Why Oscar night is a fashion fiasco

07 February 2016 - 02:00 By The Daily Telegraph

It's the big day and the cry echoes around Hollywood: 'I've got nothing to wear!' Lis Armstrong explains Griping about unimaginative Oscar dresses has become an annual ritual among fashion-watchers (myself included). The list of "atrocities" regularly committed by attendees includes hogging the middle of the road, navigating the red carpet while under the influence of beige, and failure to wear any neckline that isn't strapless.story_article_left1So last week in Paris, while reporting on the shows, I mentally put myself in the celebrity stylist's shoes.Where to start? The first issue is that dressing an actress for the biggest night of her career is no longer where many couture houses direct their main energies.In Paris, it was notable how many maisons have turned their backs on Oscar-appropriate styles in favour of appealing to (paying) clients or to fashion magazines.Dolce & Gabbana actively discourages its appearance on the red carpet, knowing its customers prefer exclusivity.On the couture catwalks, spectacularly lavish ball dresses and embroidered tunics popular at Middle Eastern weddings, or "avant garde" barely there experiments that might work for a Rihanna video but would set off every pacemaker at the Academy Awards, now outnumber red-carpet dresses."The problem is, the Oscars aren't regarded as fashion any more," says Fiona Golfar, editor-at-large of British Vogue. Golfar has attended the Oscars with her husband, producer Robert Fox, and dressed actresses for them."It's surprisingly tough getting hold of decent dresses for them," she says. "For one thing, there's a strict pecking order, both among actresses and designers. You can have a great actress who might score an A among her peers, but only rate a B or C in the fashion world because she isn't considered to wear clothes well."full_story_image_vleft1Or she might be the wrong age. When Golfar dressed Maggie Smith the year she was nominated for Gosford Park, she was told by one house "that they weren't interested in dressing a woman in her mid-60s".The hierarchy cuts both ways. Actresses want to be seen in labels of commensurate status, or above. Labels feel the same.Double-As include Julianne Moore ("despite her age", as one Hollywood insider put it), Jennifer Lawrence ("she can even make falling over look good", said the same insider), Tilda Swinton, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara and, suddenly, Alicia Vikander.Acute status awareness leads to unseemly horse-trading behind the scenes, with some stylists stockpiling dresses they have no intention of putting on their clients simply to prevent other stylists having them, or reduced to promising designers they'll put an A-lister into their dress, provided that designer agrees to dress their other, less exalted, clients. It sounds like a bear pit, but then stakes are high.The right look (hair and makeup are also key) can make casting agents reassess their preconceptions about an actress's bankability.If she's just played a dowdy frump or had a run of period parts, the Oscars are her chance to demonstrate she's a bankable sexpot. The perfect dress isn't one that's merely flattering.full_story_image_hright2It should position you on the map as a potential fashion muse, which means you can collect fees for wearing certain labels on the red carpet. Not all fashion houses pay actresses but many jewellery firms do. One Hollywood agent told me an Oscar nominee can charge up to £200000 (R4.6-million) an outing.The Holy Grail of red carpet dressing - apart, possibly, from winning an award for acting - is a contract with one of the big European fashion names. These are even rarer than Oscars, however.Blanchett has Armani; Lawrence, Marion Cotillard; Charlize Theron and Natalie Portman have Dior; Vikander and Michelle Williams are signed up to Louis Vuitton; Kristen Stewart, Keira Knightley and Moore have affiliations with Chanel.The money is the big draw. "Many Hollywood actresses earn less than the public imagines," says Anna Bingemann, who has styled Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts and Uma Thurman. "Most films are pretty low budget these days. Many indie films pay actors less than they're paying their nannies."Brands like to lock their mascots in for several years, because it allows them to build a relationship based on trust.But these exclusive arrangements mean there are fewer dresses to go around.Another chink in the system, says Bingemann, is that there are now so many noteworthy awards. "In the old days, no one in America really watched the Baftas. You had the Globes and the Oscars. Now you have the SAG Awards, the Baftas, the Independent Spirit Awards, the Emmys. No one ever cared about the Emmys. But now that TV is sexy, everyone watches those too. You're talking months of awards."full_story_image_vleft3So to my Oscar picks. Hmm. All I can say is that compromises were made. I've omitted sheer, although in real life designers could probably be coaxed into adding linings.I had a hard time finding much colour - then again, given the controversy surrounding this year's nominations and the sobering situation in Syria, monochrome might be the order of the evening.And what do you do about Charlotte Rampling? A few days ago she was a Double-A - 69, but a hot fashion property because, hell, she's Rampling and innately stylish. Then came the race row. The Oscar nominee called the row about the lack of diversity at this year's Academy Awards "racist against white people".Now some designers may feel cautious about dressing her ... this Oscar dressing business is not as easy as it looks...

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