The third annual Gotham TV Awards, held in New York on June 2, delivered a red carpet that felt less like a television industry ceremony and more like a preview of fashion’s autumn mood board. The intimacy of the event — smaller and less frenetic than the Emmy circuit it precedes — allowed for risk-taking that felt considered rather than desperate, and the results ranged from architectural precision to unabashed romanticism. The night’s most arresting looks shared a common thread: a willingness to let the garment hold the spotlight rather than competing with it.
Chase Infiniti, the evening’s breakout star in terms of pure fashion impact, wore a custom bubblegum pink Louis Vuitton gown with a sculptural peplum that referenced Nicolas Ghesquière’s architectural approach without being derivative. The color — a saturated, almost fluorescent pink — dominated every photograph of the evening, proving that on a red carpet where black and metallics dominated, the boldest choice was also the simplest. Infiniti accessorized with a single cuff bracelet and a clutch in the same shade, letting the gown’s volume and hue carry the entire statement.
Grace Gummer, accompanying her mother Meryl Streep, delivered one of the night’s most editorially interesting looks: an Issey Miyake piece from the spring 2026 collection whose pleated, origami-like construction seemed to change shape with every camera click. The choice felt deliberately intellectual — Miyake’s work demands engagement from the viewer in a way that more conventional red carpet dressing does not. In a field where many celebrities select gowns designed to be consumed in a single glance, Gummer’s Issey Miyake invited the kind of sustained looking that the art of fashion deserves but rarely receives on a red carpet.
Michelle Pfeiffer arrived in a custom Chanel haute couture creation that distilled the maison’s new direction under Matthieu Blazy into a single silhouette. The gown, a column of black silk crepe with a single dramatic shoulder sweep and an almost invisible draping at the hip, was a masterclass in restraint — the kind of look that reveals its complexity in movement rather than at rest. On the red carpet, where volume and color often compete for attention, Pfeiffer’s choice to let structure and fabric do the work felt quietly radical.
Kerry Washington, presenting the award for Outstanding Performance in a Drama Series, chose Oscar de la Renta in a deep aubergine velvet that caught the light in folds rather than flashes. The gown’s high neckline and covered sleeves gave it a severity that the velvet’s softness undermined — the tension between the two qualities creating the kind of visual interest that eludes more straightforwardly glamorous choices. Washington has consistently used the red carpet as an extension of her professional persona, and here the message was one of controlled power.
