Enough of this polished facade, bring back real Oscars fashion

The Oscars red carpet was once referred to as fashion Christmas but following this year’s event with Demi Moore poured into a fitted silver gown, Timothee Chalamet in butter yellow leather jeans and Zoe Saldaña in a triple pouffe Saint Laurent dress, it’s become Halloween. All tricks and no real treats.

The blame can be shared between luxury labels, dictating the outfit choices of actors and actresses on their payroll and stylists eager to court favour at Chanel, Givenchy and Dior. The main culprit, however, is Jodie Foster.

The Oscars: a parade for haute couture fashion rather than stars’ personal style.Credit: Sydney Morning Herald

Along with delivering two memorable Oscar performances in The Accused and Silence of the Lambs, Foster – with some help from Giorgio Armani – changed the way stars approached red carpet dressing.

When Foster collected her first Oscar in 1989, she looked like she could have been on her way to the prom, in a periwinkle dress brought off the rack in Milan. The dress wasn’t chic, on trend, or Cher-level shocking.

Foster’s underwhelming approach represented a time when what actors wore offered insights into their personalities off-screen. One look at Foster’s dress and it was immediately obvious that the former child star of Freaky Friday and Taxi Driver had very little interest in fashion.

Jodie Foster’s infamous periwinkle blue dress at the 1989 Oscars.Credit: Getty Images

Eight years earlier, Sissy Spacek picked up her statuette for Coal Miner’s Daughter, in a long-sleeved jumpsuit with a ribbon belt that perfectly captured her down home quirkiness. “We just went out and bought off the rack,” Spacek told Oprah Winfrey. “It was actually less pressure.”

Foster’s periwinkle dress set off a chain of events when spotted by a member of Giorgio Armani’s camp. The Italian designer was making strong inroads in the US market following his success dressing Richard Gere in the 1980 film American Gigolo.

Armani approached Foster to dress her for the Oscars in 1992. When she collected her second trophy, the actress wore a white tuxedo jacket and shimmering pantsuit. “I rescued [her] from the worst-dressed list at the Oscars,” Armani told Grazia.

Foster’s outfit impressed the fashion police, but in giving her a makeover, the Armani team closed the loophole that allowed us a more personal and satisfying look into the actor’s life.

Since the Foster upgrade of 1992, stars have formalised their arrangements with luxury labels, with many working as paid ambassadors or “friends” of brands. It’s why you see Emma Stone in Louis Vuitton at every major red carpet event, Margot Robbie and Margaret Qualley in Chanel, and Jeff Goldblum in Prada.

Emma Stone at this year’s Oscars, forever Vuittoned.Credit: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Demi Moore in Giorgio Armani at the Oscars, having collaborated with the designer throughout the awards season, is nowhere near as exciting as seeing her in bike shorts and a corset top, styled by herself.

Rather than gaining insights into actors’ personal style, we are given a polished facade that feels as authentic as Dakota Johnson’s home tour with Architectural Digest on YouTube.

Since becoming a brand ambassador for Louis Vuitton in 2017, Stone has worn the brand in 2018, 2019, 2024 and again this year. It was streamlined and chic but told us more about designer Nicolas Ghesquiere than the star of Poor Things.

Another problem with the Oscars red carpet is the stiff competition it now faces from other events, with fashion Christmas now coming on the first Monday in May at the Met Gala, the Grammy Awards and, for AFL tragics, the Brownlow Medal.

To be fair, the Brownlow is closer to a public holiday or rostered day off than any major event on the holy fashion calendar. The fancy dress theme of each Met Gala inevitably delivers flights of fancy that would be grounded by the gravitas of the Oscars.

The impact of Bianca Censori’s nearly nude Grammy outfit shows that these rival red carpets now deliver the same satisfying shocks to any vestiges of good taste as Cher’s 1986 Oscars outfit by Bob Mackie.

The Oscars red carpet is now nothing more than a varnished glimpse at the latest ready to wear and haute couture outfits, with stars standing in for generally much taller models.

Few changes are made to the outfits from how they appeared on the runway to reinforce the signature of luxury labels. Heaven help the stylist who mixes their Gucci with their Valentino because next year their client may have to wear Country Road.

Perhaps a logo Country Road sweater, a chino and boat shoes could help roll the Oscars back to 1989 and the voyeuristic thrill of Foster’s prom dress. Someone call Chalamet’s stylist now.

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