Suki Waterhouse sees the red carpet as “some crazy performative activity”–“it’s very strange and alien–I love it!” The Daisy Jones The Six star told British Vogue back in December that “the anxiety-inducing part comes after,” when the photos saturate social media and fashion hawks pore over every dress detail. Looking back at last night’s Emmys 2023 gown, Waterhouse, who is expecting her first child with Robert Pattinson, must have felt confident in her color-pop Valentino commission.
The haute couture look had all the trappings of a current red-carpet dress—featuring a punchy poppy hue, dramatic side-cut outs and an Old Hollywood ballgown skirt—but framed her bump just so, with a neat bow. It was bold, cartoonish almost, and signaled Waterhouse out as a performer–one who announced her pregnancy on stage in Mexico while wearing a sparkly pink dress no less.
Since that fashion-forward announcement at Corona Capital Festival, Waterhouse has been doing maternity style her way in pajama-like separates, high-street eveningwear, corduroy flares, caps and an excellent rotation of boxy leather jackets (perhaps borrowed from Pattinson?) With her signature mussed-up hair, her vibe has been less Rihanna, more Sienna Miller, who shares Waterhouse’s boho approach to fashion and wore a similar sculptural bump-framing look to Vogue World: London when heavily pregnant with her second child.
Although her pregnancy glow was enough to let Waterhouse shine at the Emmys, the 32-year-old has a couple of tricks to make her feel red-carpet ready: a fresh fringe trim by her hairstylist John Nollet and an intensive facial (Skin Design is her first port of call when she’s in the UK) to ward off any chance of feeling like a “fossil.” From the outside, this self-deprecating Londoner looked every inch the Hollywood star, and cool mother in the making.
