Celebrities were just mad about saffron on the red carpet before the 2012 Emmy Awards at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles with majority of Hollywood A-listers, like big award winners Claire Danes, Julianne Moore and Julie Bowen who donned shades of bright yellow, despite the ceremony taking place on the second official day of fall.

Moore wore a canary yellow gown by Raf Simons for Dior Couture while her fellow yellow mellows Danes and Bowen wore Lanvin and Monique Lhullier, respectively. Other celebrities like Leslie Mann in Naeem Khan and Kat Dennings in J. Mendel, opted for other shades of sunshine in orange and red. Ginnifer Goodwin also wore a dress by Lhullier, but chose a nude gown with a muted orange lace overlay.

On the blue spectrum, Sofia Vergara wore her predictable mermaid-style gown in teal by Zuhair Murad showing almost as much skin as Heidi Klum, who wore a “seafoam” gown by Alexandre Vauthier complete with that Angelina Jolie slit showing off her gams all night. Nicole Kidman, who was up for an Emmy for best actress in a miniseries or movie, wore a white and blue beaded gown by Antonio Berardi. Hayden Panettiere stunned on the red carpet with a blue Marchesa, which added a new level of sophistication for the young starlet. Blue-eyed Zooey Deschanel matched her eyes with her Reem Acra gown with expertly placed laser cuts, just like many of the creations in her Spring 2013 collection.

Channeling traditional black and white and classic silhouettes, stars like Kristen Wiig in a white Balenciaga dress, Tina Fey in a maroon Vivienne Westwood, Christina Hendricks in a belted white Christian Siriano, and Edie Falco in a midnight in the front, white in the back gown by Stella McCartney, kept it elegant and muted in comparison to the bold yellows and neons. Zosia Mamet also did the two-tone trend with a black and white gown by Bibhu Mohapatra.

Jessica Pare of “Mad Men” also opted for white like her co-star Hendricks, wearing a black belted Jason Wu gown. With Pare and Hendricks in white, January Jones, who missed out on the Emmys last year because she just had a baby, wore a modern black Zac Posen dress with a dramatic smoky eye. All in all, the “Mad” ladies, who did not win it big at the awards ceremony, did however dominate the red carpet, especially Elisabeth Moss who stunned in an asymmetrical floral design by Dolce & Gabbana.

The biggest miss of the night was hands down Lena Dunham, wearing a lace brocade Prada dress in blue which was not very flattering in both fit and color. The other Lena, Lena Headey, was an equal miss with a gothic black Armani Prive gown with black paillettes. Then, there was Lucy Liu who was presenting an award wearing a gown made out of metal by Versace, which she said on the red carpet was quite heavy. Another shade of gray was donned by Emily VanCamp, who must have missed the neon brights memo wearing a gray dress by J. Mendel. Mayim Bialik, who channeled this season’s hot oxblood trend, flubbed the silhouette with a long-sleeved gown by Pamella Roland. One funny girl who looked stunning in a long-sleeve black gown, though, was Melissa McCarthy in a dress she co-designed with Daniele Jurrle.