: Snow in a mint green, scallop-neckline sheath, and Akerman in a gold-and-black two-piece.
Jetting from coast to coast as a team made the whole weekend more invigorating than exhausting for Snow. In real life, their friendship is much healthier than their on-screen counterparts. "Thank goodness Malin was with me, because we sort of made it fun," she says. "I brought these Korean face masks we did on the plane. We had glasses of champagne, and we were debriefing the Creative Emmys we presented at, and we were excited for the VMAs. That just made it so much smoother, because we haven't actually been in the same place in a while."
Snow and Ackerman's chemistry led to attention on and off the red carpet this summer. The Hunting Wives had the highest streaming time of any series during its premiere week, per The Hollywood Reporter. Still, Snow admits she "didn't think anyone would even see it." Its debut in July also didn't include a dedicated red carpet. So, while the VMAs gave Snow a front-row seat to major performances (like Sabrina Carpenter's) and her childhood favorites (like Ricky Martin), it was also her moment to celebrate a project she hadn't yet had a chance to toast.
Her summary of the getting-ready process could be a synopsis of The Hunting Wives' highly anticipated second season. "There's lots of gold, there's lots of secrets, there's lots of hair," Snow says. "It does feel very Texas in here."
Photographer Emma Beiles | Stylist Yael Quint | Makeup Artist Charlie Riddle | Hair Stylist Glen ‘Coco” Oropeza
