On the cusp of awards season, The Hollywood Reporter published its first designer A-list issue featuring the top 25 red-carpet designers, with Sarah Jessica Parker and Kate Hudson gracing its double covers.

Photographed 3,500 miles apart from one another, the Parker and Prabal Gurung and Hudson and Giorgio Armani pairings colorfully aligned in hues of red and green to showcase the celebrated designers with the acclaimed actresses.

Chosen for their innovation and ever-growing influence of style on Hollywood, both Armani, the Italian master of couture elegance, and Gurung, the Singapore-born frontman of fashion’s global new guard, prove that a fashion designer can rise to success by partnering with a stylish star.

Less than 24 hours after the Emmy Awards, THR style editor Carol McColgin — who styled Outstanding Supporting Actress Emmy winner Anna Gunn the night before — arrived on set in Montauk, New York, straight from a Los Angeles red-eye flight.

“We wanted to show [Parker and Gurung] looking fashionable but also the friendship they have with each other,” says photo editor-at-large Jenny Sargent. Photographed by Miller Mobley at The Surf Lodge in the Hamptons, the creative team sought to capture a fun and fashionable moment. Sargent adds: “[The cover is] a nice moment between them and it gives you a feeling of intimacy and fun, kind of like you could be there with them but also like they’re having a private moment.”

The waterfront location and utilized spaces at the lodge also helped determine which shots would be chosen for print; a balance of fashion and friendship exuding from the photos was the creative goal.

Gurung, who says styling Michelle Obama for the 2010 White House Correspondents’ Dinner “was a dream come true,” is both friend and stylist to Parker. “My muse, aside from being a beautifully elegant and refined woman, is also astute, assertive and substantive. … She is as alluring in what she conceals as in what she reveals. I can’t think of someone that this applies to more than Sarah Jessica,” says Gurung.

Forty-five years Gurung’s senior, veteran designer Armani speaks positively about styling Hudson. “Kate has a great radiance about her,” he says. “Her beauty is natural, effortless and striking. Her fashion sense is classy, but she’s always ready to be a bit of a daredevil. I embrace that spirit.”

The pair were photographed at the Theatre National de Chaillot in Paris by Jonathan de Villiers.

While styling, hair and makeup are keys to a successful photo shoot, Sargent says a memorable photo also has something more: “If the talent feels good, the photos are going to look good.”

To find out who made the list of red-carpet designers, check out the Sept. 26 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

Source – The Hollywood Reporter