The Oscars Looks Worth Talking About

​Demi Moore

Demi Moore has been the toast of Tinseltown this awards circuit, a much deserved victory lap after a career spent fighting and succumbing to the extreme pressures placed on her by Hollywood. It’s an interesting dynamic. The Academy celebrates her for the landmark performance in The Substance, a film that purports to challenge beauty standards and ageism. The Academy also represents the very system the film takes aim at.

Adding to the mix is her breakthrough styling on The Substance press cycle and ensuing campaign trail, hand-in-hand with stylist Brad Goreski. They made our list of outfits worth talking about at the Golden Globes, and are back again with custom Giorgio Armani Privé. The Swarovski crystals are expected of the house, and they're used to maximal effect here. The bust is totally spectacular, as is the nipped waist and hip draping. The effect might have run its course on the runway, but Demi Moore is just getting started (again). Bravo!

Cynthia Erivo

My whole house of friends gasped when we saw her, gasped again when they cut back, and gasped again and again every time she popped up in the background of various actor interviews. My feelings about Louis Vuitton are perpetually evolving, and today, I’ve never been happier to see a custom design grace the Oscars step-and-repeat.

Green, of course, is a nod to her Wicked starring role as Elphaba. By the end of a similarly exhaustive Barbie press cycle, I was burnt out on pink and Chanel and teeny tiny little dresses, but Cynthia (and Ariana) have yet to turn my nose up. The dramatic velvet bow being structured to work like sleeves is sensational, as is the evocative high collar and her signature nail set. I’ll be interested to see if the visual motif continues a second year!

Fernanda Torres

Fernanda Torres’ nomination is historic in more ways than just being the second Brazilian actress to be nominated. She is also the daughter of the first Brazilian actress nominated, the much lauded Fernanda Montenegra. And what an awards campaign its been to watch in the shadow of that legacy, what with all the kerfuffle around Karla Sofia Gascon and Brazilian stan Twitter and this fabulous Chanel dress.

On the topic of the dress, it’s one of my standouts from the night. Simple, effective, and totally exquisite in its construction. The skill on display here is the very best of Chanel’s ateliers, who purportedly spent 450 hours constructing it from mesh and guipure and black chiffon. The visible mesh is perhaps my favorite part, because the wide spacing gives it an interesting effect not common to similar dresses that lean more towards illusion lace or simple matte meshes. The feathers are also a masterful bit of contrast, as there’s an alternate version of this ruined by plain black feathers.

Daniel Roseberry, you have completely outdone yourself. Everything about this is quite literally divine. She looks like she’s come down from heaven to deliver judgement, foretell of certain doom, or tell some lady in Nowheresville she’s been granted the good fortune to carry the Messiah to term via immaculate conception. The Messiah is also a sign of certain doom, but I’m getting sidetracked here. Like much of Schiaparelli’s red carpet designs of late, there’s an interplay here between softness and severity

Colman Domingo

Valentino rocked the menswear category at the Oscars this year, evidenced by Colman Domingo’s hot red suit, and later, Omar Apollo’s scarf and birdcage and delicate blush. I’m a huge fan of these lapels, as with the pin and contrasting pants. We’ve grown so accustomed to monochromatic Gucci suits, I almost forgot there’s a world where tuxedos can play with color like this! As with Apollo’s outfitr, there’s another detail I’ve raved about all night: the scarf! While Apollo used it as a tie, the belting here gives it a robe effect that’s really superb.

Whoopi Goldberg

Christian Siriano is such a divisive red carpet subject these days! For all the issues I’ve taken in recent years with his over-reliance on the ball gown fit, he knocked Whoopi’s dress out of the metaphorical park he’s been bunting balls in forever. The wet effect is sublime, and she’s probably never looked better in her whole life. We’ve also seen quite a bit of this sleeve tonight, but here, it just makes me want to watch more Star Trek. I love it! I simply love it.

Mikey Madison

This Dior gown is extremely yesteryear and represents the ingénue angle her styling team has taken this awards circuit. She’s the beautiful new thing on the block! She’s fabulous, young and such a good actress! Look how soft and delicate and feminine the clothes can be! It’s a playbook Hollywood knows well. Too well, in fact, and I’d like to see them step away from it soon before I have to see one more gown with a pink bustle or train or drape trudge its way down the red carpet in my lifetime.

Desperate glamour is a motif that came up often in my notes from the night, and this represents the concept best. Everything fights to be fabulous, and the end effect is this sweaty, satin-wrapped something or other. I want to like it so bad! I really, really do.

Lisa

We’ve seen so many iterations of this gown on men and others over the last decade, I almost forgot that women sometimes make tuxedos into dresses. On a fit and feel level, this Mark Gong tuxedo does everything it needs to. She looks like she’s wearing a suit, it fits, and the surprise reveal that there are indeed pants (and she is not in a dress) made me laugh! As for everything else, it’s been in my mind for all the wrong reasons. Maybe it’s that it’s already been done so much by others, maybe it’s that it’s not a dress, maybe it’s that it’s not a well-fitting tuxedo. I can’t stop thinking about it, really! I talked about it for hours at this point. I just wish it was for the right reasons, not wrong ones.

Omar Apollo

Apollo Omar’s stylist for the night, Cosmopolitan’s fashion director Brandon Tan, should walk around for a few days bragging about this. Seriously! I’ve never paid much attention to Omar because he makes music for people who aren’t me. But now I feel like I should? Unlike so many peers, he paired this fabulous Valentino look with an actual birdcage and actual makeup. And this hair? Fabulous doesn’t do it justice!

The conversation around androgyny and femininity in menswear has stagnated in recent years, mostly because Omar’s peers refuse to do things like wear visible makeup on the red carpet. It’s not a necessity, or even a real demand from me, but it’s essential to elevating this look to new heights. I’m also a big fan of the polka dots and scarf-as-tie. Really, I’m a fan of everything! Bravo, bravo, bravo.

Alba Rohrwacher

Valentino again with the big swings! Rohrwacher showed out tonight in Valentino’s latest couture collection, which is just the best thing I missed coming down the carpet, hence its placement so late in our roundup. I caught it during the segment about cinematography, then rushed to my computer to make things right.

The flat velvet bust being pulled down into that tiered, delicate and utterly commanding skirt? The pop of white in the sleeves? The harlequin ruffles? The asymmetrical neckline? Outstanding!

Michelle Yeoh

This Balenciaga number is certainly a Balenciaga number. Look how big it is! And how blue! The thing Balenciaga does best is get eyeballs on their clothes, and from just about every camera on the carpet, all eyes were fixed squarely on this dress. While the silhouette is about as classic as they come, wow! Look how blue it is!

Anok Yai

I haven’t given much thought to custom Marni, as is the case with probably everyone reading this. Marni! And it’s custom! Who knew, really. Jokes aside, I love the feathered boa and the cunty little hair and the choker and the fit, despite the steaming issues I wish they’d ironed out prior to getting her in front of cameras. There’s an almost desperate glamour to the whole thing that really entranced me. I just love a black feather boa, kill me!

Photos via Getty Images