At the 2022 Emmys, Sequin Dresses Are In

(Image credit: Getty / Art by Brittany Holloway Brown)

published 12 September 2022

We often look to celebrities to indicate to us what's in and what's out on any given season, and awards shows are the perfect opportunity to gauge trends. After all, the red carpet hours that precede these shows offer us our best chances to observe a litany of Hollywood characters, dressed to the nines and in the same space. And this year at the 2022 Emmy Awards, the stars have spoken loud and clear: Sequins are the next big thing.

If, like me, the last time you wore sequins was during your second grade dance recital, get ready to flip your internal script. The stars who shone bright in these looks tonight brought sequins from elementary to elevated, serving us some serious inspiration for our next formal events. Scroll on to see some of the best (and shiniest) looks from this evening's Emmy's.

Reese Witherspoon

Amanda Seyfried

Christina Ricci

Jung Ho-Yeon

Quinta Brunson

Chrissy Teigen

Amy Poehler

Lily James

Sandra Oh

Sarah Niles

Vanessa Bayer

Gabrielle Ulubay is a Beauty Writer at Marie Claire. She has also written about sexual wellness, politics, culture, and fashion at Marie Claire and at publications including The New York Times, HuffPost Personal, Bustle, Alma, Muskrat Magazine, O'Bheal, and elsewhere. Her personal essay in The New York Times' Modern Love column kickstarted her professional writing career in 2018, and that piece has since been printed in the 2019 revised edition of the Modern Love book. Having studied history, international relations, and film, she has made films on politics and gender equity in addition to writing about cinema for Film Ireland, University College Cork, and on her personal blog, gabrielleulubay.medium.com. Before working with Marie Claire, Gabrielle worked in local government, higher education, and sales, and has resided in four countries and counting. She has worked extensively in the e-commerce and sales spaces since 2020, and spent two years at Drizly, where she developed an expertise in finding the best, highest quality goods and experiences money can buy.

Deeply political, she believes that skincare, haircare, and sexual wellness are central tenets to one's overall health and fights for them to be taken seriously, especially for people of color. She also loves studying makeup as a means of artistic expression, drawing on her experience as an artist in her analysis of beauty trends. She's based in New York City, where she can be found watching movies or running her art business when she isn't writing. Find her on Twitter at @GabrielleUlubay or on Instagram at @gabrielle.ulubay, or follow her art at @suburban.graffiti.art