Danielle Brooks and Queen Latifah Showed Up to the 2026 Awards Season — Here's What They Actually Wore

Awards season 2026 wrapped months ago — the Golden Globes in January, the Grammys in February, the Oscars in March, the Tonys in June — and by August the recap cycle has mostly moved on. What's worth going back for isn't a ranking of who wore it best. It's a record of what two of the industry's most established full-figured stars, Danielle Brooks and Queen Latifah, actually put on when the cameras were rolling.

Photo by LaShawnda Jones, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Brooks arrived at the 98th Academy Awards on March 15, 2026, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood in a custom champagne-toned satin gown by Georges Chakra, cut with a high slit. She'd already been visible in the run-up to the ceremony: on January 22, she and actor Lewis Pullman announced the 98th Oscars' nominations live from the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater, months after she played mobile-zoo owner Dawn opposite Jack Black and Jason Momoa in 2025's "A Minecraft Movie."

Photo by Zafer, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Three months later, at the Tony Awards on June 7, 2026, at Radio City Music Hall in New York, Brooks changed direction entirely. She wore a custom silver gown from Wiederhoeft — the New York fashion house known for staging its runway shows like scripted productions — with an off-the-shoulder lace neckline and sequins through the bodice, styled by Daniel Hawkins. Queen Latifah worked the same carpet that night in a simple black gown layered under a Naeem Khan feathered cape — dark, iridescent feathers that flash green under the lights — worn as a presenter for the ceremony's 30th-anniversary tribute to "Chicago," the musical whose film adaptation earned her an Oscar nomination for playing Matron "Mama" Morton.