Bridgerton’s Nicola Coughlan the belle of the ball at BAFTA TV Awards

At the BAFTA Television Awards on Sunday evening, Nicola Coughlan upped the drama in a voluminous pink couture gown. The delightful puff-sleeved Valentino gown was bedecked with bows and epitomised the Irish actor’s fashionable insight and ability to have fun with it.

Coughlan, 35, wore the one-shoulder bow-covered gown from creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli’s Haute Couture Valentino spring/summer 2022 collection.

An actress wearing a designer on the red carpet might not seem like anything special, but to those in the know, it marked a change in haute couture in the public eye.

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The fashion house’s pink-saturated spring/summer 2022 collection was designed to challenge the sometimes impenetrable practices of Paris’ haute couture, by casting models of different ethnicities, sizes and ages to display the collection on the runway.

Dressing Coughlan, who isn’t a sample size (the small size used to fit models), only furthered the designer's agenda that fashion is for everyone, and the Irish actor looked darn good doing it.

The Bridgerton star has been upping the style stakes when it comes to dressing for the red carpet in recent years.

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Since collaborating with fashion stylist Aimée Croysdill it seems, Coughlan has carved out a whimsical niche of voluminous silhouettes and diaphanous fabrics by designer brands on the younger end of the scale, such as Christopher Kane and Richard Quinn.

But the Galway-born actor also leads the charge in championing Irish designers such as Lia Cowan and Simone Rocha, wearing the latter to present the designer with an award at the Stylist magazine awards.

Most recently, Coughlan’s feathered pale pink and black custom Richard Quinn gown for the 2022 Met Gala red carpet was one of the top looks of the night for both its impact and in keeping with this year’s theme of ‘gilded glamour’.

We can’t wait to see what Coughlan comes up with next.

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