Red Carpet: Supporting Actresses & Stray Beauties
Wednesday, February 25, 2015 at 5:13PM Red Carpet Lineup Time as we struggle to wrap up Oscar night! It's time to say goodbye to the Supporting Actress Class of 2014 and it occurs to me that though I know you favored Arquette to a very wide margin in the race, I have no idea who y'all think was best dressed of this annual rotating quintet? So please do vote!
NATHANIEL: In the meantime please welcome back our LA beauties Margaret and Anne Marie to the fashion panel. In the spirit of the times, when red carpet press have been encouraged to #AskHerMore, let's do that. We've never cared "who" people are wearing anyway... just that they're giving us glamour for our favorite International Holiday, Oscar Night. What questions immediately come to mind when you see this lineup?
MARGARET: What I'm desperate to know is, who are these ladies going to work with next? With perhaps the exception of California-law-mandated nominee Meryl Streep, they all have fresh momentum that should give them their pick of projects..
ANNE MARIE: Maybe they can all work in a movie together. They certainly make a great lineup standing next to each other.
NATHANIEL: Actresses are not allowed to work together! They must choose which man they'd like to mother, inspire or longsuffer for.
MARGARET: In my very vivid head-world where I am a massively wealthy movie producer, I would definitely finance the heck out of some Empire-style movie about which ambitious and capable protege of Meryl's should take up the torch of some high-powered business.
NATHANIEL: I think it wisest we keep Laura Dern away from big corporations.
But I'd like to think Patricia Arquette would be up for the job. This is the most old Hollywood glam she's looked all season but it also screams ALL BUSINESS. And Patty was telling it like it is on Oscar night so I'm happy to see the fierce side.
MARGARET: I'd go so far as to say that all five of these nominees pulled off season-best looks on Oscar night. I confess that I was hoping for something rather more kooky from Miss Stone, but she is killing in that Elie Saab and her orange-red lippy is excquisitely paired with it.
ANNE MARIE: I love the back of Emma Stone's dress. I was occasionally terrified she'd pop out of it, but as a bonus she ended up matching her new Lego Oscar!
NATHANIEL: I'm glad you brought that up because I wanted to do a huge post on how brilliant those LEGO Oscars were as both marketing and middle finger and visual takeaway (basically MVP of the night) but as y'all know I'm super sick right now and barely making it through each day's Oscar wrap posts. Soooo in the spirit of needing comfort I just want to say I love love love Keira Knightley's soft romanticism here with its scribbled eccentricities.
MARGARET: A nice sort of conceptual counterpoint for La Dern's chainmail-esque look.
ANNE MARIE: Laura Dern is going to conquer dragons in that dress. And I am here for that.
MARGARET: I'll add that to my eccentric-producer vision board!
NATHANIEL: Game of Oscar Thrones.
ANNE MARIE: In the Game of Oscars, you win, or you take home a $120,000 gift bag.
VIOLAAAA, ScarJo, Lupita, Jes, Daughter Of Melanie
MARGARET: I know what Anne Marie is thinking...
ANNE MARIE & MARGARET: [in unison] VIOLAAAAAAA
NATHANIEL: I run out of things to say about her after joining in the chant. But like what I really want to know is is Lupita secretly an evil genius who is out to make everyone forget about the actual nominees and just think of this as the Annual Lupita Nyong'o Variety Hour(s).
MARGARET: She has really cast a spell upon the viewing public. And that pearl-scupture dress is a major wow.
ANNE MARIE: I'd be lying if I said Lupita wasn't a major draw for me to watch this year. She continues to pull off these amazing dresses that I don't think anyone else could do with half so much panache.
MARGARET: Am I the only one reminded a bit by the pearl ensemble of Josephine Baker?
ANNE MARIE: YES! Campaign for Lupita to play Josephine Baker in 2016. When I finally turn my eye to the rest of the ladies who aren't Lupita or Viola, it's nice to see some ladies bringing a bright palette back to the red carpet. This Oscars largely shied away from color (and after I worked so hard on Rainbow Red Carpet, too).
NATHANIEL: The Best Actress lineup gave a whole new meaning to #OscarsSoWhite but we'll get to them tomorrow.
MARGARET: 2014 MVP Scarlett Johnansson and basically-every-year MVP Jessica Chastain blessed us with some serious jewel tones.
NATHANIEL: These looks are a bit severe in some ways for me - I don't understand the wideness of the two strap look on Jes. ScarJo is terrifying here. She's like 'Tread Carefully!' And yet John Travolta still managed to get too close to her (sigh). I included Dakota Johnson not because I'm a fan but because I love simplicity that still really pops and I think the silver ropey shoulder thing is a the slightest hint of 'tie me up, baby'. Which in turn makes me think Dakota was purposefully slyly reminding everyone that she just headlined a massive hit so they better remember her name.
MARGARET: Smart choice, and she looks great! I'm afraid though that after Sunday night I will never be able to unsee that Dakota and Richard Linklater have the exact same bangs.
ANNE MARIE & NATHANIEL [In unison] Great. Now (we) can't unsee that either.
MARGARET: I didn't want to suffer alone!
Reader Comments (20)
I voted for Emma, but I think Meryl looks the best she has in some time. Is it me or were the fashions kind of off this year? Stars who usually hit the mark (ScarJo, Chastain, Knightley) fell flat.
Laura Dern's dress is awesome because she looks totally bulletproof. I would have to suppress every basic part of me to not be like
"wearing this dress to block shots from all my haters. #wishyouwereme xoxoxo"
and I hope Lupita took a moment to look in the mirror and bask in her own glory. Did anyone else even wear pearls? Probably not since didn't Lupita didn't leave any for the rest of them.
Viola....well, it was nice to see her.
Hi guys in the USA Madonna has just been dragged off stage by her cape at the uk BRITS.
Emma Stone blew me away in a color I normally loathe. Her makeup and hair paired with that Elie Saab dress were just phenomenal.
To be fair to Knightley, she *is* pregnant. To be fair to Johansson, she *just* had a baby. To be fai to Chastain, she is (purportedly) packing on the pounds to play Marilyn Monroe in that Blonde movie. Needless to say, all three have somewhat understandable reasons for being "off" (although I thought each looked pretty great, ScarJo in particular).
God Dern It! Laura looks amazing.
I'd like Knightley's dress way more if it didn't have the words scribbled on it. Otherwise, very nice. And I thought Stone's dress was audacious, in that it was eye-catchingly hideous. I couldn't stop looking at its weird skin-disease pattern. (I just read Charles Burns' Black Hole, which doesn't help.) Dern looked fantastic.
I would have loved Johansson's look without the werid neck thing - loved the hair. And Nyong'o, of course, was perfect.
I kind of like ScarJo's look... The colour, the hair.... Even the weird neck thing :). Lupita is headed toward goddess territory. Emma Stone - MVP of awards season fashion!
Well, I do like to know the designers! My favorite was Margot Robbie in Saint Laurent. I also liked Lupita and Felicity Jones.
The five supporting actresses looked more than fine. I didn't like Emma's dress at first but now I love it.
I'm sorry but Chastain and Violaaa were particularly uninspired.
1. Rosamund
2. Scar-Jo
3. Emma Stone
Off topic: Did anyone notice the Academy changed credits in the Maleficent costume design nomination?
When they anounced the nominations they credit it to Anna B. Sheppard and Jane Clive, but at the cerimony and on their web site it only credited Anna B. Sheppard .
I couldnt find anything on google about this "revoked" nomination
1. Rosamund - first place - she played a psychotic killer and she shows up in deep red. That takes confidence to pull off. I wish Hitchcock were alive to cast her.
2. Lupita - love the slinky pearls, and it may inspire someone to let her play Josephine Baker.
3. Keira - An antique love letter in dress form -who brings us lush romantic better than her?
4. Meryl - I didn't expect this from her and she really looks good.
5. Scarlett - that look says "I liked being an Alien and want to do it again"
They all expressed themselves in very individual ways and that's the fun of fashion.
I don't dislike any of the looks above, these women all looked terrific. May they all receive good scripts as a reward for a long award season.
Rosamund is so winning best dressed Best Actress nominee. Hopefully she'll land a statue to go with it someday.
Sorry! I just realized that this is "supporting & stray beauties" - Let's remove Ros for now, and the amend my top five: Lupita, Keira, Meryl, Scarlett, & Laura (chain mail dress looks fab)
Anne Marie: I really liked the Rainbow Red Carpet entries -thanks for all the effort.
Emma Stone won the awards season as far as the fashion stakes go! Absolutely stunning gown. Loved the colour which reminded me so much of Nicole's Galliano look in the 90s.
My ranking of the Supporting Ladies:
1. Emma
2. La Streep
3. Keira
4. The Face
5. Patty
1. Emma
2. Laura
3. Meryl
4. Patty/Keira
5. Keira/Patty
#1 - Laura Dern
#2 - Emma Stone
#3 - Meryl Streep
#4 - Patricia Arquette
#5 - Keira Knightley
Thought most of the dresses this year were too safe. Loved that Dern took a risk, and I think it paid off. Thought she looked incredible.
when I saw Viola came out to present with that whole outfit, she definitely looked just like a real queen!
Meryl, because I didn't expected that Bosslady look from her. I just LOVE this!
Laura Dern is 2nd, then Emma Stone, then Partricia Arquette and then Keira last, though her dress was quite lovely.
From the non nominees Scarlett is without any competition, but I thought Jessica Chastain looked really great also. I don't get the criticism of her dress at all.
I hadn't realized before how beautiful Viola looks in jewels. Now I want to go out and get all kinds of rare and sparkling gems to adorn her. And her pale dress looked gorgeous on her. It takes an actress who moves well to animate those big constructions.
Laura Dern looked fantastic. I just love that hair.