Actress Jessica Hecht's Emmy night comes down to the dress

Jessica Hecht, the "Special" actress, inherited at least a couple of things from her mother: "I'm lucky to be sample size. My mother gave me many gifts and this was a very specific one."

That, she laughed, and "a lot of neurosis."

Being a size 2 came in handy as Hecht was deciding on just the right red carpet look for her big night Sunday at the creative arts Emmys, to air Saturday on FX ahead of the main slate. She didn't win, but she had a ball picking out a dress.

Jessica Hecht arrives at night two of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2019, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard ShotwellInvisionAP)

For fashion assistance, she headed straight to Atelier Caito for Herve Pierre, a nearly 2-year-old collaboration between the Frenchman who styles first lady Melania Trump, and Nicolas Caito, a compatriot and veteran patternmaker.

While creative director at Carolina Herrera, Pierre dressed the 54-year-old Hecht a couple of times. For the Emmys, he offered several options on her fitting visit to the fledgling brand's airy studio, where workers cut and sewed at high tables as others tapped on their laptops nearby. Of three dresses, one stole Hecht's heart and had her beaming on the red carpet.

It was a bicolor column gown with an empire bodice in peony pink silk and wool, and a skirt in black silk crepe. Skeletal lines in silk pique applique, in an ultramarine blue inspired by a painting by the post-war French nouveau realist Yves Klein, adorned the front, from just below the neck to just above the hem.

In this Sept. 4, 2019, photo, designer Herve Pierre sketches a dress design for Emmy-nominated actress Jessica Hecht to wear at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, at Atelier Caito for Herve Pierre in New York. (AP PhotoMary Altaffer)

A side slit wasn't too daring and offered movability.

"The cut is perfect," Hecht told Pierre and Caito as she inspected herself in a full-length mirror, gently touching the fabrics as she practice-walked in a pair of comfortable black heels she had brought along. "I could eat a dinner in this dress. When you stop breathing, it's the worst."

And the other options? There was a sporty, sleeveless, bright red trench-style with buttons, and a sexy navy gown with a full skirt. The blue was off the shoulder with tight sleeves that stopped at the elbows. Cutouts in the underarms lent comfort and mobility. It had a riot of three-dimensional line applique up top that extended off the dress at the neck. And it had a train.

In this Sept. 4, 2019, photo, designer Herve Pierre, left, fits Emmy-nominated actress Jessica Hecht with a dress for her to wear at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, at Atelier Caito for Herve Pierre in New York. (AP PhotoMary Altaffer)

Hecht wasn't looking, in particular, for a train. The black just skimmed the ground.

Pierre quoted Coco Chanel as he listened to Hecht's short but sure reasons for loving the black.

"Mademoiselle Chanel always said if you spend more than 10 minutes to describe a dress, it means that the dress is wrong," he said. Hecht needed far less.

In this Sept. 4, 2019, photo, designer Herve Pierre, center, and Nicolas Caito, right, fit Emmy-nominated actress Jessica Hecht with a dress for her to wear at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, at Atelier Caito for Herve Pierre in New York. (AP PhotoMary Altaffer)

There's a word in Yiddish that Hecht's mother uses "to describe a dress that has too much going on, which is ungapatchka," she told Pierre.

Hecht wasn't interested. She wanted simple elegance, from her planned chignon hairstyle and simple jewelry to the shoes she hand-carried from the Upper West Side.

"The simplest shoe is the best, I think. Unless you're 20," she said.

In this Sept. 4, 2019, photo, a dress designed by Herve Pierre, meant for Emmy-nominated actress Jessica Hecht to wear at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, hangs at Atelier Caito for Herve Pierre in New York. (AP PhotoMary Altaffer)

Hecht said it was important that her dress honor the tone of "Special," the show for which she was nominated. It's a short-form Netflix series based on the memoir of Ryan O'Connell, who stars, writes and executive produces the first season. O'Connell, who is gay with mild cerebral palsy, decides to leave home for the first time, along with his loving, ever-attentive mother, to strike out on his own. Hecht deftly plays the mom, Karen Hayes, in the eight episodes of 15 or so minutes each.

"In some way, I want to reflect the integrity of the show," Hecht said of her Emmys look. "There's something quirky and kind of sensitive about the show that I wanted to find in the dress."

Hecht extolled the virtues of the pockets on the red and blue gowns. The black was bereft, but it wasn't enough to knock it out of first place.

In this Sept. 4, 2019, photo, designer Herve Pierre, left, fits actress Jessica Hecht, for dresses for her to wear at the Creative Arts Emmys, at Atelier Caito for Herve Pierre in New York. (AP PhotoMary Altaffer)

At awards ceremonies, Hecht said, "people have a whole way of being." In the black, she said, she could be the "mystery to define that dress."

A mother of two, including her Emmy date Stella, Hecht said it would have been "nerve-wracking" to wear a dress that put her on display, required tape in strategic spots, or screamed for special undergarments.

Of the splashy look so many celebrities go for on red carpets, she said: "The wow factor is always exciting for the viewer but you sort of wind up comparing who was blingiest, and that to me is sort of not the point of the event. I'm more interested in seeing the person underneath the dress. The wow factor is maybe great when you're under 30."

In this Sept. 4, 2019, photo, designer Herve Pierre, right, and Nicolas Caito fit actress Jessica Hecht, for dresses for her to wear at the Creative Arts Emmys, at Atelier Caito for Herve Pierre in New York. (AP PhotoMary Altaffer)

The navy had a bit of wow. She said it would be great in a film, especially if one is dramatically running away, which she was not.

The new series isn't Hecht's first turn at television. She's perhaps best known for supporting roles in "Friends" and "Breaking Bad." The lesbian wedding of her character, Susan Bunch, to Ross' ex-wife, Carol, made a "Friends" splash in 1996.

As an Emmy nominee, Hecht said she was most nervous about what she was going to wear because, "I didn't want to be self-conscious. At this stage in my life, it's like a great party. I wasn't really thinking anything like this would happen."

Pierre dressed Hecht for the Tonys seven or eight years ago.

"I just loved the way he thinks. He makes all these incredible references to art, which makes me feel elevated," Hecht said.

She loved the hint of the "perfect" blue hue in the line embellishment on the gown she chose. It made her feel as if "she's been dropped into this beautiful simple painting that I can inhabit and not think too much, and that's my whole goal."

And what would her "Special" character, Karen Hayes, have to say about her choice?

"She would think it was really unique," Hecht said. "She'd be thrilled because I chose something different."

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — At least 90 people were injured in Argentina's capital when a passenger train struck an empty boxcar on the tracks and derailed Friday, authorities said, a rare collision that fueled questions about basic safety.

The train was on its way from Buenos Aires to the northern suburbs when it derailed around 10:30 a.m. on a bridge in the trendy neighborhood of Palermo, safety officials said.

While it was not immediately clear why the idled boxcar had been on the bridge, Argentina's railway union said several meters (yards) of copper cable used to carry power along the tracks had been stolen from the railway, disabling the signaling system intended to prevent such accidents.

Union leaders fiercely opposed to libertarian President Javier Milei's economic austerity blamed the government for its failure to invest in public infrastructure.

“We have been demanding for 10 days that the stolen signaling cables be repaired," rail union leader Omar Maturano told the country's independent Radio Con Vos station. “The government said there was no money for spare parts.”

Prosecutors said they were investigating.

“There is not enough information about the mechanics of this accident,” Buenos Aires Mayor Jorge Macri said from the crash site where he praised the swift evacuation of victims.

Dozens of injured were treated at the scene and 30 people taken to hospitals in moderate to serious condition, at least two by helicopter with chest trauma and broken bones.

Alberto Crescenti, director of the city's emergency service, said rescuers with police dogs had helped 90 people trapped in the derailed train, lowering some by rope from the highway overpass scattered with twisted metal and shattered glass.

Dazed passengers staggering out of the derailed boxcars told local media the train had stopped on the bridge for several minutes before starting up again and slamming violently into the other train, jolting passengers and veering off the rails in a jumble of sparks and smoke.

Officials at the Argentine rail authority, Trenes Argentinos, said service on the popular rail line had been suspended, complicating travel for many commuters.

The collision brought increased scrutiny to rail safety in Argentina, where a string of train crashes from 2012-2014 left over 50 people dead and hundreds injured. It emerged at the time that outdated infrastructure, delays and human error had left the railway system vulnerable to crashes, prompting the government to invest in new safety and braking systems.

With Argentina's economy spiraling and anti-government protests gripping the streets, the crash quickly spawned contradictory narratives, with both government officials and leftist union leaders using the incident to further their agendas.

“The rail company has been totally degraded because there's no budget," said Maturano, from the rail union.

President Milei reposted comments on social media blaming his left-leaning predecessors for neglecting public infrastructure and running up a massive budget deficit.

In the midst of Argentina's worst economic crisis in two decades, police have repeatedly reported would-be cable thieves being electrocuted in the act. Those who succeed wreak havoc on the rail system in stealing metal to sell to scrapyards, where local media says the going rate is about $7 a kilogram ($3.18 a pound).

The Argentine website Infobae in February called copper cable theft “a trendy crime for the crisis.”

Police tape off the site after a passenger train collision in the Palermo area of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, May 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A paramedic transports an injured commuter after two trains collided in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, May 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Railway workers inspect a passenger train after it collided with another in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, May 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Franco Dergarabedian)

Railway workers inspect a passenger train after it collided with another in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, May 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A police officer talks to a commuter who was injured when two trains collided in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, May 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

A train wagon that collided with another stands on the rails in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, May 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Paramedics transport injured commuters after two trains collided in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, May 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)