Ah, the Oscars red carpet. The ne plus ultra of awards season carpets. The most formal, most glamorous, most ogled, analyzed, criticized and branded carpet of them all. The one the attracts the most eyeballs and thus has the most money riding on it in terms of marketing budgets and contract riders that say this celebrity has to wear that designer because they have a formal brand ambassador relationship with the company.
This is, after all, the carpet that turned Lady Gaga into a 21st-century version of … Grace Kelly? In black satin, opera gloves and up-do.
(Spoiler alert! We can tell you now, with something near certainty, which labels two nominees will be wearing: Margot Robbie will be in Chanel and Charlize Theron will be in Dior.)
Sheesh. No wonder nominees and presenters are scared to try anything too risky — Björk-as-swan and Demi Moore bicycle shorts aside. Remember those moments? There’s a reason they are the ones that go down in history: They break up the monotony of form-fitting fishtail gowns and red satin.
Last year we all said thank goodness for Billy Porter in his tuxedo ball gown, using his moment in the clothes spotlight to make a point. Who will break out of the fashion torpor Sunday night?
The good news this year is that there are a number of more idiosyncratic dressers among the confirmed attendees; those who have just said no to the gilded cage that is a fashion contract and chosen instead to express themselves according to their own (or at least their own plus their stylist’s) taste.
Timothée Chalamet, for example, with his yen for a sparkling harness. Janelle Monáe, of the winking-eye dress. Spike Lee, of the purple-ode-to-Prince suit. Saoirse Ronan, of increasingly interesting Valkyrie sequins.
We’ll be watching closely to see what statements they make with their style, as well as tracking any other trends that emerge. Will the Oscars pick up the baton of sustainability that started waving at the Golden Globes, with its all-plant menu, and then was briefly adopted at the BAFTAs, as organizers urged attendees to rewear their dresses or go vintage?
That one didn’t quite take off — the only big name to have played by the rule seemed to be Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, who shopped her closet for an Alexander McQueen gown — but imagine how effective it could be.
Arianne Phillips, the costume designer nominated for an Oscar for her work on “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” has remade her last Academy Awards dress (worn in 2012) with the help of Jeremy Scott of Moschino. They stitched it up locally, and by hand, so it has a very small carbon footprint.
“Julianne Moore told me before the last Oscars I should enjoy my dress — it’s the most fun part,” Ms. Phillips said. “And it was the most beautiful I’d ever felt, but it has been just hanging in my closet. I wanted to bring a piece of that with me again, to tell my own story, and have a dress with purpose, so when someone asked me a question about it on the carpet, I had an answer.”
At 6 p.m., on ABC, the carpet watching begins.
— Vanessa Friedman
