Lisa Armstrong
The Oscars should call Time’s Up on wearing black
‘Bring on bags and multi-colourism instead of token virtue signalling’
Tomorrow night at the 90th Academy Awards, the actresses on the red carpet won’t be wearing black. Or at least some won’t, because for the moment at least, a black dress is no longer required proof of moral integrity. Sartorial freedom beckons.
Not everyone sees it that way. Some view the decision to abandon black as a betrayal of the #Metoo cause. Actresses wore black at the Globes. They wore black at the Baftas. Why not finish what they started by making The Really Big One an all-black fest?
But where would that end? Would every awards ceremony have to be monochrome until the end of time? Or only until 2019? Wouldn’t an artificial deadline make all-black outfits – and the issues they have come to represent – seem dangerously last year?
One theory about the apparent volte-face is that the actresses were leaned on by the Academy Award organisers. The Academy certainly issued a statement saying, what with this being a 90th anniversary of the Oscars, that they wanted to keep the focus “on films, not the cultural moment around them” – as if the two could ever be sensibly separated. “We want to make it as entertaining as possible – reverential and respectful,” Jennifer Todd, one
of the awards’ producers told The New York Times.
In recent years, the Academy Awards Powers That Be have come to be seen as a bunch of geriatric philistines who always vote for the wrong films and then make cack-handed reparations the following year. However, another explanation – mine – is that it was Frances Mcdormand who knocked the whole thing on the head when she swept on to the stage at The Royal Albert Hall wearing a red and pink (with some black) Valentino dress featuring a mouth and lipstick print.
Mcdormand, who always appears to be the very model of everything we want modern women to be, explained that while she stood shoulder to shoulder with her #Metoo and #Timesup sisters, she had “trouble with compliance”.
She drew just about the biggest cheer of the evening, because in the end, isn’t compliance at the heart of this? Compliance to good behaviour, and non-compliance to bad.
Which is why it’s #Timesup on the mass wearing of black, at least for the moment. Uniforms are self-evidently an effective bonding mechanism. But once they become oppressive rather than unifying, it’s time to rethink.
Besides, there was always something less than ideal about the actors’ self-imposed blackout. It was all very well for Eva Longoria to issue a statement before the Globes lamenting the way that,
“for years, we’ve sold these awards shows as women with our gowns and colours and our beautiful faces and our glamour,” but actresses in particular have benefited hugely from these awards shows.
There’s good business to be done on the red carpet. An actress (and to a lesser extent actors) can pick up lucrative fashion, jewellery and make-up contracts by making clever sartorial choices – or hiring a stylist to make them for her. Will Margot Robbie wear Chanel tomorrow night, as tipped by some insiders? And will that culminate, as those insiders believe, in a Chanel arrangement?
This isn’t necessarily about greed. Indie films often pay meagre or no salaries, even to top names. L’oréal, Dior et al have become de facto sponsors of the arts, since without their generous deals, actresses couldn’t afford to take on many art house projects. Others who might be quietly celebrating the lifting of the all-black code are those smaller labels who haven’t had much of a look-in so far at this year’s awards.
It’s one thing for a wealthy fashion house to rustle up the 20 or so black dresses needed to get a couple of actresses to pick just one. Dior and Givenchy both produced blockbuster monochrome couture collections back in January, possibly in anticipation of the colour-ban. Both labels made several appearances on those red carpets.
Less wealthy designers – Roland Mouret or Erdem, say – don’t have the means to magic up batches of alternative red carpet dresses on the off chance they’ll be worn. 2018’s Oscars could still prove the most sombre in a long time, with #Timesup brooches universally obligatory. But at least there won’t be any obligation for actresses to Bring An Activist as their plus one. Was there ever a more patronising display of creepy post-colonial arrogance? Bring on multi-colourism and handbags instead of token virtue signalling.
Those all-black line-ups at the Baftas and Globes made for a stirring visual, but that job is done. Now let’s get on with sorting out the real issues, which includes the freedom to wear what you want.