It’s not just the actors on the edge of their seats hoping to take home a prize on awards night. The anticipation is also intense for the designers who dress them — although the anxiety bubbles up earlier, as soon as those stars step onto the red carpet.

“Sometimes, I just can’t look,” says London-based designer Jenny Packham, who’s been in business nearly 40 years and dressed myriad women ranging from Kate Winslet and Kate Middleton to Adele, Taylor Swift and Paris Hilton.

Women turn to Packham for sparkle, Old Hollywood glamour and high-impact looks for the red carpet, stage and public appearances, and her appeal is broad.

The designer created custom dresses for Sarah Jessica Parker for the Paris premiere of “And Just Like That” and for Dita Von Teese ahead of her West End debut in “Diamonds and Dust”. The Princess of Wales wore Packham dresses to greet the public outside St. Mary’s Hospital in London after giving birth to her children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.

Despite her roster of high-profile fans, and her decades of experience creating red carpet outfits, Packham still finds the awards shows particularly nerve-wracking. In the weeks leading up to an event for which she labored over a dress at the request of a star and her stylist, Packham says she “manifests” like crazy to get it on the red carpet, although the visualization doesn’t always work. Oftentimes, due to last-minute changes or changing priorities, the dress that makes it down the runway is never a sure thing.

“I can’t look at the ones that I really, really wanted badly. It’s very painful. I’m hugely competitive, but in a good way. And if the person didn’t choose us, I look at the dress they did choose, and understand. Stylists and their clients make the right decision most of the time, and you just have to accept that, and congratulate them,” she says, adding that she tells herself and the team that at least they were in the game.

“Ultimately — and quite honestly — whatever the relationships, or the number of years you’ve worked with someone, that person will choose what they feel best in. So if you are a bit competitive, you want to aim to get the best dress in the room,” says Packham.

Like other independent designers, she doesn’t have multimillion-dollar fashion endorsement deals with high-profile stars, and she doesn’t pay people to wear her looks.

“If you’ve got yourself into position where you have a good relationship with the stylist or the actual celebrity, then your chances of success will be very much improved by understanding what is required,” the designer says. “You can talk to them about the details of the event, the mood the actress is in, and what they’re looking to achieve.”

She adds the advantage of working with women repeatedly is that “you get to know their body shape, what they want, and don’t want — whether that’s a high neck or a low back.” She says that with clients, “we don’t waste a lot of time, and we have a better chance of putting something in front of them that they like. You’re refining your chances [of success] all the time.”

In most cases, Packham does the work for free, and the payout can be spectacular.

According to Launchmetrics, the curvy, black Jenny Packham dress that Winslet wore to the London premiere of “Lee” in September 2024 generated $535,000 in media impact value, while the sequin-dusted gown with cape sleeves that Hilton donned for the Baby2Baby charity gala in early November generated $305,000 in MIV.

There have been other welcome surprises. Packham says that earlier this year Scarlett Johansson’s stylist asked her to send over a few dresses for a shoot linked to the actress’ new skin care line, The Outset.

Packham delivered, but wasn’t overly optimistic because the product was skin care, and the focus is usually on the face and neck. “We were just hoping to see the straps of the dress,” says the designer.

Instead, there was Johansson, working Packham’s Only You strappy, silvery gown to the hilt, posing with magnified product images in full-length shots and video shorts that landed all over social media. “The exposure was phenomenal,” says Packham.

The designer says the hot combination of social media and online shopping have radically changed her business, and made her brand far more accessible. She says people see a celebrity in one of her dresses, “and the name registers. They think eveningwear, then Jenny Packham — and that hopefully translates into sales.”

Packham adds that, in the past, those customers may have fallen in love with the dress they saw on the celebrity, but they would not have been able to find it so easily.

“Maybe it was a bespoke design, or not a very commercial one. Or maybe there were two similar dresses in Neiman Marcus and five in Saks. Nowadays, those customers can go online and get the whole collection,” says Packham, adding that Hilary Duff wore her short, gold-fringed Dazzle dress for her latest music video, “Mature,” and the style sold out shortly after.

Although she’s driven by the thrill of the chase, and all the name recognition, Packham says the biggest buzz she gets from celebrity dressing is the satisfaction of knowing that she’s delivered — on all levels.

“It never wanes with me. Whenever I see someone wear one of our dresses, I think ‘We got it right.’ So many things go into that moment. The dress is the result, but it’s also the relationships we have, and our manufacturing time, because it’s the whole team working on it,” says Packham.

She adds: “Ultimately, you also want the actress or the celebrity to feel empowered, and fantastic in the dress. That’s the only thing that will bring them back and make people want to wear us again. And I think our customers expect us to be doing these things. They want to be wearing a brand that is very much in the moment, and making these things happen.”

For Packham, it’s a gamble that is always worth taking.