Lilac drifted onto the red carpet this September and decided to stay. Sarah Pidgeon wore it in custom Chanel for her very first Emmys, and a few days earlier Lili Reinhart had picked a dusty lilac vintage gown for the London premiere of The Love Hypothesis. Suddenly the softest shade in the paint box looked like the most confident choice of the season. Lavender eyeshadows are turning up on beauty counters too, and the color looks ready to sit right beside black in our autumn wardrobes. It also has a talent for grand entrances. One spring afternoon in London, an eighteen-year-old chemist named William Henry Perkin was trying to synthesize quinine when a purple residue appeared at the bottom of his flask. It dyed silk like a dream. Within a few years the soft shade he called mauve had won over Queen Victoria and Empress Eugénie, while satirists teased that the city had caught a bad case of “mauve measles.” More than a century later, Uma Thurman gave the color its Hollywood close-up at the 1995 Oscars. She floated down the red carpet in a lavender chiffon Prada gown by Barbara Tfank that launched countless imitations and made the brand a household name for a whole new audience.

Sarah Pidgeon and Lili Reinhart Turn Lilac Into a Red Carpet Mood

Pidgeon earned her Emmy nomination playing Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy in Love Story. Her slip dress by Matthieu Blazy reads like a love letter to the woman who turned the ’90s slip into a lesson in elegance. The atelier ran three dye tests before landing on the perfect lilac, a level of devotion Perkin would surely have applauded. Blazy kept the fluid line Carolyn adored and added a plunging neckline and an asymmetric bias cut. Then he let a cascade of gold and silver chains strewn with white and lilac pearls trail down the back, like a secret for whoever happened to walk behind her. Pidgeon described the dress as “very celebratory, yet comfortable,” a rare pairing of adjectives on any red carpet.

Reinhart gave the shade a more romantic, almost botanical spin. Her Emanuel Ungaro slip from 2001 skims the body in dusty lilac silk before flaring to the floor. It hangs from two whisper-thin straps and is scattered with hand-painted sequined petals in seafoam and aquamarine, while beaded fringe traces the plunging neckline. The dress has the same dreamy lightness Thurman brought to the Oscars and fits right into a press tour full of playful winks to the rom-com heroines of the early 2000s. In New York she came back to the color with a lilac Valentino lace-trim bodysuit worn with turquoise lace shorts and Rockstud pumps, a reminder that lilac and sea green make a charming couple well beyond the premiere.

How to Wear Lilac This Fall

Bringing lilac into fall is easier than it sounds, and the first trick comes straight from Pidgeon. Layer a lilac satin slip over a fine-gauge charcoal turtleneck and add knee-high suede boots, and a little red carpet glamour follows you into a gray October morning. By daylight, lilac loves the warm company of camel and chocolate brown. A soft mohair sweater looks wonderful tucked into a brown leather midi skirt or tossed over a trench on a breezy afternoon.

If Reinhart’s mood speaks to you more, a hint of aquamarine brings the pairing to life, whether in a silk scarf knotted at the neck or in drop earrings catching the light. Beauty follows the same romantic script. A wash of lilac on the lids or a lavender manicure adds a pastel whisper to darker fall make-up. Black, ever gracious, can have the spotlight back in spring, right when the real lilacs start blooming.