by Beyond the red carpet, Oscar week is all about fashion, a competitive one.
Brands are no longer sitting on the sidelines waiting to dress celebrities for entertainment and media events. They’re hosting their own, some of them consumer-oriented, taking advantage of the global spotlight and keeping the content and outfit credits rolling throughout the week.
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Dior, Prada, Versace, Saint Laurent, Saks Fifth Avenue, Net-a-porter, Chopard, Philipp Plein and this year’s events as well as long-time regulars Giorgio Armani, Chanel and Gucci (sponsoring Guy Oseary’s after party ) and Levi on. And, in a development that seems like a return to the Hollywood studio system of today, if a star is contracted to one brand, they may not be able to partner with another brand, depending on the parameters of their deal.
There could be more to come as the entertainment and fashion industries grow closer following Kering’s investment wing Artemis’ acquisition of Creative Artists Agency last year, and the launch of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton’s 22 Montaigne Entertainment earlier this month.
Moving the Oscars to after Paris Fashion Week helped facilitate the planning of the Los Angeles event. (Remember when the fashion editors used to do back-and-forth?) The runway to Sunday kicked off in earnest on Wednesday night when, with street pole banners and unmissable pink signage on Melrose Avenue, Dior, owned by LVMH , welcome young things to his. Miss Dior Avenue parfum pop-up just down the road from the Vanities: A Night for Young Hollywood event.
Dressed in Dior LBDs and toile de jouy, Banks, Maggie Rogers, Alexandra Shipp, Lucy Hale, Anna Diop and more spritzed, sipped and related to the uber-branded, multiroom experience open through the weekend, including os count old-timey pink. phone booths. On the line, the face of Miss Dior Natalie Portman was determined to perfume notes, but she was not at the opening IRL – a note to Bernard Arnault, it was a missed opportunity for synergy.
Meanwhile, on the rooftop of the Hotel 1 tent in West Hollywood, Donatella Versace joined Annie Lennox, Zendaya, John Legend, Jennifer Coolidge, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez and more at the Green Carpet Fashion Awards. At an event that has become a platform for all progressive causes, Versace, clad in a rosy metallic mesh dress, touched on his legacy of LGBTQIA+ advocacy, including speaking out in Italy for the rights of same-sex couples.
The designer’s Oscars week momentum started last year when she staged her runway show in LA, and she kept it up at Thursday’s Versace x Net-a-porter event at a private home in Bel Air with Angela Bassett, Sharon Stone, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Chloé Zhao and others celebrate the global preview of six Versace spring 2024 runways on the e-commerce site.
Prada is joining the fray of Oscar week in its own artistic way, bringing its Double Club pop-up to town with an installation by Belgian artist Carsten Holler and a party at Luna Luna.
Drake funded the rescue and rehabilitation of the long-lost art amusement park, first staged in Germany in 1987, which has been entertaining guests in a downtown LA warehouse space since December with collectible pieces by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, David Hockney and more.
Prada is set to host a party on Friday that is expected to include Kim Kardashian, Kaia Gerber and others, although the packed schedule and long drive to get downtown to Luna Luna could prove challenging for those voting.
Also on Friday, Levi’s and stylist Karla Welch will host an International Women’s Day dinner to celebrate Ferrera’s American Oscar nomination and the brand’s appearance in the movie “Barbie.” (Truck vests like Ken’s will be given away to guests including Tracee Ellis Ross and Margot Robbie.)
“We’ve worked together for the past ten years, and our ‘Barbie’ run put her in a new light,” Welch said of Ferrera, who is nominated for best supporting actress. “Everybody is looking at America now as an activist and as a gorgeous woman. I wanted to do something to celebrate her as a friend and someone I’m so proud of,” said the stylist, who has collaborated with Levi’s on many projects.
As for the broader trend of brands having events this week, “It’s pure eyes,” Welch said. “For better or worse we are in that metrics game. But when these events come together, it’s a celebration of what we do best.”
Saks Fifth Avenue, which opened its shiny new flagship in the former Barneys New York space in Beverly Hills in February, is branding itself as the purveyor of VIP experiences, even during Oscars week, through top clients across the host a world for cocktails in his. Sabyasachi showroom at the Fifth Avenue Club, and dinner with Saks fashion director Roopal Patel and designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee at a West Hollywood restaurant.
“What better week to celebrate fashion and the new store?” said Patel, explaining that VIPs are looking for experiences beyond the runway shows, which is the Oscars. Sabyasachi has dressed many of Bollywood’s top stars and films, and is bringing one-of-a-kind clothing and jewelry from his Cinématique red carpet collection to Saks Beverly Hills until March 16 only.
Meanwhile, Chopard is reaffirming its ties to the film industry by using Oscars Week to launch a three-piece haute joaillerie collection with Julia Roberts at a dinner at the Chateau Marmont. And Pat McGrath is coming straight from fashion month to LA to celebrate “Poor Things” Oscar-nominated makeup artist Nadia Stacey with cocktails, canapés and touch-ups, probably McGrath Labs’ MatteTrance lipstick and blitz blue eye shadow (from the Dark Star Glossy Outfit) used in key scenes on Emma Stone.
The night before the big night, designer Philipp Plein is hosting his second annual Oscars fashion show at his “personal villa” Chateau Falcon View with a performance by “Total Eclipse of the Heart” crooner Bonnie Tyler.
“We show a red carpet look and then we dress the people for it [Oscars]. And that works out very well. We do a red carpet capsule collection and it basically happens in my living room,” he said.
Meanwhile, Chanel and Armani are heading to Beverly Hills.
OG Giorgio Armani red carpet dresser has been a presence on the Oscars party scene since 2007 when he restaged his Privé runway collection at Ron Burkle’s famed Green Acres estate. The brand has held its pre-Oscars party on Saturday night as it has for the past ten years, and will do so again this year at the Rodeo Drive store.
Whether any Armani faces (or Gucci or Dior for that matter) will make it to the Polo Lounge afterwards for the Chanel-sponsored Charles Finch dinner is TBD, though.
“The challenge now is that my friends who have other deals are not allowed to come to my party because my party is Chanel. I think it’s absurd and it hurts all the brands to be so ruthless with their contracts, although I’m partly responsible because I’ve made a lot of those entries from the world of fashion to the world of entertainment,” a said Finch, a film producer. of “Priscilla” recently, and chief executive officer of brand development and investment company Finch + Partners.
That’s all before Sunday, when brands will release more looks, more jewelry and more makeup, not only for the red carpet but also for the other parties. Now, if only the real Oscar telecast could make up for half that crap.
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