April 7, 2002

High fashion is a tough sell on the Oscar red carpet.

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow wore an ensemble by iconoclastic designer Alexander McQueen for her role as presenter at the 74th Academy Awards on Sunday. The dress was inspired by a look from the designer’s fall 2002 collection, which he presented last month on the Paris runway against a backdrop of live wolves.

In Paris, the collection received critical praise from fashion insiders.

In TV rooms across America (an average of 46 million people watched the show, slightly more than last year), Oscar viewers howled in horror.

Paltrow’s bodice was see-through black and flesh-tone tulle. The voluminous skirt was cut from black silk taffeta. The ensemble was greeted with a roar of disapproval, in part because Paltrow’s rail-thin torso looked emaciated in the top. And under the bright lights of television, one can never underestimate the benefits of a well-made underwire bra.

Best Supporting Actress winner Jennifer Connelly did not fare much better with armchair critics. Her taupe chiffon strapless dress was designed by Nicolas Ghesquiere of Balenciaga. He is the celebrated designer who ignited a trend for collage, who stirred up interest in shaggy knits, who pulled trousers back up to the natural waistline.

 

Every actress has access to more opinions and professional advice than she could ever digest. So how could Paltrow walk out onstage looking so droopy? How could a beautiful woman like Connelly find herself judged bland and washed out?
 

The dress he created for Connelly had a tiered skirt with a ravaged hemline and was accessorized with a long chiffon scarf draped casually around her neck. One post-Oscar critic wondered why such a pretty girl would wrap toilet paper around her neck.

Other fashion risk-takers were booed, too. Some thought that Helen Hunt, in a black satin Gucci dress with a lace-up bodice, looked as though she was auditioning for a Charlie’s Angels sequel. People assumed that Julia Roberts slashed her Giorgio Armani jersey dress before she left home in some twisted version of Scarlett O’Hara do-it-yourself chic. They thought Cameron Diaz’s Emanual Ungaro Couture gown looked like pajamas. But perhaps that’s because they felt her hair looked as though she had just fallen out of bed.

How could so much celebrated high fashion hit such low notes?

Virtually every major fashion house dispatches representatives to Los Angeles to consult with Oscar guests. The bulk of the attention is focused on attracting key nominees and presenters with offers of silken frocks and custom-made dresses, but anyone attending the ceremony and likely to be photographed is a worthwhile catch. After all, a good Oscar night can significantly raise a house’s profile.

And once an actress has selected a dress, she often has the designer’s personal assistance in primping and fluffing before making her grand entrance. Every actress has access to more opinions and professional advice than she could ever digest. So how could Paltrow walk out onstage looking so droopy? How could a beautiful woman like Connelly find herself judged bland and washed out?

Because they confused the red carpet with a catwalk. Hollywood stars may have model-size bodies, but they’re playing to a crowd of movie fans, not fashion insiders. Isn’t that the first rule of performance? Know your audience.

Connelly’s Balenciaga gown was, by fashion standards, exquisite. And had it been on a runway in some Parisian industrial warehouse, it would have undoubtedly been well received by those whose livelihoods depend on understanding the essential meaning of shredded chiffon and wan faces. Her minimalist makeup and simple hair spoke to the central point of the dress, which was organic, urban glamour.

But at the Oscars, folks like their glamour the old-fashioned way. They don’t want it looking as though it just naturally sprouted. They want it polished, perfumed and glossy. And so women such as Kate Winslet in a red, one-shoulder Ben de Lisi sheath, Halle Berry in a feminine and sexy Elie Saab floor-length merlot gown with a train, Renee Zellweger in a black strapless Carolina Herrera ball gown and Jada Pinkett Smith in a vintage gown won more universal praise.

Designers who have become Oscar regulars understand what works on Hollywood’s prestigious red carpet. Reese Witherspoon wore Valentino, for instance, and the dress was a perfect blend of elegance, glamour and sex appeal stitched out of black lace and silk.

After established designers gave stars and stargazers their first lessons in style about a decade ago, the unwritten Oscar dress code became and remains ‘classy.’ Starlets can be dazzling. They can be grand. They can be sexy. But they are expected to do that within a set of guidelines written by dominant fashion houses such as Giorgio Armani, Valentino, Chanel and even Versace, which sends its sophisticated gowns to the Oscars and its jaw-dropping ones to the Grammys.

Hollywood and the fashion industry have established a cozy and mutually beneficial relationship. But just as Veronica Lake-style waves and extravagant cleavage would look contrived at a fashion gala, the mainstream viewers of the Oscars look askance at distressed hemlines and translucent bodices.

Much of what was so terribly panned on the red carpet simply needed a different venue. Diaz’s Ungaro gown and matted hair would have been a great look for a music industry awards presentation. And Paltrow, with her dark-rimmed eyes and her Goth-on-the-heathers dress, probably looked dramatic and alluring by candlelight at the post-Oscar parties. No wolves or Cross Your Heart bras required.—Dawn/The Washington Post

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