Awards fashion with Esther and Eliza
More glamour! More weirdness!
I could write an entire newsletter about my favorite looks from the Oscars red carpet last night. Here are a few: Lupita Nyong’o in pearl-trimmed Chanel (the pearls in her hair were a very pretty touch), Lisa in a commanding tuxedo gown by Markgong, and Raffey Cassidy in an ivory number that I would love to have gotten married in, were I in a position to commission custom Loewe. A silky gown with a big, luscious bow flying upward off one shoulder, as though caught in an invisible breeze — simple and elegant, but whimsical. Maybe for my next wedding!
But what I’m actually doing today is looking at the most interesting fashion narratives from awards season as a whole — concluding, yes, with the Academy Awards on Sunday night. When actors are campaigning, every red carpet appearance is an opportunity to tell their story and show the world why they deserve that heavy gold statuette.
Because it’s always more fun to gab about red carpet fashion with a friend, I jumped on Zoom with my buddy Esther Zuckerman, ahead of the Oscars, to discuss what we’ve been seeing. Esther is a prolific entertainment journalist who writes for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Vanity Fair, among a bazillion other great places. She’s also the author of Beyond the Best Dressed, a cultural history of Oscars fashion, making her the only person I could possibly recruit for this endeavor.
Here’s a look back at the fashion that fascinated us throughout awards season (and on Oscars night, too).
Timothée Chalamet and Colman Domingo were the red carpet MVPs
Eliza: I think the guys were pushing the red carpet forward this season! And their names were Timothée Chalamet and Colman Domingo.
Esther: Colman is so consistently good. He’s going to show up and look fabulous and do something creative but in keeping with his taste. He has such a defined style. Whereas Timmy is experimenting. Everything feels like a weird statement, and that’s interesting.
Eliza: And what brings them together is the fact that neither of them are doing restrained little riffs on traditional suiting. It feels like they’re composing outfits, and while those outfits often contain elements of suiting, they’re not limited by that blueprint.
I loved Colman in that embroidered, tassled, belted Valentino vest and in the folded, pleated Marni suit he wore to the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. On the flip side, you have Timmy wearing head-to-toe baby pink Chrome Hearts to the Berlin Film Festival.
Esther: The Chrome Hearts thing is so weird to me. Why?!
Eliza: Honestly, I loved his black leather Chrome Hearts suit and slime green shirt at the SAG awards.
Esther: I had more of a problem with the baby pink look at Berlin. Because I saw those photos of him sitting next to Kylie Jenner, who was looking beautiful and very put-together, and he was wearing a sweatshirt. I felt like an old lady. I’m like, Young man! Your girlfriend is beautiful and done up and you’re doing this?
Eliza: It’s a better version of Justin Bieber wearing a sweatsuit while Hailey Bieber was promoting her beauty brand in an adorable cocktail dress, heels, and full glam.
Esther: The thing about Timmy is that it’s not thrown together, so it gets more of a pass. All of his looks that feel a little bit ridiculous are also very styled.
Eliza: You just wrote a great piece about Timothée’s unusually internet-friendly awards campaign for the Times. For the readers at home, can you explain what’s going on there? Because it’s definitely informing his red carpet styling.
Esther: He’s a cuspy millennial, but this feels like the first time we're truly seeing a Gen Z Oscar campaign. Yeah, he’s doing all the normal stops, but he’s like, I’m gonna do it my way — which is with a deep understanding of the internet and virality. Even when it’s a traditional appearance, like College GameDay or SNL, it’s like, I’m going to be the weird indie star going on GameDay blowing everyone away.
His SAG acceptance speech, to me, feels like the language of someone raised on the internet: “I aspire to greatness.” As much as he’s an indie darling, he’s also a sports boy who was obsessed with the Knicks as a kid. It’s an interesting mentality. And he has an understanding that he can fudge the rules because he has this insight into the way people react to things in a way that older contenders do not. He gets that the internet is going to go crazy if he puts on a wig and does the Bob Dylan look from 2003.
But speaking of Timmy and Colman, in between all of this, we have our boy Jeremy.
Eliza: Strong? Yeah, let’s talk about him. Because whereas Timmy looks great in his kooky little ensembles, Jeremy Strong often looks kind of drab and strange. For instance, at the Golden Globes, in that white turtleneck, mint velvet suit, and matching bucket hat.
Esther: He’s in love with color that washes him out.
Eliza: He needs to talk to one of those color analysis people who can tell him what season he is. And that he should not be wearing seafoam.
Esther: He loves it. But I respect that he’s just going to do his weird thing. I’m truly excited to see what he’s going to wear.
Eliza: I completely agree. I don’t love his outfits, but I love that he’s going for it. We need more celebrities who are making unusual fashion choices.
Oscars take: Our guys did not disappoint. Timothée Chalamet wore a leather Givenchy suit the color of freshly squeezed lemonade. Colman Domingo looked majestic in a red and black Valentino suit with a long sash tied at the waist. Jeremy Strong returned to his preferred color palette with a taupe Loro Piana suit that looked quite nice on him.
The Wicked press tour that became the Wicked awards season run
Eliza: Throughout the Wicked press tour, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande were, of course, wearing a lot of themed looks — typically green for Cynthia as Elphaba, pink for Ariana as Galinda-slash-Glinda. They carried some of that into their awards season dressing, but it’s nice to see them zagging a little bit from their prescribed color palettes.
Esther: I loved Cynthia Erivo’s embroidered coat at the Oscar nominees dinner.
Eliza: Givenchy! It was great. She had her chartreuse heels for Elphaba, but the coat was a buttery yellow. It continues to be such a visual relief to see her deviating from the Wicked press tour look.
Esther: I don’t hate theme dressing entirely, and I thought some of the Wicked stuff was fun, especially when they played with the concept. At one of the premieres, Ariana did a yellow dress that was a riff on the stage look for “One Short Day,” which looked beautiful. Those in the know got the reference, and she wasn’t just wearing pink.
Eliza: And she wore green glasses with that look! I need to know what the press tour for Wicked part two is going to look like. Because they can’t rehash all of the theme dressing that they did the first time around.
Esther: Whatever the second half of Wicked looks like, it’s going to be so much darker. I think they’ll probably go with that.
Eliza: For Cynthia, I could see it being Wicked Witch-coded, rather than Elphaba-coded.
Esther: And for Ariana, based on the musical, Glinda’s looks in the second half of the show are way less pink. Blue is her big color in the second act. Maybe Ariana does more of that and stops doing the cutesy thing. It’ll still be baby blues, but it won’t be quite the same. I do think they’ll shake it up a little bit.
Oscars take: One last hurrah for the Wicked press tour! Cynthia Erivo wore an inky green velvet gown of massive proportions by Louis Vuitton — the top was shaped like a big bow — and Ariana Grande chose an architectural pink Schiaparelli dress that jutted out at the hip, like an undulating tutu. A better look, however, was the crimson Schiaparelli gown that Ari wore for the Wicked medley that opened the Oscars. It was gorgeous from the front (you can get lost in that deep blood red), but then she turned around and revealed a glittering ruby slipper built into the back. A perfect nod to The Wizard of Oz and to Elsa Schiaparelli, with her Surrealist shoe hat.
Mikey Madison: A star is currently being born
Eliza: All season you and I have been texting about Mikey Madison’s looks. With her Best Actress nomination for Anora, this really was her season of debuting as a leading lady and a big rising star. She’s working with the stylist Jamie Mizrahi, who seems to play well with actors who don’t want to go too crazy on the red carpet, like Jennifer Lawrence.
Esther: Having interviewed her, I think the thing about Mikey is that she’s a shy, quiet girl. What you figure out when you meet her — which makes her performance all the more amazing — is that the brash Anora character is not who she is. She’s a horse girl who just wants to hang with her dog. You can sort of see that with her style. It’s a little muted. She’s not necessarily making bold choices.
As an actor, she disappears into her roles. I wonder what the idea of creating a style persona feels like for her.
Eliza: Definitely. Her red carpet style has a blank slate quality. Though she does have a clear taste for a strapless column dress.
Esther: I loved her SAG makeup. Give her a bold lip, highlight her pale-ass skin and her shock of black hair. If she’s not going to be super bold in her styling, give me that pop of color on her face. It looks so good.
Eliza: And her SAG dress was really good! In contrast to Jeremy Strong, this is someone who knows her color season. That silvery, silky Louis Vuitton dress was so perfect on her. She lit up. And that big sweep of fabric across the hip gave you something to chew on, visually.
Oscars take: That’s officially Best Actress winner Mikey Madison! Collecting her Oscar, she looked the part of a Hollywood ingénue in a black and pink Dior gown inspired by the brand’s 1956 collection. Sweet and classic, while staying in her comfort zone. Which, honestly, is fair enough on such a stressful night.
We’d like to do a reverse Substance and become Demi Moore
Eliza: All awards season, Demi Moore has been wearing stuff that feels very leading lady, very this is my Oscars. She’s looked phenomenal in Schiaparelli, Thom Browne, and Armani.
Esther: Shoutout Brad Goreski, her stylist. Also, she has the best accessory, who is Pilaf.
Eliza: Did you get to meet Pilaf?
Esther: I did get to meet Pilaf, who is barely sentient but very cute. Demi really has the glamour of a woman her age. I don’t mean to say that in a pejorative way. She’s like, I’ve been here a long time, I look fabulous, and I’m going to own it and do fun stuff.
Eliza: Her red carpet style doesn’t feel as tightly held as with certain younger stars who are actively trying to create an image. She already has an image. Now she can play.
Esther: She does a lot of blazers and things that feel like a riff on businesswear.
Eliza: I loved her in this brown suede jacket by Loewe — she looked like a cool CEO. But she also likes a classic, ultra-femme, ultra-glamorous fishtail gown. I really liked her sparkly McQueen mosaic dress at the BAFTAs. It was a big dress, but she totally stands up to it.
Oscars take: While Demi didn’t win for Best Actress, she undeniably slayed the red carpet in her glittering silver Armani gown. A winner in our hearts!
That’s it from us! Follow the brilliant Esther Zuckerman on Instagram, Twitter, and wherever else you get your entertainment journalism.
Challengers was robbed,
Eliza