The Guys Outdid the Ladies on the Emmys Red Carpet This Year

It used to be that awards show red carpets were the province of the ladies and the ladies only. People wanted to see the ladies in great gowns -- poofs, ruffles, slits and everything else the imagination could conjure -- while the guys basically just had to show up in a black suit without any visible stains on it and they'd be just fine. The game has been gradually changing though, thanks to risk-takers on the red carpet like Donald Glover and Ryan Reynolds, and thanks to outdated ideas about what men "should" wear increasingly being get shattered by renegades like Jonathan Van Ness of Queer Eye.

At the 70th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, it felt like the stakes got raised as the boys collectively brought more va-va-voom to the yard than any other (formal) red carpet before, and perhaps even more panache than the ladies! Take Atlanta's Brian Tyree Henry with his vibrant blazer. Or the Stranger Things stars, including Gaten Matarazzo in a marigold Dolce & Gabbana jacket with chain detail and Noah Schnapp in a logo'd Fendi ensemble that looked the floodgates opening for more designers to jockeying to dress guys on the carpets as they have women. We got prime peacocking from This Is Us' Chris Sullivan, some elevated punk realness from Drag Race's RuPaul and a funky, sinister patterned look from Versace's Darren Criss. And naturally, the Queer Eye crew shut it down in a melange of styles that reminded men it's okay -- no, encouraged -- to play with shapes, color, texture and yes, played-out gender "rules."

Who says a guy can't rock sheer? Or, for that matter, that in 2018 a jacket and tie is the only way to honor the gravitas of the moment? Nobody. And these guys at the 70th Emmys showed that those rules are irrevocably changed.