by The Oscars red carpet is not what it used to be. Thank God. Because it was just a beauty contest. Never mind that this was a roster of talented, hard-working women who had the resilience to succeed against the impossible odds of Hollywood – after the Academy Awards, the beautiful women were lined up Miss World style for birth given how hot they looked. in a corset-boned dress, and the men managed to collect the important things, like prizes for the best director.
The red carpet is now a lucrative entertainment industry in its own right. It’s an effective platform to tell the world a story about who an actress is, as Lily Gladstone did, honoring her position as the first Native American nominee in her category with a dress co-designed by Gucci creative director Sabato De Sarno and a Native artist. Joe Big Mountain, with traditional “quillwork” embroidery on the neckline and velvet Cape. It can also be a very well-paid side hustle: Louis Vuitton is thought to pay Emma Stone around $2m a year, treating her to all major appearances. The Oscars weren’t the best time for this particular partnership: Stone’s mint green peplum dress made headlines for the wrong reasons when the zip broke as she walked to the stage to collect her statuette.
Dresses that got more interesting. Commentators need new talking points, now that rhapsodizing about how flattering a color is to the skin tone or praising the bounciness of a blow-dry is considered a bit passé, and after the trend for high-definition closeups of manicures has been mercifully dismissed from a. misery The people in their photo have taken advantage of fashion that has a story to choose from, giving an online conversation to engage with. Blunt’s Schiaparelli dress, engineered with straps that rose several inches above her shoulders and appeared to outline a pair of men’s Y-front pants, was a case in point.
Fashion brands spend more than ever on celebrity outfits. Oscars TV audiences may not be what they used to be, but social media has given the night’s signature images a long tail, and celebrities rule the social media landscape. Basically, the budget that used to be spent on paying supermodels and photographers to make ads that were then displayed at great expense as double page ads in glossy magazines has been diverted to celebrities who paid to wear things. But this is a complicated business, and the savviest nominees are not always ahead of the highest bidder. Blunt, for example, has a contract with Tiffany, and will be paid handsomely to model the 700-diamond necklace she wore for the ceremony. Her Schiaparelli dress was probably chosen in part because those floating straps drew neat attention to the necklace, and matching six-carat earrings.
Even before the awards were presented, the buzz from the red carpet suggested that this would be Oppenheimer’s night. Now that the red carpet is less of a winner-take-all beauty pageant, there’s room for teamwork on film. The buzz around Barbie and Dunne: Part Two was amped up with strategically orchestrated red carpet dressing – Ryan Gosling did the hot pink heavy lifting for Barbie in a Marilyn Monroe-inspired riff on I’m Just Ken – and for the biggest awards show of the season many of Oppenheimer’s stars were dressed in synergy, as if for a very fancy science college prom. A gold brooch by Hong Kong brand Sauvereign accented Cillian Murphy’s Versace tux, who explained in a statement that the design’s eight concentric trapezoids mimic “the shape of the inner components in Oppenheimer’s history of invention.” Blunt’s gravitas was echoed in a strikingly similar dress by Florence Pugh, made by Milanese brand Del Core. Pugh’s shoulder straps, like Blunt’s, floated a few inches above his shoulders. A nod to Oppenheimer’s audacity with physics, perhaps. Or a reference to the Oscars, where – so often – the film with the most successful formula was the one that pointed itself a few inches above everyone else. Either way, these days the best dresses play a significant role in the plot, which means that quirkier, less traditionally glamorous brands like Schiaparelli, Loewe and Balenciaga have more red carpet appearances, alongside with heavyweights such as Dior.
The power of statement fashion on the red carpet can also be seen when Chanel steps outside her comfort zone with understated elegance to dress Billie Eilish in her traditional fringe outfit. Chanel pointed out that Eilish, who wore white knee socks and strappy Mary Janes instead of evening sandals and accessorized her custom black jacket with an Artists4Ceasefire pin, will get more likes on social media than any number of minor stars in dresses safe. .
Read more about Oscars 2024:
• Here’s our news coverage and full list of winners – read Peter Bradshaw’s judgment now
• Al Pacino, British mothers and cod cover: the real winners and losers of the night
• Relive the ceremony as it happened with our live blog and stay up to date with the best viral moments and best quotes of the night
• Think about how the stars looked on the red carpet and at the show
