THE 46TH ANNUAL EMMY AWARDS : THE LOOK: What They Wore : Scattershot Glamour

Dressing for the Emmy Awards is no easy feat. For one thing, the Pasadena event lands on a seasonal cusp--not quite fall but no longer summer. And there’s the gnawing awareness that, hey, it’s only the Emmys.

But somewhere between the down-home style of the Rotary Club banquet and the glitzy heights of the Oscars lies the right look. The winners of Sunday night’s best dressed awards left their opera gloves at home and the beauty contest hair, well, to beauty contestants.

In her short black suit, her perfectly cut hair glistening, Emmy winner Leigh Taylor-Young made her younger peers look positively vulgar.

Other exquisite minimalists included Armani-clad Helen Hunt, Marlo Thomas in Vera Wang, and Michelle Pfeiffer, sparkling on husband David E. Kelley’s arm, also in Armani.

By far, the evening’s most striking style moment occurred when the sisters from “Sisters” took the stage--Swoosie Kurtz, Patricia Kalember and Julianne Phillips (the good girls), all in white, bad-girl Sela Ward dressed in black. (Ward later waltzed off with an Emmy, so we guess nice girls do finish last.)

Speaking of bad girls, Roseanne continued to show the world her, uh, shapely legs, this time in an itty-bitty skating dress. Her soft and subtle hair and makeup were improvements, though, over the Liz-Taylor-on-a-bad-day look she wore for last week’s MTV Awards.

There were other gals who seemed in search of a style, any style. The show’s co-hosts, Patricia Richardson and Ellen DeGeneres, started off the evening dressed like a couple of housewives headed for a rare night on the town. Housewives dripping in diamonds, that is.

Each fared better after a change--DeGeneres switching to a velvet Anne Klein smoking jacket and sneakers, Richardson into a flattering cranberry off-the-shoulder gown. This neckline does wonders for the post-40 set. Meredith Baxter, for example, looked stunning in it.

Men, of course, have it so much easier. But whose bright idea was it to ignore hundreds of years of perfectly good tradition and wear a black shirt underneath his tuxedo? Garry Shandling, Dennis Franz, Tom Skerritt and Tim Allen did the black shirt look. But at least they were shirts. “NYPD Blue” hunk David Caruso couldn’t even bother to button up, slapping on a T-shirt instead.

And, guys, could we go back to the old black tie? When Jerry Van Dyke shows up tieless, you know the look has lost its edge.