The SAG awards red carpet provided looks aplenty, as well as some frocks just asking for a meme. Here are the five most notable.



Michelle Dockery in stripes

Michelle Dockery at the Screen Actors Guild awards. Photograph: AFP/Rex

Michelle Dockery’s Elie Saab dress was one of the night’s loveliest, like a straightened-out rainbow, with the colour palette created by Matisse. Yara Shahidi, star of Blackish, joined in the stripe party too. She wore a Naeem Khan striped dress with a kind of stylish stripe identity crisis – chevron on top, horizontal on the skirt.

Nicole Kidman in statement sleeves

Nicole Kidman at the Screen Actors Guild awards. Photograph: EPA/Rex

Sleeves are kind of a big deal in fashion at the moment, from the catwalk to the high street. At the SAGs Nicole Kidman and her Gucci parrots took statement sleeves to an extreme, and can be filed in the meme-able section of the internet. Following on from FKA Twigs’ parrot dress in 2015, a Pirates of the Caribbean parody is only a matter of time.

Evan Rachel Wood in trousers

Evan Rachel Wood at the Screen Actors Guild awards. Photograph: Getty Images/Rex

Evan Rachel Wood wore a trouser suit to the Golden Globes earlier this month because, she said, she wanted “to make sure young girls and women know [dresses] aren’t a requirement. You don’t have to wear one if you don’t want to.” The fact that she also looked very chic no doubt helped her cause. Wood continued her campaign at the SAGs, wearing an Altuzarra blue velvet trouser suit. Naomie Harris joined her in the trouser gang, wearing a striped Lanvin jumpsuit. So there we have it, more than 60 years after Yves Saint Laurent first put trousers on the catwalk, the red carpet might finally be catching up.

Simon Helberg and Jocelyn Towne with signs

Simon Helberg and Jocelyn Towne at the Screen Actors Guild awards. Photograph: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

The SAGs came the day after Trump’s executive order on immigration. Hollywood – full of liberals, of course – used the red carpet to protest. The Big Bang Theory’s Simon Helberg and his wife Jocelyn Towne went route one. Helberg held up a “refugees welcome” sign while Towne had “let them in” written across her chest. Others protested in the form of their designer choice – both Gwendoline Christie and Viola Davis wore professional rabble-rouser Vivienne Westwood. “Vivienne is someone who has an activist mindset, which is something I appreciate at this moment,” commented Christie. The fact that Theresa May also wore Westwood to confirm Brexit only muddies the waters slightly.

Michelle Williams in metallics

Michelle Williams at the Screen Actors Guild awards. Photograph: Salangsang/BFA/Rex/Shutterstock

Some actors on the red carpet took advice from Rihanna, circa 2012 – shining bright like a diamond. Metallic dresses did the trick. Michelle Williams, in floor-length Louis Vuitton, resembled a very beautiful, very expensive piece of plasticky metallic wrapping paper. Other shiny moments included Bryce Dallas Howard, who was Jessica Rabbit meets Mrs Claus. Her red sequin dress came from online retailer Dress the Population and cost a mere $309 (£247), proving that some trends (especially a razzle-dazzle one like metallics) work both on the catwalk and the high-street ends of the fashion world.