Why the colour red dominated the Emmys red carpet fashion this year.

The red carpet took on a literal meaning at this year’s Emmy Awards, with the colour red dominating the fashion.

There was The Handmaid’s Tale‘s Yvonne Strahovski in Julien Macdonald, Modern Family‘s Sarah Hyland in Zac Posen, Jane The Virgin‘s Gina Rodriguez in Naeem Khan and of course, winner (in every sense of the word) Nicole Kidman in Calvin Klein.

The red on the red carpet is not exactly new - there have been plenty of iconic red red carpet dresses in the last few years - but there's a very specific reason there were so many at the 2017 event. (Post continues after gallery.)

On the screen, on the stage and on the carpet, women were standing up, standing out and reclaiming their power.

With a record number of female-fronted and created TV shows nominated for this year's awards including The Handmaid's Tale and Big little Lies, many were calling this year's Emmy's the year for women.

The prediction largely came through, with many of these women and women-championed projects taking out the awards. The Handmaid's Tale and Big Little Lies scored eight awards each, Julia Louis-Dreyfus became the first actor to win six Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series awards for playing the same character and Lena Waithe of Master of None became the first black woman ever to win the Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a comedy series.

Listen: The Binge host Laura Brodnik explains why the Emmy Awards are so important for women this year. Post continues after audio.

While the overwhelming presence of red could have been lead by a number of factors - trends, options offered up by designers and stylists or simply a celebrity saying "I want to wear red", there's an undeniable truth about the colour.

A woman does not wear red to blend in.

"Red is a very bold and powerful colour and any woman who can wear a red dress is a confident and empowering women. It's the colour of confidence," says sisters Bridget and Bianca of Melbourne Stylists, a favourite of Australian celebrities.

"It is quite common on the red carpet but we were stunned to see Nicole Kidman in it, she was a showstopper, she was a vision in red."

Historically red has been associated with power and was the colour worn by kings and religious leaders, as well as sex (or sins of the sexual nature) as symbolised in The Scarlet Letter.

Fans were quick to point out the choice of Yvonne Strahovski to wear red. In The Handmaid's Tale, the Australian actress played a women of power who wore blue, while red was the colour of the Handmaids, used to symbolise fertility and blood.

Her silk, slashed neckline dress was a reclamation of the oppressive use of the colour in the series.

Wearing such a bold dress also means the it carries the message for you.

"With a red dress we'd lean towards a nude lip and nude nails rather than overkill the red, the focus is on the dress," says Bianca.

With the 2017/2018 Awards season not far away and more locally the Brownlow Awards next week, the sisters say while they can't predict how much red we will see, you can bet it won't be boring.

"We're predicting a big trend of drama - think lots of tulle, lots of drama and theatrics on the red carpet."

What did you think of the 2017 Emmy red carpet?

READ MORE
Bruna Papendrea, the superstar from Adelaide who just won an Emmy.
Elisabeth Moss just won her first ever Emmy, but one word had her speech cut short.
Why have we fallen in love with the frumpy playsuit?