Zanna Roberts Rassi on Finding Her Golden Globes Red Carpet Dress

Let’s be honest—the red carpet is a high-wire act!

Trains are being tripped over; the press line is chaos; and everyone’s arguing about what not to ask anymore.

But here’s the shift: it’s no longer just about best-dressed. It’s about storytelling. Tributes, protests, character references, full-on method dressing—fashion built for social media and headlines. Safe is out, risk is in: louder colors, bolder silhouettes, real intention. Designers, stylists, and stars are pushing past polish into shareable moments—where runway ideas hit the carpet, street style is born, and yes…it’s a competitive sport. And we love to watch.

I’ve always believed it isn’t about who you’re wearing—it’s about why you’re wearing it. Last year at the Golden Globes, I interviewed Oprah. Yes, Oprah. Icon. Queen. Living legend. As we talked about her dress, I asked her something I always wanted to know: “Do you know how many hours it took to make this?” She stopped. She smiled. “Three women artisans spent 600 hours making this dress,” she said. Then she added, almost as if surprised, “Nobody has ever asked me that. Thank you.” That moment told me everything. A quiet little stamp of (journalistic) approval from Oprah herself. I’ll take it!

Zanna Roberts Rassi at the 2023 Golden Globe Awards.

As a style correspondent for E! and The Today Show, I cover the biggest awards-show nights in fashion—the Globes, the Oscars, and the Grammys—and my mission has always been the same: telling the stories you don’t see in the Getty photo. The teams behind the looks. The last-minute switch because someone else wore the look the night before. Eighteen hundred hours of hand-beading. Football fields’ worth of tulle in a single gown. A quarter of a million crystals on one bodice. Dresses flown in piece by piece from India. Backup gowns hanging patiently in hotel rooms because the original is stuck in customs. It’s graft. Hard, glamorous graft!

Not long ago, the #AskHerMore movement challenged the sexist focus on female celebrities’ fashion over their career accomplishments. And yet, there’s still plenty to discuss. In fact, I’ve made it my job to meticulously research every anecdote before I ever step onto the carpet—so by the time I’m speaking with the stars, I often know as much (and sometimes more) about how their look came together than they do. Like Naomi Watts hand-carrying her Armani Privé gown on an airplane—in economy—the day before the Globes because she missed a flight and it couldn’t be shipped in time. Of course I set her up for that conversation.

Or when I brought Anna Sawai to near tears on the carpet as I surprised her with a message from Vera Wang, who designed the dress she had dreamed of wearing since she was a little girl—her true princess moment.

Or when Ayo Edebiri (queen of looks with a story) arrived wearing a gray Loewe suit that I knew—thanks to her stylist—was a reference to her After the Hunt co-star Julia Roberts at the 1990 Golden Globes. The gold tie almost didn’t make it out of customs. Her hair? Dyed frantically in her hotel room that morning.

Or a stylist calmly grabbing a curling iron to sculpt Ali Wong’s red Givenchy tulle five minutes before departure.

There is always a story behind the look. And honestly? The stories are getting even better.

Part of that is because something has shifted. For a long time, red-carpet fashion was about access—who could get what first. Now, stylists are digging deeper. Vintage moments. Reworked pieces. Diving into the archives. Angelina in vintage. Cate Blanchett re-wearing and reinventing. Margot in archival Chanel. Nicole in Dior. Bella in Versace. Kim in Thierry Mugler.

Suddenly, the clothes have memory—and the storytelling gets even more interesting.

Here’s the irony, though: what I wear on the carpet has almost always been an afterthought. I’m so focused on researching everyone else that my own look usually comes together at the last minute. I’ve worn incredible designers over the years, but dressing myself was never the point. My story is usually that I get what I can at the last minute from my lovely designer friends (thank you, friends).

That is, until this year.

I wasn’t even looking for a dress at Belmont Park Village, the new luxury outlet in New York, when I wandered into Roberto Cavalli—and there she was. Immediate chemistry. The perfect LBD for a carpet correspondent…fashionable without screaming for attention. The neckline: dramatic enough. The lace inset back: stunning (and bang-on this season). That quality that speaks louder than any bright color can.

Rassi’s Roberto Cavalli dress, found at Belmont Park Village.

Finding out the gown came from the brand’s archive only deepened the appeal. Since 1970, Cavalli has always understood fashion as something sexy and unapologetic. And today, as the quiet luxury era winds to a close, that POV feels more relevant than ever. Under its new creative director Fausto Puglisi, the brand has been looking back with intention—pulling from its own history to reintroduce Cavalli to a new generation. You can feel that confidence again, on red carpets and off.

Just ask Kim K or Miley! Both were recently seen rocking the brand’s archival looks.

And yes, my dress was 60 percent off. That didn’t hurt. But the real thrill was the find. Something with history. It’s something with a story.

Luxury, to me, has always been about the uber-bougie next to reality! Red carpet one night, school pickup the next. Prada with Target. The Polo Bar to the dive bar. So wearing a previous-season Roberto Cavalli gown from an outlet to the Golden Globes red carpet on Sunday night felt exactly right. And honestly? I couldn’t wait for someone to ask who I was wearing.