Tania Sinel: Oscar Dresses - Winners & Losers

A few thoughts on the 90th Anniversary of the Oscars!

There were several trends in the dresses at Oscars – the blush, pale pastel feminine dresses are still in. But, so were bright colors. That being said – so was bright white and pink. In other words – everything was on trend last night – except black. After everyone wore black to the Golden Globes, hardly anyone wore it to the Oscars.

All in all, the dresses weren’t that inspiring this year. I only gasped one or two or three times. And one gasp was reserved for Timothee Chalamet – the young star of “Call My By Your Name.” If I was only 18 again –

Who am I kidding?

Sadly, even when I was at my best at 18 (?) Timothee would have never looked even once at me!

THE WHITES:

Timothee aka Elio in “Call Me By Your Name.” Tim wore trendy white hot for the evening. He’s such a cutie and was definitely the Best Dressed Man Under Twenty-Five winner!! Even if he was worried about a flash flood at the Oscars.

Mary J Blige looked beautiful – she was also nominated for two Oscars! Remember when she was rapper – now she is this gorgeous, sophisticated glamorous woman. Loved her hair, too. Her makeup – her lips and eyes are perfect for the dress.

Camila Alves was dressed more as a bride than the wife of an actor - Matthew McConaughey. White with netting means only one thing – getting married. This was not a great look for Camila, I hate to say. Thank GOD she doesn’t read this blog. Wait, Matthew just called me and he’s FURIOUS about what I said!!!!!!!!!!

Laura Dern looked her prettiest ever – in Calvin Klein. The simple dress was perfect for her beautiful thin frame, and the one detail on the shoulder was genius. Her hair and jewelry were perfect. LOVE!!!

Jane Fonda said she styled herself – if true, whoa. She has a new career. Dress by Balmain. Love the earrings and the hair!! She is incredibly pretty for her age, hell for ANY age! But, she doesn’t really look very nice – does she?

But – the winner in WHITE was Margot Robbie. She looked gorgeous in her Chanel dress. It was sexy, chic, and elegant. I LOVED that she didn’t ruin the line of the dress with a necklace. Her hair was perfect with just a hint of a wave that accented her gorgeous eyes. Makeup was perfect And notice how pretty her coloring was in WHITE. That’s something I want to talk about today – wearing a color that looks good on you.

In interior design – when I would choose a color scheme (usually) for a woman – I would try to choose a color scheme that the homeowner would look good living in.

Wearing clothes is the same principle. Margot and Jane Fonda both look good in white – their hair color is well matched to the white. Mary J Blige also looks good in white – and notice her hair color! Again, Blige’s hair awakens the color or vice versa. Laura Dern would have looked just a bit better if her hair had some blonder highlights.

But – notice Camila. Maybe she didn’t looked as pretty as she is because of the bridal dress – or maybe it is her coloring and her necklace – together, they don’t look that good or flattering in the bright white. It’s not her dark hair color, because look how good Timothee looks in bright white – and he too has black hair.

Word of warning – always judge a outfit by how the color looks on you, with your skin coloring, your hair coloring, your makeup.

A winner this year: Margo looked beautiful in her bright white and her mother look so pretty and age appropriate in her colorful dress.

PASTEL AND BLUSH LOOKS:

Elisabeth Moss was blushed in Christian Dior. She also wore the trend of the Golden Globes which wasn’t nearly as trendy at the Oscars – a belt. She looked beautiful and feminine. Again, her coloring and hair worked perfectly with this blush pink dress. Again – no necklace was the right choice. And – isn’t this flattering for not a rail thin figure?

Mira Sorvino looks beautiful in her long fancy blush dress – fitting for her comeback after Harvey Weinstein ended her career, basically blacklisting her years ago. It was a perfect dress for her first Oscars in a long time.

Emily Gordon’s pastel/blush dress had more of a tan undertone. The belt was black. But notice how pretty she looks – her hair is a match for the color of the dress. Very very nice.

Allison Williams in Armani – her dress is gorgeous. But why does she look washed out in her dress while Elisabeth Moss glows? Her hair and skin tone just don’t look great in this particular blush color.

It’s not Allison’s dark hair – because the best dressed winner in blush is Gina Rodriguez in Zuhair Murad. Her blush fabric had a hint of brown – giving it a warmer tone – perhaps this is why Gina looked radiant in her blush dress, while Allison looked washed out.

Remember, when buying an expensive dress for a wedding or the Red Carpet – always think of the fabric, your skin tone and your hair color when making the final decision.

PINKS:

Besides the pale blush – there were true pinks this year. Viola Davis wore a deep, true pink by Michael Kors. I like her purse and hair – but the dress is too bubblegum pink for me.

This one really killed me. Soarse Roonin never really looks great in her fancy Red Carpet dresses. I think the problem is her stylist. She needs a new one. The proof of this was her Calvin Klein Oscar dress. It was a total disaster. It’s terrible. It doesn’t even fit! How could her stylist ever let her wear this???? Why? In the right dress, Soarse would be stunning. This dress was just falling off her!!! Notice how far down the dress is from her armpits.

Her stylist does better with other stars, but not with Soarse.

Her dress looked prettier from the back, she should have just sat in her chair backwards all night. Or – she could have turned the dress around. I do love her new short blunt hair cut and her shoes are very pretty.

Danai Gurira shows Soarse how she should have worn her pink dress. The same neckline – but Danai wears it so, so much better. Notice how close the dress lays to her armpits – now notice on Soarse, the dress is about 5 inches from her armpit, giving the illusion that is falling down, but it’s not really an illusion – it was falling down.

Laurie Metcalf wore a true pink dress that had a shimmer to it. Again – no necklace looked good with this dress. Her dark hair looks pretty against the light pink color – Laurie looked beautiful, I thought. Christian Siriano designed her dress which is a shocker. Most of his dresses are not nearly this good, but he did a great job for Laurie.

THE METALLICS:

Molly Sims wore this metallic silver dress. Very pretty but too much cleavage. NOTE: If you are going to have an open cleavage like this – be sure your breasts are perfect.

Beanie Feldstein played a smart nerd in Lady Bird – but I barely recognized her here. She looked so pretty at the Oscars. BTW – Lady Bird is an especially good movie if you have a daughter.

Not everyone has to wear a tight dress, but Sally Hawkes dress by Armani looked like a fancy paper bag. And those shoulder pads.

PLUS I am still irate that The Shape of Water won Best Picture over Call Me By Your Name!!!

I swore that if The Shape of Water won, I would never watch another Oscars. So, this is my last one.

Just a warning.

I can never do another Best Dressed At The Oscars now that the Fish Monster movie won. I’ll just do the Golden Globes or The Emmys from now on.

Lupita Nyongo was in metallic gold. Everyone loved her outfit, but to me it looked like she was a winner in the Miss America contest with that sash. Not a favorite. But I did love her hair.

Zoey Deutch in Elie Saab dress was pretty – but in certain light, her coloring clashed with the silver metallic. I kept thinking if the dress had a bronze tone to it – she would have been a knockout.

Actually, this dress should be in the “Blush” category, not metallic – but it’s too late to change it now. On TV it looked like a metallic to me.

In 1961 Rita Moreno won her Best Supporting Oscar for West Side Story. She kept her dress all these years….and

wore it again last night. But it would have looked better without the headband, the necklace, the bracelets, and the earrings. I would have made a skin tight bolero to cover my upper arms, but that’s me. The dress needed a little fitting. She’s so adorable and it was a cute idea for sentimental reasons, but I guess I’m not sentimental.

If everyone was sentimental – we would see this again:

on a 75 year old woman!! OY!!

This is the best dress I ever saw Sandra Bullock wear on the Red Carpet – Louis Vuitton, no wonder! But as good as she looked, I almost thought she was wearing the same dress as another star. Sandra even joked about it on stage.

Sandra’s twin was Gal Gadot. I thought they wore the same designer and I could NOT believe the designer would allow that! But Gal’s dress was by Givency and up close, they didn’t look the same. Gadot was one of my Best Dressed last night. Total Perfection. The black and silver looked wonderful on her. That fringe!! Those shoes!!! Her hair was perfect.

As beautiful as Gal’s dress was, her jewelry by Tiffany was a scene stealer. I couldn’t figure out if it was vintage or new. It was stunning. Her stylist Elizabeth Stewart showed perfect restraint by not putting bracelets on her. The necklace, by the way, was designed for Gal by Tiffany’s special Blue Book Collection – their one of a kind custom division.

Another runner up Best Dressed was Jennifer Lawrence. She consistently looks great on Red Carpets because she has a contract with Dior. The actresses with the contracts usually always look the best. This dress was perfection. Her hair, her makeup, the minimal jewelry. To die for!! I just love her.

THE WORST DRESSED – THE GIRLS WHO LOOKED LIKE THEY WORKED IN SAN FRANCISCO DURING THE GOLD RUSH YEARS:

Lindsey Vonn in Christian Siriano. What else would you expect from him? And as if that dress wasn’t glitzy enough – she added that necklace too!

Renee Bargh. What IS this?! It didn’t even fit right – notice how it was pulling at the crotch area.

I always remember the late Joan Rivers. Her biggest complaint was that Red Carpet dresses never fit properly. She would see them up close and would rant and rant about how poorly tailored their dresses were. This is an example of that.

Whoopi. Guess who? Yep. Christian Siriano again.

Why would anyone hire him? See my Golden Globes recap – where he dressed half the actresses there to see more of his creations.

Maybe on someone else this would have looked better. Emily Blunt in baby blue. Did she just have a boy? Emily did look prettier on the screen. But yikes!!!! No!!!

Salma Hayek. Her dress did not photograph well at all. The sequins were mostly matte and they made the dress look blurry in photos. And Elisabeth my daughter hated this. But I liked the dress itself. The color was wrong for Salma - she is on the Worst Dressed – but on someone else….taller, lithe, with no jewelry, slicked back hair – it might have been a better look.

THE DARK FABRICS:

There weren’t that many dark dresses, but the two I noticed were both Worst Dressed:

Zendaya. I seriously checked to see if this was a Christian Siriano, but it’s not. That sleeve! Looks like her arm is in a sling and she’s trying to disguise it. Terrible. I did like her jewelry and hair.

Taraji Henson. Too much going on here. Too much skin. Her hair and makeup look great, but not the dress.

Diane Warren – she wore a square box on her back that was sewn to her sleeves. Seriously. Look at it. WHAT IS THAT?!?!?

Wait. I know! On her back was an advertisement for “Cigarettes 2 Cents a Box.”

It’s actually by YSL. OK, what do you expect from someone named St. Vincent? It’s not her real name tho. Sort of like Lady Bird. Those shoes. Those sleeves. The point between her crotch. LOL. Seriously this is the worst of the night. The hat is cute and her hair and make up are cute. She’s a cute girl, but give me a break! It’s the Oscars!!!

THE BRIGHTS:

There were a lot of primary bright dresses, like yellow – Eiza Gonzales. The orange lipstick looks great with yellow – but coral and orange based lipstick makes your teeth look yellow too!!! Maybe that’s why she kept her lips shut?

Greta Gerwig looked really pretty in this dress, considering what she wore to her last award show. She’s adorable and I wished Lady Bird would have won over The Sexy Sea Monster!!!

Lady Bird even co-stars cutie Timothee Chalamet! LOL. Nope, Timothee – there’s still no rain.

Look how adorable Greta’s hair looked from the side. Cutest hair cut of the night!

Another primary color was red – here on Christine Lahti who has one of the best bodies in Hollywood. Don’t care for the shoes, but the dress was made for her thin, tall, lithe build. Can’t stand the purse either. Hmmm. Maybe I should just erase her?

We all know she look fabulous. Think The Devil Wears Prada. Fab-u-lous.

Remember?

The Devil Wears Prada

I loved what Maya Rudolph wore. I know it’s weird and looks like something the Devil might wear if he was the pope instead of Prada – but I just liked it. I thought she looked good and she was funny on stage. Win.

Allison Janney looked good – she’s another one with a great body for Red Carpet clothes – tall, thin, small chested – everything I am the complete opposite of. Hmm.

So that’s what my problem with clothes is?????

OK – Allison’s dress looked very nice on her, I liked her purse and hair. But her stylist should have left the necklace and earrings off. I just kept staring at them, not looking at Allison – they were a distraction in a bad way. That’s why you hire stylists – but only GOOD stylists.

Like I know what I’m talking about.

The Blues. Jennifer Garner. I really hated this dress. It reminds me of a Mother Of the Bride from the 90s. Or maybe something Joan Collins would have worn on Dynasty. So matronly. Not a good look for a young mother now trying to hang onto her career by her fingernails. Versace.

Not bright blue, but the periwinkle blue looks lovely on Helen Mirren. But please, lose the black shoes. Her jewelry looks perfect – it dresses up the plain outfit. And her hair! Fabulous!!!! Another Best Hair of the night. She looked great – what an inspiration!

OK – green is not a primary color, but put blue and yellow together and it’s close enough.

Wendi McLendon Covey was one of a very few wearing the oh so trendy green – and she looked good in the color. It went perfectly with her skin tone and hair. She looked very pretty –and her cleavage looked even younger than she is. My only complaint (of which I seem to have a lot!) – her lip needed to be darker.

Another bright, sort of primary color – Ashley Judd and Jennifer Garner should have their kids marry each other so they can both wear their Mother of the Bride dresses to the wedding.

Like I said, it wasn’t a great night for fashion.

I didn’t get that WOW feeling too much. But here they were:

Runners Up for Best Dressed – these made me look up and take notice: