This Look Landed Julianne Hough On The Worst-Dressed List But It Was Really Just Ahead Of Its Time

Sometimes, even the most fashionable stars can make a true sartorial misstep, venturing out in looks that end up lampooned on worst-dressed lists for the rest of eternity. But sometimes, the lists themselves age poorly, proving that certain outfits were just ahead of their time —  case in point: Julianne Hough's sheer, sparkling gown for the 2013 Emmy Awards.

The famed dancer, actress, and TV personality arrived at the event wearing an off-the-shoulder Jenny Packham dress in muted seafoam green, generously sequined to catch the light. From a contemporary perspective, the gown is stunning, but onlookers at the time got hung up on its translucent silhouette, which layered floor-length sheer tulle over brief-cut bottoms. With so much leg showing (quelle horreur), critics lost sight of the gown's elegant craftsmanship and slammed it as a fashion fail.

For instance, The Los Angeles Times dinged the dress for leaving "little to the imagination" — a critique that, 13 years in hindsight, reads unnecessarily prudish. HuffPost piled on, declaring it a missed attempt at being ultra-sexy. And the long-running celeb news site Lainey Gossip pulled no punches, saying the look "sucked" and was "an old lady's dress that decided it wanted to crash the young people's party by showing its underwear." We beg to differ. While it lacked its due appreciation in 2013, we contend that Hough's gown would be a hands-down winner in the present day.

Judgy fashionistas turned their nose up at Julianne Hough's airy Emmys gown in 2013, but we bet they'd be singing a different tune if she'd worn it in the past few years. Just look how it lines up with modern trends. Gauzy materials were all over 2023's fall runways, with layers, overlays, and sparkling contrast all playing a role. Hough's dress would have hit the trifecta, a tasteful poster child for the season's sheer obsession. And this trend persisted into the following year, with style icons like Bella Hadid acing spring 2024's see-through look in dresses that featured sheer skirts, sheer bodices, sheer everything. In other words, Hough would have been in good company. And even now, transparent pieces continue to hold space in our ever-evolving catalog of aesthetics — sheer jackets, for one, are a dreamy way to hint at 2026's mermaidcore-inspired summer siren trend.

For those who'd contend that the gown's problem wasn't the sheer overlay but the scanty briefs underneath, we'd argue that this element was also extremely fashion-forward; micro shorts became a trend of their own in the 2020s. Granted, they were one of spring 2024's most divisive fashion trends, but with labels from Miu Miu and Tom Ford to Stella McCartney walking itty-bitty micro shorts down runways, Hough's leggy underlayer wouldn't have felt out of place.

All this to say that one day's laughingstock could be tomorrow's absolute trendsetter — which we hope gives Hough some comfort when she looks back at this criminally underrated 'fit. Of course, Hough isn't the only celeb vilified on worst-dressed lists for a look that later proved to be rather chic. Plenty of Meghan Markle outfits didn't deserve the hate they got from the peanut gallery, either.