Nicole and I may be in different provinces right now, but that didn’t stop us from IM’ing all night about the hits and (mostly) misses on the Oscar red carpet. Here’s our picks for the 5 best and worst looks of the night:
BEST
Jen: When Scarlett Johansson finally showed up in this killer green Versace dress amid the sea of pale gowns, I tweeted “this is the red carpet equivalent of a mic drop.” The colour is stunning, the cut is unbelievably flattering (the fact that she had a baby four months ago breaks my brain), and the shaved hair is Thunderdome chic. This is without a doubt my favourite look of the entire night.
Nicole: I’m super not sold on the necklace but she is radiant against all the white dresses and that fit… wowza.
Nicole: I did not imagine that Laura Dern would be on my best dressed list but her silver dress by Alberta Ferretti looks like a suit of armor and it’s stunning. The fit is perfect and the flowing back of the dress contrasts with the tough front. It’s much more interesting than I’d expect to see on this red carpet!
Jen: Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised by this dress too, especially the view from the back. It’s fierce and sexy.
Jen: Gone Girl’s Rosamund Pike is another rare star to make a break from the pale gowns and wow us with a colour. This stunning Givenchy fits beautifully and hugs her in all the right places. (She also just had a baby, which is beyond depressing.)
Nicole: This is THE dress of the night for me and a great do-over after the disappointing dress at the Golden Globes. The contrasting textures really flatter her curves and the corset top is gorgeous.
Nicole: Dakota Johnson is in a simple red column dress and if it not for the gorgeous shoulder detail this St. Laurent wouldn’t be a standout. The slash of red lipstick is perfect and the whole ensemble shines against her pale skin.
Jen: You liked this one a lot more than I did. It’s ok, but this is her big moment, and I really wish she’d went for it in a much bigger/bolder way.
Jen: Mark your calendar! I’m including Lady Gaga on a best dressed list! Sure, some of it is due to the fact that it was slim pickings on the Oscar red carpet this year, but it’s hard to ignore the beauty of this custom Azzedine Alaïa dress. Even her hideous dishwashing gloves couldn’t overpower it.
Nicole: Okay, so it’s a white dress in a sea of white dresses but wow, this is beautiful. The architectural shape still flatters Gaga when it could easily overwhelm anyone else.
WORST
Nicole: It’s heartbreaking really, the Dior Couture dress that Marion Cotillard is wearing looks pretty (if too loose) from the front but falls apart when you see the back with tons of volume and a weird black strip. This reminds me of the Jennifer Lawrence Dior from last year, which also wasn’t super flattering and had weird volume issues.
Jen: Agreed. I was almost going to give this one a pass for quirkiness when I saw it from the front, and then she turned around and showed off the bustle. Hard pass!
Jen: It’s not that there were a lot of terrible dresses on this year’s Oscar red carpet. That would have at least kept things interesting. Instead, we got a lot of ‘meh’ dresses — disappointing gowns that failed to elicit any meaningful reaction at all. We were bored to tears by Reese Witherspoon’s black and white Tom Ford (way too similar to what’s she’s worn in the past), Cate Blanchett’s basic black Margiela dress, Julianne Moore’s unflattering Chanel couture, Emma Stone’s old lady Elie Saab, Zoe Saldana’s Versace with its bad straps, Sienna Miller’s unremarkable Oscar de la Renta, and Keira Knightley’s Valentino, which makes her look like she rushed to the carpet from a high school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Nicole: SIGH. So much white. I had such high hopes for Julianne as she was really strong throughout the season and Emma Stone makes such beautiful choices but it was just underwhelming. I was going to comment on Keira Knightly but my mother just reminded me that if I can’t say anything nice…
Jen: This is why you shouldn’t watch award shows when visiting home. Not saying anything nice is the WHOLE POINT.
https://twitter.com/IAMFASHlON/status/569647457841360896
Nicole: While I’m certainly not surprised by Felicity Jones’s boring prom dress, I am shocked that it’s Alexander McQueen. The bodice is lovely and fits beautifully and then it poofs out into an overwhelming skirt. I sound like an old lady, but she has such a great figure and she’s so young; I wish she’d embrace a more adventurous style!
Jen: Though the colour was a bit underwhelming, I really liked the bodice. But wow, she was completely swallowed up by that skirt, which is a shame.
Jen: As a pale lady, I know the rules of dressing for alabaster complexions. Nicole Kidman does too so why is she breaking all of them in this Louis Vuitton gown. It’s too pale, too sparkly, too ill-fitting. And dear lord, why the belt? Why?! She looks like a bowling pin.
Nicole: I actually like the belt. I just would like to see the belt on a much less boring dress.
Nicole: When Lupita Nyong’o stepped onto the red carpet (holding her own umbrella, no less) all I could see was the very top of her white pearl custom Calvin Klein dress and I thought… this could be great. But I couldn’t get over the awkward pearl in the middle and in the end it just comes across as too much. Maybe if they’d used fewer than 6,000 pearls?
Jen: Remember when she KILLED it all award season last year? What’s happened? This is her latest misstep, and it’s a biggie. It looks like she’s wearing a bunch of old lady necklaces that somehow melded into a dress in a freak accident.
