Trends are dead if the red carpet at this year’s Oscars is any indication.
Gone are the metallic goddess gowns, the endless parade of identical strapless mermaid dresses. Instead, the new generation of stars is leading the way with highly individualistic expressions in fashion.
Blame Lupita Nyong’o, who came out of nowhere on the awards circuit last year and made her name with a red-caped wonder.
All actresses took note.
Now the name of the game is fashion shock, even on staid red carpets, traditionally a source of fear and loathing about the dreaded fashion police. As Jennifer Lopez told E!, “Don’t worry, there’s just a billion people watching.”
The worst criticism they face now is being forgettable.
While it’s not exactly a parade of Bjork’s swan dress moments, by the standards of McGowns, it’s eccentric.
Marion Cotillard is a case in point. Will the television millions get her Dior Couture white-polka-dot gown with the billowing beetle back? What’s French for “who cares?”
“Fifty Shades of Grey” star Dakota Johnson broke free from the bonds of boring with a gown the shade of her boyfriend’s “red room of pain.”
The woman who changed the game, Nyong’o, took a page out of her own playbook with a Calvin Klein gown that had a built-in necklace of pearl strands. And newcomer Felicity Jones went the regal route in a silver pearl encrusted gown by Alexander McQueen.
So it was disappointing when Best Actress front-runner Julianne Moore, who has been hitting it out of park for women of a certain age everywhere in racy red and glittering green in the past month, came out wearing a beaded doily out of a bad wedding catalogue.
Our hopes were equally high for die-hard fashion girls Cate Blanchett and Sienna Miller, who seemed to have gotten uncharacteristically spooked and reached for the dullest of black frocks.
Other nominees didn’t fare any better. Rosamund Pike opted for a racy red gown with a slit by hotter-than-hot label Givenchy that still managed to be unremarkable — because it was wearing her.
And Reese Witherspoon wore a perfectly tasteful off-the-shoulder black-and-white striped gown that would be considered terrifically nice at a Southern cotillion but was far from her usual international standard.