Anora is a fairytale about holding on to humanity in a cold and ruthless world, clinging to romance in a climate of porn, and staying true to your values in a transactional culture.
Which is the story that fashion at the Oscars has been telling for years. Its red carpet is the ultimate expression of the dream-big mindset, where anyone can be a princess or a dashing hero. But it has also become, in the 21st century, a pay-to-play game where fashion houses cut behind-the-scenes deals with actors to get their clothes in the spotlight. For women, it is also a tightrope walk through a savagely judgmental environment in which having just enough sex appeal is a golden ticket, but too much is a guilty verdict.
Tangled up in yellow … Timothée Chalamet cuts a dash in Givenchy. Photograph: Richard Harbaugh/AMPAS/Rex/Shutterstock
The 25-year-old Mikey Madison, breakout fashion star of the night, played the game and won. Host Conan O’Brien landed a joke connecting the film’s appeal to the current political moment – “I guess Americans are excited to see someone finally stand up to a powerful Russian” – but it was the film’s aesthetic references to Pretty Woman and to True Romance that seduced the fashion industry when the film was in cinemas last year. Madison, who has worn Prada, Schiaparelli, Bottega Veneta and Miu Miu during awards season, was dressed for her big night in a bespoke recreation of a dress from Christian Dior’s 1956 Bal à Paris collection. Winged black eyeliner and the gumball-sized vintage Tiffany diamond around her throat nodded to Breakfast at Tiffany’s, an adroit quotation not just from the storyline of that Hollywood classic – an “American geisha” was how writer Truman Capote described Holly Golightly – but from the narrative of its star, Audrey Hepburn, perennial icon of Hollywood glamour. Meanwhile, the sugary Prom pink shade of the dress had a subcutaneous connection to the look another young American sweetheart, Gwyneth Paltrow, wore when she picked up an Oscar for Shakespeare in Love, aged 26.
Dazzling … Wicked star Cynthia Erivo’s extraordinary nails. Photograph: via Newspix International
The many subplots of this red carpet season reached a satisfying denouement on Oscar night. Timothée Chalamet continued to make cosplaying as Bob Dylan look infinitely more charming than it sounds, this time in a butter yellow leather suit in which the trousers were styled as classic five-pocket jeans. His Givenchy look was designed by Sarah Burton, who later this week will show her debut collection for the house. Fashion sleuths noted that while another recent high profile Givenchy moment, Ivanka Trump’s inauguration ballgown, was an archival recreation credited to the Givenchy atelier, Burton chose to put her own name to the looks worn by Chalamet and his A Complete Unknown co-star, Elle Fanning, at this ceremony. Cynthia Erivo, who has turned her spectacular manicures into an ongoing performance art piece while promoting Wicked, pulled off a dazzling finale with dagger-length nails featuring a clockface, an emerald, and a yellow brick road. Andrew Garfield in espresso-brown Gucci and Jeremy Strong in khaki Loro Piana continued to shift the menswear needle away from old-school black tuxedos.
Halle Berry sparkles in a Christian Siriano creation. Photograph: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
The red carpet fashion industry has seen a remarkable turnaround in its age profile. Older women are taking the spotlight in bolder, more personal style choices while many younger actors play it safe. True, the internet wags will joke that Mikey Madison winning best actress over Demi Moore was the plot of The Substance come to life, but the strongest fashion plot points of the evening were largely delivered by the women over 40. Isabella Rossellini, nominated for Conclave, wore a blue velvet gown custom made by Dolce & Gabbana as her tribute to the late David Lynch. On the red carpet, Fernanda Torres shook the feathered skirt of a look from the most recent Chanel haute couture collection, which had dramatic silk-fringed layers and a matching black lace bolero jacket. June Squibb, 95, was resplendent in a colourful caftan. The peanut gallery fashion commentariat raved about the theatrical swaggers of Zoe Saldaña’s Saint Laurent gown in opera-curtain red, and the cascading drama and snowy cuffs of Italian actor Alba Rohrwacher’s black Valentino.
The night’s standout trend was for silver dresses. Eagle-eyed style watchers will have noticed a shift away from gold jewellery toward silver, on catwalks, fashion campaigns and in street style, and this was reflected in Oscar-gold gowns being replaced by shiny-dime silver ones. Demi Moore, who attended Giorgio Armani’s most recent haute couture show, wore a silver gown by the designer. Louis Vuitton ambassador Emma Stone wore pearly paillettes by the French house. Selena Gomez in Ralph Lauren, Halle Berry in Christian Siriano and Felicity Jones in Armani all put their money on silver.
