The Tamesis
Sunday night’s ceremony will have a red carpet dress code for the first time in the history of the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Coinciding with the show being renamed the Actors Awards, presenters released a costume brief: “Reimagining the Hollywood glamor of the 1920s and 1930s.” But as guests shuffled onto the red carpet, a question arose: Was the theme really necessary?
The dress code for the Actors Awards isn’t entirely unprecedented. At the 40th Academy Awards in 1968, legendary costume designer Edith Head issued an edict to prevent female stars from appearing in trendy miniskirts: “Actresses are required to wear formal evening gowns, whether long or floor-length, preferably in pastel tones, as the scene is very formal and entirely in white and gold,” she wrote. “The College believes that in our 40th anniversary year, the dignity of this traditional event warrants the wearing of formal attire.”
In 2021, ahead of the first in-person Oscars ceremony since the pandemic, the Academy made a similar request, albeit a less elegant one. Producers Steven Soderbergh, Stacey Sher and Jesse Collins wrote to attendees: “We’re aiming for a fusion of inspirational and aspirational, which in practical terms means that if you want to go there, formal clothes are cool, but casual clothes are really not.”
The logic behind the 2026 Screen Actors Guild Awards dress code is sound: At awards shows other than the Oscars, Golden Globes, Emmys and Tonys, stars are more inclined to experiment, and the overall result can appear disjointed. The unifying theme makes sense; this one just doesn’t land.
On the one hand, “Hollywood glamor of the 1920s and 1930s” is both too specific and a little too broad. Spanning the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression and the lead-up to World War II, these two decades represent distinct moments in fashion history. At the beginning of the period, boyish, figure-covering modern dresses were the popular silhouette, while towards the end, fashion was moving towards more body-conscious bias cuts.
Not surprisingly, people have taken very different approaches to the subject. Some attendees preferred a purer interpretation, such as Jasmine Savoy Brown and host Kristen Bell, who wore glamorous gilded gowns by Zuhair Murad and Georges Hobeika, respectively. Others choose a more abstract interpretation of the period. bridgeton Star Yerin Ha, for example, chose a Balenciaga fringed top that echoed a modern dress without taking it too literally.
Perhaps a better option would be to lay out a more general Old Hollywood dress code rather than pointing to two specific but distinct decades. Sarah Catherine Hook found a solid middle ground; her vibrant purple Balenciaga gown and dusty-blue evening gloves paid homage to the glamor of the past while retaining a modern perspective. So did Chase Infiniti, who paired a Josephine Baker-inspired headpiece with a Louis Vuitton mermaid dress.
