Beading, Draping, and Silhouettes: Breaking Down 2025 Emmy Costume Categories

The clothes we hang in our closet say so much about who we are and how we want to be perceived–sometimes we don’t even know it. It doesn’t matter if you are Henry VIII or just an affluent family visiting Thailand for the week, we express ourselves more than we know with the clothes that we put on our bodies. For a special episode of Contending at the Water Cooler, Megan and I are joined by one of the most fashionable and knowledgable people we know, Fawnia Soo Hoo!

In this special episode we talk about the four remaining costume design categories that will be awarded during the Creative Arts Emmys on September 6th and 7th. Before this year, Beyoncé had been nominated for 8 Primetime Emmys, but she always left empty-handed. This year, the megastar was awarded Outstanding Costumes for a Variety, Nonfiction, or Reality Programming for the Beyoncé Bowl. It’s worth noting that Shiona Turini also took home an Emmy as part of this group, and Fawnia and I bemoaned the exclusion of Turini’s work for the underrated Apple limited series, Lady in the Lake.

With the four remaining costume categories, is there a pattern to predicting who might take the awards this season? Does it matter if the series is nominated across multiple categories, or will people respond to specific looks from submitted episodes? Costumes are so tied to a characters’ arc, so maybe voters will cast their ballot for performers they particularly connected with. Before we go, we name a few shows that should have been in contention as well as give our opinion on how to expand the Period Costumes category.

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