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Even the Oscars organisers have given up on the red carpet, this year replacing the crimson runway with a strip dubbed Champagne that more closely resembled the dregs of a dubious sparkling wine from California.
Once a highlight of the international fashion calendar, where armchair critics were treated to outrageous and extravagant expressions of ego in sequins, satin and swan suits, the pre-show preening for the Academy Awards has become as predictable as an episode of Is It Cake?
Memorable outfits from Oscars past, such as Celine Dion’s backwards white Dior tuxedo in 1999, worn with a jaunty fedora, Gwyneth Paltrow’s ill-fitting pink Ralph Lauren prom dress, also from 1999 and Nicole Kidman’s mink-trimmed chartreuse silk dress from John Galliano for Christian Dior in 1997, once inspired water cooler conversations, high street knock offs and inventive Halloween costumes.
Can we start looking forward, not back?
Cher in a towering Bob Mackie headdress and bare midriff in 1986, designed to grab attention following her nomination snub by the Academy for Mask, and a sheer Mackie when she picked up the statuette for Moonstruck two years later, continues to inspire designers, drag queens and Kardashians.
This year it’s already difficult to recall the details of the polite outfits worn by Jennifer Connelly, Cate Blanchett, Ana de Armas and Ava DuVernay, all decked out in Louis Vuitton, like inoffensive advertisements for the French luxury brand.
The black and white era of cinema returned in tasteful dresses that mostly eschewed technicolour, apart from Salma Hayek in copper sequins and sightings of pale pink Prada dresses.
It’s easy to blame the luxury houses for red carpet fatigue, having latched on to the Academy Awards as the perfect advertising opportunity now that the pages of fashion magazines are receding like a Miu Miu miniskirt. After a quick scan of the Oscars arrivals it looks like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Versace and Armani recruit starlets the moment their names are recognisable enough to appear in a Google alert, offering them access to outfits guaranteed to be fawned over by publications indebted to their advertising dollars.
This makes it harder for contemporary brands such as Area, The Blonds and Dion Lee to get their headline-grabbing attire in front of the event’s dwindling viewing audience. De Armas in a pair of Lee’s motocross-inspired pants, recently worn by former US First Lady Michelle Obama, is more likely to grab free space in your memory bank than another Marilyn Monroe style dress.
The real problem is Monroe, and the looming pantheon of old Hollywood stars such as Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, Joan Crawford and Veronica Lake that continue to hold stylists in their thrall.
The broad shoulders of Blanchett’s archival blue Louis Vuitton top, worn with a sustainable silk skirt, could have been taken from Joan Crawford’s wardrobe during her Mildred Pierce era in 1945. Halle Berry’s white halter neck gown from Australian designer Tamara Ralph would have looked equally at home on Hepburn in 1968, who that year wore a Givenchy dress with a pearl-encrusted fishnet top. Nicole Kidman’s fitted Armani dress dripped with late sixties appeal, beneath tousled hair reminiscent of that decade’s pin up Sharon Tate.
Carpet capers: Cher, Nicole Kidman, Gwyneth Paltrow and Celine Dion.
Rather than looking to the future, stylists continue raiding the Hollywood vaults, until we end up with history repeating itself to the point where a designer’s vision is diluted by the ghosts of past Oscar winners.
This year nominee Kerry Condon’s bright yellow strapless Versace gown drew inspiration from Renee Zellweger’s Oscars dress from 2001, which was a vintage piece created by French designer Jean Dessès in 1959. Are you keeping up? Stylists of next year’s nominees could just ask AI to create a Grace Kelly style dress and forward the sketches to the luxury house of their choice.
It’s not as though designers are not producing original work. At the haute couture shows in Paris in January, Kylie Jenner in Schiaparelli’s faux lion’s head demonstrated the headline-grabbing power of new creations. Social media now means that labels don’t have to wait until the Oscars, with their own runway shows becoming a red carpet viewed by millions. In most cases, it’s the same lineup of actors in the front row, giving award-winning performances of awe and wonder.
The blurred lines between the runway and Oscars became even foggier when Nicole Kidman walked for Balenciaga last year, looking like her character from the 2004 Stepford Wives remake.
The shine of the Oscars red carpet has also been dimmed by the US Vogue’s Met Gala held in May, dubbed the fashion Oscars. Here themes such as Camp, In America, China and Punk let designers’ creativity soar, rather than being restricted by fading photographs of silver screen legends. Even Marilyn Monroe dresses manage to gain attention at The Met, especially when borrowed from a museum.
A slap from Will Smith won’t solve the Oscars red carpet problem but perhaps next year the Academy could ask Cher back to tell stylists and her peers to “snap out of it” Moonstruck-style.
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