I’m not sure why I bothered, but yesterday, just as I did last year and the years before that, I put on a pair of comfy pajamas and settled in on my couch to watch the Oscars. Well, not really the awards ceremony itself (too long, too dull, not funny), but the preamble. Yes, I mean the whole red carpet thing.
The coverage gets longer every year and every year it’s more disappointing. I blame for this the rise of the stat-stylist and Nina Garcia for popularizing the term “taste level.”
The Oscars used to be great fashion-watching fun. It wasn’t so much about who an actress was wearing but what. As in what on earth is she wearing? Fast forward to 2014 and we get Naomi Watts explaining in one of those quickie red carpet interviews with Entertainment Weekly’s Jess Cagle that she’s wearing Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein Collection, adding: “I’ve been friends with the brand for a long time.”
I guess brands really are people after all, at least in Hollywood.
I’m not the first to pine for the 1980s in this way. I was a teenager when Cher walked the red carpet in her Bob Mackie-designed gothy-Vegas-showgirl-spidery sequined dress. Nominees, presenters, guests — they wore what they wanted, what they liked. Now, it’s all strapless and simple. There is much talk of “old Hollywood glamour” (retire this phrase, please); no one wants their taste level to come into question.
A classy gown is predictable and boring. I’ll take ’80s ugly over that any day. Or even something — anything — that the person wearing actually picked out themselves and has even the tiniest hint of personality. Taste level is overrated. Bring back the garish, the loud and tacky. Give us something surprising, something fun to look at and even more fun to discuss. Make me love it. Make me hate it. Make me say wow.
