If the Oscars red carpet has increasingly become the effective style ego of the fashion/Hollywood marketing machine, then the after-party attire has become its id: a moment for experimentation, self-expression and risk-taking. With fewer cameras involved, the environment is more about pleasure than business, and the clothes are too. That makes them even more enjoyable to ogle.
Consider Emma Stone, shucking off her Louis Vuitton strapless peplum gown, so tight it split at the zipper, for a fragile paillette-spangled chiffon number straight from the brand’s Paris runway that looked loosened up, in all meanings of that word. (Also straight off the runway: Joey King, in crushed, strapless Balenciaga). Or Vanessa Hudgens, upping the pregnancy reveal stakes by trading her turtleneck Vera Wang for a sheer Alberta Ferretti dress. Or, for that matter, Anya Taylor-Joy, swapping her scalloped and beaded Dior for a short, black velvet number complete with beaded skullcap from Miss Sohee, like a late-night vamp sprinkling her celebrity fairy dust on a relatively unknown brand, just as Kylie Jenner used her wattage to shine a light on the young designer Ludovic de Saint Sernin.
And so it went: the establishment giving way to the vintage, the out-there, and the just plain old outrageous. Ncuti Gatwa entered in a silver breastplate cropped to show his belly button, and Russell Westbrook went sleeveless in Thom Browne. Margot Robbie switched her chocolate-sequined Versace for a showgirl-esque, golden, micro-mini Mugler from spring 1996, while Cardi B opted for more vintage, in spring 2003 beaded black Versace. Also in vintage, Jennifer Lawrence, who shed her oh-so-proper polka dot Dior for an angelic Givenchy couture by John Galliano from fall 1996. Meanwhile, contemporary Galliano was represented by Kendall Jenner, who wore a tightly corseted sheer gown with strategically placed lace inserts from his recent phantasmagorical Maison Margiela couture show. You could see all the way through to the personality inside.
