Housewives Style Evolution

Sheridan became famous when she joined Knots Landing in 1986, the same year she stepped out in this over-the-top fringed leather suit. She later toned down her look, covering up her sheath dress with a men's blazer (1993). And although Mr. Blackwell named her the worst-dressed celeb last year, she has found a balance between sexy and classy, as evidenced by the pretty pink dress she wore in New York City in May.

"I always stick to my same rule and am never going to change," Hatcher tells PEOPLE. "When you find the dress you feel good in, that is the dress." Through the years, those dresses have included (from left): a sequined and shoulder-padded number circa her stint on the nighttime soap Capitol (1986), a skimpy mini following her Lois amp Clark era (1999) and a bold pink halter for a Late Show appearance (in April).

"I'm not very fashion-conscious," says Cross – but after three decades on the red carpet she has found her fit, and she makes the most of her fiery red hair and lean frame (far right, at the Late Show in August). But as a soap star (Another World, One Life to Live) in the late '80s, she sported a silly frilly mini and bowler, and while playing a villain on Melrose Place, she was too Goody Two-shoes for Hollywood (1996).

At the Emmys on Sunday, Huffman said she was once "a chunky girl with a bad perm and glasses." She's come a long way! As a star of the series Sports Night, Huffman hit the red carpet in a frumpy hairdo and lilac cheongsam in 1999 and blended into the background in black and red in 2000. Today, the triathlon runner shows off her buff bod in elegant gowns such as the butter-yellow one she wore in Hollywood in April.

The former pageant queen is a true Cinderella story: Within just a few years, she went from frou-frou evening gowns (in 1998, being crowned Miss Corpus Christi) to revealing leather ensembles (in 2001, when she was starring on The Young and the Restless to her current signature look: flirty, sexy dresses that make the most of her 5'2" frame (in Oscar de la Renta at the Golden Globes in February).