The ESPYS 2026 red carpet brought sports and fashion together in New York City on July 15, with athletes, presenters, and celebrity guests leaning hard into shimmer, sharp tailoring, and polished couple style. Coverage from Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, People, and Cosmopolitan shows a clear pattern: this year’s carpet was less about quiet dressing and more about bold eveningwear, metallic finishes, and looks built to be photographed from every angle.
That fashion moment sat inside a bigger sports-night backdrop. The ESPYs are ESPN’s annual awards show for athletic achievement, and ESPN says the event helps raise funds and awareness for the V Foundation for Cancer Research. ESPN and the V Foundation have tied the show to that mission for years, with ESPN saying it has helped raise more than $292 million for the foundation.
What happened on the red carpet
The ceremony took place at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, and the guest list was packed with athletes who already know how to command a stage. Among the names that drew the most attention were Simone Biles, Eileen Gu, Lindsey Vonn, Alysa Liu, Jordyn Woods, Karl-Anthony Towns, Ayesha Curry, Steph Curry, Kate Upton, Ilona Maher, and Morgan Riddle. Fashion outlets quickly turned the arrivals into best-dressed galleries, which is a strong sign that the carpet itself became one of the night’s main stories.
Cosmopolitan called the evening a date-night moment for sporty couples, and that angle mattered. The carpet did not just reward solo statement looks. It also showcased couples dressing in sync, from Karl-Anthony Towns and Jordyn Woods to Steph and Ayesha Curry, and even host Marcello Hernández arriving with Ana Amelia Batlle Cabral.
The looks that shaped the night
Simone Biles was one of the most talked-about names on the carpet. Marie Claire described her look as a champagne corset gown from Eman AlAjlan, while Vogue described a liquid gold gown with a dramatic thigh-high slit. Both readings point to the same thing: Biles leaned into a strong, glamorous red carpet image that matched the evening’s mood.
Eileen Gu also landed near the top of the fashion conversation. Vogue said she wore Guo Pei and leaned into metallics, while Elle said she arrived in a one-piece couture look from Guo Pei’s Spring 2026 collection with sculptural detail. That kind of custom couture stands out because it gives the event a more fashion-week feel than a standard awards-show carpet.
Lindsey Vonn kept the shimmer theme going. Vogue described her look as a sequin one-sleeve Gucci dress, and Elle also placed her in Gucci. In a year when sports coverage and fashion coverage often overlap, that kind of styling helps athletes show personality without losing the formal tone of the event.
Alysa Liu went in a different direction. Marie Claire said her Louis Vuitton dress was a plunge-neck halter style in a chocolate brown tone and that it helped showcase her new ink. Elle also listed her in Louis Vuitton. That made her one of the night’s clearest examples of a modern sports-fashion look that is sleek, personal, and easy for readers to remember.
Jordyn Woods and Karl-Anthony Towns brought another major fashion story. People reported that Woods wore a strapless Oscar de la Renta gown with chain details and a Bucherer necklace valued at $324,000, while Elle also identified Woods in Oscar de la Renta and Bucherer Fine Jewellery. That look mattered because it tied together glamour, couple styling, and the high-jewelry side of red carpet dressing.
Ayesha and Steph Curry added to the couple-led fashion feel. Elle said Ayesha wore Christian Siriano and Steph wore Gucci. Marie Claire also noted that Ayesha’s dress made her one of the stronger fashion moments of the night. Kate Upton in Schiaparelli, Ilona Maher in a Retrofête gown, and Morgan Riddle in Thom Browne gave the carpet more range, moving it beyond one single look trend and into a wider mix of textures and silhouettes.
Background and context
The ESPYs have long been more than a trophy show. ESPN describes them as an event honoring top athletes and sports performances of the year, and the show’s tie to the V Foundation gives the ceremony a larger public purpose. That background helps explain why the red carpet gets so much attention. It is not just a side event. It is now part of the full ESPYS story.
The 2026 ceremony also came at a time when sports and style coverage are blending more than ever. Elle framed the night as a continuation of a strong year for sports, pointing to the Knicks’ big season and the FIFA World Cup as part of the broader backdrop. In that setting, the red carpet became a place where athletes could present themselves as public figures with style identity, not just game-day identity. That is an inference, but it fits the way multiple fashion outlets covered the event.
Why this matters now
This year’s ESPYS red carpet matters because it shows how quickly sports fashion now moves from one big event to another. Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, People, and Cosmopolitan all ran detailed look roundups within a day of the show, which tells you the images had immediate value for readers. The strongest visual thread was easy to spot: gold, chrome, sequins, silver, polished tailoring, and custom gowns made the night feel planned for the camera.
That kind of coverage also helps turn athletes into style figures with clear public identities. Simone Biles, Eileen Gu, Alysa Liu, Lindsey Vonn, and others did not show up as one-note red carpet guests. They arrived as people with clear brand value, strong personal styling, and enough fashion pull to anchor full photo galleries. That is one reason the ESPYS red carpet keeps growing as a news topic.
Expert view and source-based insight
The shared opinion across the strongest fashion coverage was simple: sparkle ruled the night. Vogue said shimmer was well represented at Lincoln Center, while Elle described the carpet as one where athletes moved from performance gear into polished tailoring and high-glamour looks. Marie Claire added another useful layer by showing how the evening mixed couture, luxury labels, and more accessible sourcing in the same conversation. That combination makes the carpet feel broader than a single trend story.
What this really means is that the red carpet is now part style report, part culture report, and part athlete branding moment. The best-dressed lists are editorial judgment calls, but the speed and depth of the coverage show which looks had the strongest impact on the night.
Public reaction and likely impact
The fastest reaction was media reaction. Fashion outlets did not wait long to frame the event as a style showcase, and that tells you the images landed. The couple looks, especially Biles and Jonathan Owens, Woods and Towns, and the Currys, will likely keep circulating because they give readers both a fashion story and a personality story in one frame. That is a reasonable inference from the coverage, not a hard claim about social media metrics.
What happens next
Expect more breakdowns, more designer credits, and more image-led recaps as outlets continue to sort through the night’s best looks. That is likely because the event already generated multiple detailed fashion roundups from major publications, each focusing on slightly different names and styling angles. For readers, that means the ESPYS 2026 red carpet will keep feeding sports-style coverage even after the awards themselves have faded from the live conversation.
Common misunderstandings and wrong claims
The ESPYS are not just a fashion event
A lot of the attention goes to the red carpet, but the show still centers on sports awards and the V Foundation mission. ESPN’s own event page and related press materials make that clear. The style coverage is a major layer of the night, but it is not the main purpose of the ceremony.
Best-dressed lists are not official rankings
When Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, and Cosmopolitan publish best-dressed stories, those are editorial roundups, not official ESPYS rankings. That matters because the lists reflect each outlet’s taste and angle, not a formal judgment from the event itself.
Not every standout look belongs to a nominee
Some of the most visible guests were presenters, hosts, or partners of honorees. Marcello Hernández hosted the ceremony, Kate Upton was there as a presenter, and several couples used the carpet as a shared public moment. That is one reason the night felt broader than a simple winner’s circle.
A useful closing note
The ESPYS 2026 red carpet worked because it gave sports fans and fashion readers the same thing at once: a clean, glossy image of the people they already know, dressed in a way that felt current and confident. From Simone Biles and Eileen Gu to Jordyn Woods and the Currys, the night made one thing plain. Sports style is no longer a side story. It is part of the main event.
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