AND THEY WORE…
A virtual awards season has reinvigorated the red carpet, says Laura Antonia Jordan
NORMALLY, AWARDS season is defined by a series of curated, sponsored, synchronised stepand-repeat red carpet moments. It’s charming and, when done well, can be breathtakingly beautiful. But on the whole, it can feel like a cynical exercise, the parade of fairy-tale frocks and dashing tuxes blurring into one. In a normal year.
But this year, we’re witnessing an awards season taking place mostly online, with Covid-19 guidelines in place. For the celebrity stylists, the shift in format has been liberating. ‘On a big red carpet you think about the damn carpet colour, about how it will photograph, how you will stand,’ says Elizabeth Saltzman, whose clients include Julia Garner and Saoirse Ronan. ‘It’s like doing an editorial,’ adds Aimee Croysdill, the woman behind Nicola Coughlan’s brilliant remote-red carpet roll, of the positive aspects of dressing for the virtual red carpet. ‘You can pin and hide things – like nice thick socks to keep feet warm.’
The new format has generated a fashion pick-and-mix approach from the stars. Some have gone lo-fi, fully embracing the comfort of luxe PJS and tracksuits; others are making a compelling case for the predicted Roaring ’20s in ultraglamorous looks that pay homage to the golden age of Hollywood.
Most invigoratingly, a new confidence has emerged (perhaps even a blockbuster star feels bolder from the comfort of their own home). This season has seen a return to risk-taking, sass and quirk, as well as theatricality and an audacious ‘to hell with it’ experimentalism. Whether it’s Emma Corrin’s Miu Miu Pierrot dress, Sarah Paulson’s Prada arm cast or Noah Cyrus’s Schiaparelli bed gown, there has been more wit and joy than we’ve seen in years. And isn’t that what we all want from fashion now? Optimism, escapism and fantasy. We don’t ‘need’ fashion, in the same way we don’t ‘need’ film – but life without either would be flatter.
Whatever path the A-listers have taken this season, there’s been a sense of them all playing to their strengths, doing what feels right for them. As Jeanne Yang, who works with Regé-jean Page, points out, for a look to work the celebrity has to be feeling it. ‘Risk taking and rule breaking are only successful if it flows.’ And, at a time when clothes, and certainly trends, have often felt irrelevant, isn’t it a strange plot twist that in celebrating personal style, the red carpet finally feels relevant? As Elizabeth puts it, ‘People are very happy to be themselves and are less insecure to let the world see them.’ The same should go for all of us.