Every season, I look at the Elie Saab runway photos and I always think “I hope all of these gowns show up during the awards season” and then so few of them do. Elie Saab just seems like the obvious, no-drama choice for women who don’t give a sh-t about wearing the most avant-garde looks – almost always flattering and pretty, easily customized and sparkly. Why not? Well, Emily Blunt felt that way – she wore Elie Saab couture at the BAFTAs. It’s giving Dynasty, right? The bell sleeves, the sparkles, the jewelry, the hair – like a soap star in the 1980s. I kind of adore it.
Bryce Dallas Howard in New Arrivals by İlkyaz Özel. Oof. The dress should have been longer and the shoes are wrong. She looks uncomfortable in it too.
Dua Lipa in bespoke Valentino. Arguably one of the best-dressed of the night. Dua’s style has lowkey gotten SO good in the past year.
Hannah Waddingham in Oscar de la Renta. I like this? Right amount of drama, one of the more flattering mullet dresses, and I’m fine with the shade of navy. My one quibble is that the netting on the skirt should not be that prominent.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Emily Blunt at the British Academy Film Awards 2024 at the Royal Festival Hall in Waterloo, London, United Kingdom on 18 February 2024.,Image: 848014512, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Cat Morley / Avalon
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- Emily Blunt at the British Academy Film Awards 2024 at the Royal Festival Hall in Waterloo, London, United Kingdom on 18 February 2024.,Image: 848014536, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Cat Morley / Avalon
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- Dua Lipa at the British Academy Film Awards 2024 at the Royal Festival Hall in Waterloo, London, United Kingdom on 18 February 2024.,Image: 848061958, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Cat Morley / Avalon
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- Dua Lipa at the British Academy Film Awards 2024 at the Royal Festival Hall in Waterloo, London, United Kingdom on 18 February 2024.,Image: 848061980, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Cat Morley / Avalon
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- Bryce Dallas Howard at the British Academy Film Awards 2024 at the Royal Festival Hall in Waterloo, London, United Kingdom on 18 February 2024.,Image: 848063786, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Cat Morley / Avalon
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- Hannah Waddingham at the British Academy Film Awards 2024 at the Royal Festival Hall in Waterloo, London, United Kingdom on 18 February 2024.,Image: 848080456, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Cat Morley / Avalon
Howard is the next contestant for ugliest shoes at BAFTA. They look like horse hooves.
I too really love Emily Blunt’s glam, fun look! Bryce Dallas Howard’s dress is actually kind of nice, but the hem is terrible, and it accents her awful shoes. Plus she looks very stiff in the photo, not helping. I think Dua’s dress is kind of boring but it does look nice on her. Hannah Waddington is a gorgeous woman, but there’s something off about the neck and arm cutouts together?
I was wondering if Dua’s dress would have been elevated had she worn her hair up? I think the train is getting lost a bit.
I have mixed feelings about Saab. It always reads a little mother of the bride or prom dress to me. Even something as high end as Emily’s dress. All of these dresses are kinda meh. Worthy of the Baftas I guess
I was just going to say that Emily Blunt’s dress is giving “overbearing mother-of-the-bride who’s trying to make the wedding about herself”!
I think Emily’s dress looks like “I Dream of Jeannie” finally got to go to a fancy party.
Emily is 40. She looks, here, like a well-preserved upper-east-side matron of 74, circa 1993.
AmB– she really does. The dress and her frozen face just read ‘old.’ Which she certainly isn’t.
yikes. Emily Blunt is almost interchangeable with Kate Beckinsale at this point. Bryce looks really uncomfortable and the shoes are almost Middleton levels of wrong.
I thought she was J Lo when the pic showed up on my phone. Whatever she’s done to her face has made her almost unrecognizable.
Dua looks fantastic! Emily’s necklace is absolutely unnecessary, he dress is already too busy with bling, she didn’t need the necklace. Always look at yourself once before leaving the house and take one off….she should have listened to that advice
Dua looks great but she’s had real knockout looks before. I’m guessing they don’t bring out the big guns for BAFTA.
Bryce’s shoes are tragic, and the dress looks super uncomfortable.
Dua’s dress is a bit “meh”, but she looks pretty and I love her hair color.
The visible lining on Hannah’s dress kinda spoils it for me. I want an ID on her shoes, though! Those are genuinely “nude”, she almost looks barefoot.
I gasped when I saw Dua. Emily’s style has been questionable for a while now, and this season hasn’t been good.
My belly would be so so cold if it was exposed like in some of those outfits. Also, I’d feel super icky about my bare skin touching the upholstered seats.
I love Dua Lipa’s. Classic and glamorous.
I usually like Elie Saab’s but something is off with Emily’s.
I totally agree on Dua, it’s an amazing dress.
For Emily I’d prefer it without the cutouts.
Blunt’s lining is all bunched up. Looks like she’s playing dress up with some old dress she foudn in the closet.
I always feel for Bryce Dallas Howard when she is on the red carpet because she has spoken very openly about how hard it is to find awards season dresses for her body since she is not sample size.
I think that accounts for the awkwardness of the pose and possibly any styling issues. She has said she often buys off the rack for events (I know, I know: first world problems) because so few designers are interested in working with her.
Whether you are rich and famous and the daughter of Ron Howard, it still sucks. She needs a stylist who can get her into some flattering Christian Siriano looks or something.
She is a lot thinner than she often is right now. She may not be sample size but she’s no more than an average size here. I actually like the dress minus the hemline. I think she’s just gorgeous and so many of her outfits have been hits lately. She can really wear color.
I agree she is trimmer than we seen her in a while. And I hate even talking about it, no judgments here but it’s a sad fact of the business re: difficulty dressing for these events in the same way rail thin actresses do.
I think even at the heaviest I’ve ever seen her, I would *still* call her average. An average woman of a size 10, 12 or 14 is sadly still gonna have problems working with designers who just don’t make dresses larger than 0/2 or show no interest in dressing women who aren’t compatible with that.
Way to bury the lede: holy WOW that necklace! That dress is a disservice to it.
Emily’s sleeves look so heavy and weigh down the dress. Maybe not sleeveless but a fitted sleeve with no beading on the arms would have looked better? And that necklace should be worn with lower cut and sleeker dress to show it off. But I Love Dua’s dress.
Did anyone else see that old interview of Emily Blunt on tiki tok just blasting that woman for being overweight? She was telling a story about a waitress she met in the South, and the whole thing was just super degrading and bizarre and really emphasized the woman’s weight? I saw that and just have never been able to look at her the same way, it just seemed so needlessly cruel and weird, just the epitome of punching down in every possible way – and ever since then when I see her I see a woman who looks inebriated, rude, and maybe uncomfortable with herself as well?
Yes, she was on a UK talk show in 2012 probably thought no one from the US will see it. Like the interent didn’t exist in 2012??
But to be fair, she did get in front of it and apologized for what she said.
https://variety.com/2023/film/news/emily-blunt-apologizes-fat-shaming-waiter-resurfaced-interview-appalled-1235763738/
That’s actually a fairly decent apology celebrity mea culpas go.
However, I’m side-eying the bit about not being able to imagine what possessed her to call Americans and the waitress enormous. I can definitely imagine what prompted it. But I suppose a celebrity isn’t going to go so far as to flat out say, I was a fat-phobic ass poking some hurtful sophomoric fun of someone and as a woman who is often judged by my looks, I should have known better.
I am laughing at all of the shoe comments. It kind of does collectively look like every stylist had a group text that said, how can we make these beautiful women and gorgeous designer gowns look a little less magnificent. Right! We’ll pick out the most awkward shoes and that will make them seem less “movie star”, more “regular people”, who don’t have a fabulous budget to have coordinating designer shoes.
Emily Blunt gives me J.Lo vibes and I don’t know why I don’t like that.
God Law Roach come out of retirement and dress these women properly.
I like Emily’s dress but the fit is off under the bust. It also just doesn’t feel like HER. Like the styling is nice but it feels like something someone else would wear, not her. Dua’s dress is pretty but basic – we’ve seen that silhouette and style a million times. I like Hannah’s dress a lot. I like that she knows she can carry a lot of dress and leans into it.
Also I want to add that I think if Bryce’s dress was floor length and didn’t have that flower on it it would actually be amazing.
I usually enjoy Saab to some degree but this one is a snooze fest. There’s just absolutely nothing memorable about this look. Big yawn.
Dua Lipa looks absolutely fantastic — that gown is amazing.
Who let Bryce Howard leave the house like that? Seriously someone hates you girl.
And how much botox did Emily stick in her face before she went to the BAFTAS yikes.
Dua had the best dress of any of these.
I don’t like Emily’s dress at all. Dua Lipa is nice but a bit dull. The others are meh.
Emily Blunt needs to stop tweaking her face- she’s aging herself, rather than looking younger.
Agreed! I loved her face before–she was pretty and interesting looking. Now she looks like another boring Hollywood person.