While the Golden Globes always take place in Los Angeles, on Pacific Standard Time, the Dazed office remains in London, on Greenwich Mean Time. This eight-hour difference often means that our reaction to the red carpet happens in the bleary-eyed hours of the early morning, when forming a coherent opinion on fashion feels almost impossible. This year, however, my job was made incredibly easy.

Black. That’s it. A sea of black. From Ayo Edebiri in Chanel to Timothée Chalamet in Chrome Hearts; Mia Goth in Dior and Jenna Ortega in Dilara Findikoglu – practically every star on the carpet wore black. At this point, you’d come to expect it from the men: a sleek black suit is the easiest thing to fall back on, and Paul Mescal in Gucci, Damson Idris in Prada, Jacob Elordi in Bottega Veneta and Connor Storrie in Saint Laurent all did it like pros. But last night was different in the number of women who also opted to take part in the blackout. Both Ariana Grande and Aimee Lou Wood went for all-black ball gowns from Vivienne Westwood, Miley Cyrus accessorised her black Saint Laurent sequins with huge black frames, Marty Supreme’s Odessa A’zion opted for an archival Dolce & Gabanna oufit with wide-leg black trousers, while Blackpink’s Lisa went for sheer black Jacquemus.

And that wasn’t the end of it. Elsewhere, Charli xcx, whose mockumentary The Moment is released this month, went for a furry black bodice from Saint Laurent (which was admittedly paired with a white skirt), Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper wore a croc-effect strapless Gucci dress, Leslie Mann went for Pierpaolo Piccioli’s Balenciaga in black, while countless others like Oscar Isaac, Colman Domingo, Amelia Gray, Alison Brie and Carolyn Murphy forgoed colour as well.

So what does it all mean? Is Hollywood in mourning? 2025 did see a historic downturn in movie production and, therefore, big-time profits, with cuts being made across the industry. It’s likely these stars’ wallets took a major hit too, so their all-black aesthetic might be a reaction to their dire bank accounts. Or could it be due to the worrying return of size zero aesthetics? Black is famously slimming, so maybe they just wanted to look skinny in the age of Ozempic? Or maybe, as the political climate darkens, they’re simply in mourning for American democracy?

Whether it’s recessioncore, Trump, or GLP-1s, we may never know why the Golden Globes took an all-black turn in 2026 – but there is light on the horizon, in some respect. Amongst the sea of darkness, our cover star Chase Infiniti shone in a globular silver corset from Louis Vuitton; rising star Eva Victor took a risk in tomato red from Loewe’s new era; Elle Fanning arrived in a pastel blue embellished Gucci princess gown; and Pamela Anderson completely bucked the trend in head-to-toe brilliant white. Maybe it’s not all doom and gloom after all.

Scroll through the gallery at the top of the page for all the best looks from the night.