At the Golden Globes, stars redefined what it means to dress for modern times
By Rachel Tashjian, CNN
(CNN) — In recent years, having the best vintage dress or a meme-worthy look seemed to be the ultimate red carpet flex in Hollywood.
But at Sunday night’s Golden Globes, actors wore gowns that spoke to the present – something strange and sober, in which ease and wearability are demanded but rarely given, and when unusual beauty can feel like a statement in aesthetically conservative times.
Vintage, or finding something forgotten or conjuring a well-remembered moment, has been the dominant trump card in Hollywood – a sign that you should be taken seriously as a fashion player in addition to an artist. That’s all been well and good (and has been great for reminding us that something doesn’t have to be new to look right), but it’s also left us mired in nostalgia, obsessing over recreating past moments.
When stars weren’t repeating the past, they were wearing ridiculous outfits. Crazy colors, outrageous silhouettes, pointless ruffles and swags – the fashion victim became a venerated main character rather than a cherished sideshow act. Viral clothes, engineered to spin the internet into days of discourse, tainted our collective sense of what was glamorous and pretty.
Everyone has looked just fine lately, but at a time when Hollywood seems to be losing its hold on our fantasies and influencer celebrity has overtaken movie stardom, we have less of a sense of what modern-day glamour looks like. When we dream – of wedding dresses, proms, celebrations and fame – we see very little that shows us the visual values of our times.
At the Golden Globes, which is an early indicator of the fashion themes that will play out over the awards season, actors and designers (with the help of their increasingly powerful stylists) are speaking to the present. Like Renate Reinsve, of “Sentimental Value,” wearing a Louis Vuitton gown of floor-length beaded fringes that moved. For years, red carpet dresses appeared to be stiff, oriented towards the still image — at last, a woman in motion! Another example was Tessa Thompson, who wore a warm chartreuse gown by Balenciaga, an elegant nod to her film, “Hedda,” but with its slinky fishtail sequins, sleek and almost comfortable looking. And when is the last time an awards show gown looked comfortable, even though ease is what every woman wants?
Political statements were not abundant this year, but Thompson was one of the stars seen wearing a “Be Good” badge pinned to her clutch, in reference to Renee Nicole Good, the Minnesota mother who was shot and killed by ICE agents last week.
Ayo Edebiri, a star of the television show “The Bear” as well as several films last year, wore a black velvet Chanel gown, kissed with brooches at the shoulders, that first appeared in the brand’s much-dissected show in the New York City subway late last year. Black is an atypical sighting on the red carpet unless the gown is epic in proportion, which this was not. But the sleekness, the coy refusal to play the big and obvious dress game, propelled the look into a new definition of cool. (It’s very Coco Chanel, who wore the most understated clothes and claimed anyone who didn’t like it just wasn’t sophisticated enough to get it.) This is a dress to please Edebiri first and foremost – a declaration of snarling chic when it seems everyone has something to say about everyone else’s clothes.
Similarly in conversation with the past, instead of in its thrall, was Zoey Deutch, who played a winning Jean Seberg in Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague.” Her Prada plisse gown, with a drop waist cummerbund that fell into fringes of glass beads, was more the spirit of Art Deco – stately but uncompromising – then flapper costume from Spirit Halloween.
Then there was Jennifer Lawrence in a naked dress – which, ugh, aren’t we done with the naked dress? But because Lawrence has spent the past several months wearing sleek Tribeca mom looks while promoting her film “Die, My Love,” she looked like she was having a blast in that exhibitionist Givenchy gown. This was mom’s night out! “I’m naked!” she told an Entertainment Tonight correspondent. The idea of women wearing whatever they want – and forget everyone else and their opinions on fashion propriety – is an extraordinarily contemporary one. Slightly more clothed was Emma Stone, glowing in a buttery satin top and beaded skirt by Louis Vuitton, and looking remarkably at ease in, of all things, a formal crop top.
But no one compared to Teyana Taylor, a woman who made a true movie star turn in “One Battle After Another” and has dressed the part for months. (In fact, she’s dressed the part for years, and often without a stylist.) The black satin fabric of her custom haute couture Schiaparelli gown wound around her body like a hypnotized serpent, and – Lord help us! – a silver rhinestone bijou thong rested in her derriere. To be that revealing without even touching the idea of vulgarity is powerful: Taylor shows us a genuinely new way for a woman to celebrate her own body.
Taylor’s look was strange and compelling, balanced perfectly between the poles of “good taste” and outrageous excess. It may be, at last, an accurate picture of what a movie star should look like today.
The-CNN-Wire
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