A fatigued magazine editor once told me: “A model appearing on the catwalk is not a newsworthy story.” I’m sure the same could be said about sequins appearing at a Hollywood awards ceremony—and yet, there were an awful lot of them at the 2025 Golden Globes. So much so, in fact, that I’ve been left wondering if there will be any remaining for Taylor Swift’s audiences. Or corporate parties. (Strange that both things share the same aesthetic qualities.)
That is because a sequin is a shortcut: to glamour and escape and the veneer of showbiz. Among the several names in head-to-toe paillettes last night were Viola Davis, Nicole Kidman, Mindy Kaling, Mikey Madison, Zoe Saldaña and Cara Delevingne. Though it was Angelina Jolie in Alexander McQueen and Felicity Jones in Prada who burnished themselves the brightest: posing in shining embroideries of silver chains and crystal embellished mirrors.
A sequin, is after all, a spotlight. It invites and then refracts the gaze into a thousand particles, bouncing light around its wearer as if caught in a paparazzi swarm. There’s no hiding within the dizzying gleam of those attention-seeking discs, a useful tool in a room that decides who and what is considered worthy of praise. It reminds me of something the legendary performance artist Leigh Bowery once said of his own relationship with sequins: “If I cannot cast the light, at least I can reflect it.”
