Shailene Woodley brought one of Balenciaga's boldest Fall/Winter 2026 Couture looks from the Paris runway to the 2026 Emmy Awards. The actress arrived at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on 14 September wearing a plunging periwinkle top with sparkling wide-leg trousers from Pierpaolo Piccioli's couture collection.
The outfit looked familiar to fashion fans who had seen Balenciaga's couture show in Paris just two months earlier. Woodley kept two of its biggest pieces, the blue top and heavily decorated trousers, but changed the styling around them.
That made the red carpet appearance an interesting runway-versus-reality fashion moment. Instead of copying every part of the original styling, Woodley and stylist Karla Welch gave the outfit a colourful new finish for television's biggest night.
Shailene Woodley Changes the Balenciaga Look
On the Balenciaga runway, the blue top and glittering trousers were styled with a long, dark hooded outer layer. The dramatic covering framed the bright blue neckline while the wide trousers fell towards the floor.
Woodley left that large outer layer behind for the Emmys and added long burgundy opera gloves instead. She also wore HOWL's colourful 'Frida' collar necklace, made with Venetian glass and diamonds, which brought even more colour to the outfit.
The result kept the main Balenciaga pieces while making the styling very different from the runway. Woodley's bare shoulders, gloves and necklace put more focus on the plunging top, while the sparkling trousers remained the strongest link to the original couture presentation.
Pierpaolo Piccioli's First Balenciaga Couture Collection
The outfit came from Pierpaolo Piccioli's first haute couture collection for Balenciaga, shown in Paris on 8 July 2026. The designer presented the Fall 2026 Couture collection at the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris.
Piccioli filled the collection with large shapes, bright colours, feathers, flowing fabric and dramatic proportions. Models including Gigi Hadid, Alva Claire and Anok Yai appeared in the collection.
Shailene Woodley wears Balenciaga FW26 Couture at the #Emmys
— hionfashion (@hionfashion) September 15, 2026
Styled by Karla Welch pic.twitter.com/Z3UnZjHkLZ
Aluel Makuach closed the presentation in its voluminous bridal look. The dramatic wedding gown drew on Cristóbal Balenciaga's archival couture vocabulary, giving Piccioli's first couture show for the house a direct link to its past.
Woodley's Emmys Styling Divides Fashion Fans
Woodley's version quickly became one of the night's most talked-about fashion choices. Some viewers liked the unusual mix of couture trousers, a low-cut top, gloves and colourful jewellery, while others criticised the styling online.
Welch later responded to the harsher comments, saying people were free to 'love or hate' an outfit but criticising those who became 'super rude and mean'. The stylist had dressed Woodley in the Balenciaga outfit for the ceremony and also discussed the backlash on Threads.
The debate did not stop Woodley from taking part of the Balenciaga look into the afterparty. At Disney's Emmy celebration at Vibiana, she kept the sparkling trousers but swapped the plunging top for a graphic T-shirt connected to Laurie Anderson's 1986 concert film Home of the Brave.
A Big Night Beyond the Balenciaga Look
The Emmys appearance followed another major moment for Woodley. She had already won her first Emmy for playing Annie Clay in Hulu's Paradise, taking Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series at the Creative Arts Emmys earlier in September.
Her return to the main Emmy ceremony also marked her first appearance there since 2017, when she was nominated for Big Little Lies. This time, however, her unusual Balenciaga outfit became almost as widely discussed online as her television success.
Whether fans prefer Balenciaga's full runway styling or Woodley's stripped-back red carpet version comes down to personal taste. What is clear is that Woodley did not simply copy the couture look, with Welch using gloves and bold jewellery to turn it into a very different Emmys fashion moment.
