How Jenny Beavan won the Oscars
Thursday, March 3, 2016 at 12:00PM 
Tim here. I watched the Oscars this year completely without the aid of social media of any sort – absolutely worth doing, if you haven't recently. It lets you enjoy the ceremony for the ceremony.
What that means is that I didn't realize for two whole days that there was quite a furor over my very favorite visual from the whole night, Jenny Beavan's outstanding outfit that she wore on the way to collect her Best Costume Design award for Mad Max: Fury Road. It turns out that there were quite a few people who did not share my view that it was the night's clear highlight. Several of them were sitting right inside the Kodak Theater with her, in fact, rather visibly failing to be delighted by her attire. That's especially true of an epically grumpy Alejandro González Iñárritu. He and several other conspicuous non-clappers were the subject of a Vine that went viral on the spot.
The internet has obligingly and appropriately pushed back, including a magnificent Paddy Considine tweet that I dare not show here on account of the very curt language Considine fired off in Beavan's defense, but it's very much worth checking out.
I did not come to rehash all of that, but to take us back to the outfit itself.
What was buried in the clapping controversy was that Beavan was wearing just about the coolest outfit to have graced the Oscars this decade. It's an instantly classic entry in the annals of "Costume designers just do not give a crap" alongside Milena Canonero's form fitting Victorian men's suit in 2007, and Lizzy Gardiner's 1995 American Express dress (another controversial outfit that many people hate but remains one of the greatest things anyone has ever worn). Just look at it!
All other considerations aside, that is badass. And it's also really on-point. The inherent ruggedness of (fake) leather, the heightened cartoon gaudiness of having a sequined image on the back, the fact that the image is a sort of cult identity marker, the way that her accessories suggest scavenging. She is, in effect, wearing the movie on her body, and taking it up to win the Oscar with her. More importantly, it's a way to put her own personality on display during a moment that should be entirely about here. And there is far more of Beavan the human being in that moment than any stock Hollywood figure wearing stock evening wear – this is a woman whose primary medium of expression is clothing, after all. As she put it backstage:
I don't do frocks and absolutely don't do heels, I have a bad back. I look ridiculous in a beautiful gown… I just like feeling comfortable and as far as I'm concerned I'm really dressed up."
And as far as we're concerned, she won the whole Oscar ceremony.
Reader Comments (30)
Cosign this X1000...and I'm not even a MAD MAX fan. But this (and she) was totally badass.
I love seeing anti-establishment types in settings like this. It makes their whole event seem pretentious and meaningless.
Maybe Iñárritu was just grumpy because the costume design Oscar was awarded to shreds and shirtless bodies. I for sure was.
Alejandro said he knows now to never fold his arms while seated. To me the men look like a row of assholes down the aisle.
Jenny said she does not care about the non-clappers because she herself stopped clapping early in the ceremony.
The coolest person of the night, hands down. Her whole attitude is so refreshing. You can't help wishing to hang out and have a beer with someone like her.
Can someone please make a sequined logo in the image of Jenny Beavan's head so I can wear it on the back of my not-leather jacket? I want to be a badass too.
Definitely one of my favorite moments - it was a category that I had no idea who would win, AND it kicked off the giant Mad Max haul AND, most importantly, Jenny was a badass
Always glad to add to the evidence that AGI is obnoxious!
That AmEx dress is an all-time classic.
I think most people agree with you about this being an iconic outfit - which happens all too rarely at the Oscars since stylists took over. ( loved the amex card dress)
Beavan gave an interview in THR worth checking out:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/mad-max-costume-designer-jenny-872342
"I am British with a slightly rebellious character; I really would look ridiculous in a gown. What I was actually wearing at the Oscars was sort of an homage to Mad Max — a kind of biker outfit.
The [vegan] leather jacket had the Immorten Joe symbol on the back and I was just giving a little wink to Mad Max."
So cool she doesn't even care if they clap, so classy, and so much more fun than most of the room that night.
Internet shaming can get out of hand but I think it was fair play to show AGI being a bit of a poor sport.
My favorite winner of the night. She is a badass. And what range to win for "A Room with a View" and now "Mad Max."
AGI is going the way of Tarantino. As his ego grows, his films plummet in quality.
@Hustler - cosign! Jenny Bevan is my new hero! I can't wait to see what she does next.
Love JB, but isn't this general feeling of solidarity against judgement a bit hypocritical when they are literally hundreds of posts and comments insulting the dress sense of women at any given major event.
Didn't AGI didn't release a statement saying a few seconds later he was clapping or something?
*this* is what caused furor?
Puh-lease. She looked fantastic and was the highlight of the whole ceremony.
And if I didn't find AIG a ponderous windbag already, I certainly do now.
Yeah, that video is kind of specious and not really fair. It seems a lot of those guys are merely being taken aback for the (super brief) moment that we can see them. Who's to say they were actually dismissing her? Also, check out all the ladies in view, most of whom aren't clapping either.
I loved Jenny Beavan and her outfit from the moment the camera was on her - but I must admit that the outrage about the men who are said to refuse clapping for her is one of the most vile outrages I've encountered in the recent past, simply because it is a lie, and a very obvious one to boot: They all did clap for her as soon as she climbed the stage (yes, even Inarritu), as literally anyone who will watch the videos for just a few seconds longer will see. And considering how long her way to the stage was (being not famous, she was seated where not-famous people tend to be seated at the Oscars), I doubt most people would have clapped for her from the moment her name was announced to the moment she reached the microphone.
All this short Vine clip does is demonstrate how easy it is to lie using a short video clip by not even taking it out of context, but merely cutting away a bit too soon.
Let this mark the beginning of Iñárritu's descent into irrelevance.
MrW - I saw the entire clip, and I agree that context is crucial. But I disagree with you.
The walk to the podium takes less than 30 sec. and they are clearly not clapping when Beavan's announced, >>and they thought they were OFF CAMERA
1. OFF CAMERA - no clapping - maybe they were disappointed, lazy, not interested.
But ON CAMERA - clapping -when the camera is facing the audience and JB is climbing the podium -and they know they can be seen - then they clap politely, briefly.
In my book, to not clap when the person is walking BESIDE your seat (for 30 sec.) is lazy or rude or maybe a bit of both. They got caught out and they don't like it. That's being a poor sport.
We totally loved her and her win even before the internet revealed the reactions in the audience. Big thumbs up to Jenny Bevan!
Yeah... to say that all those men were "rather visibly failing to be delighted by her attire" feels like a bit of a stretch at best. Particularly if you watch Tom McCarthy's and Alejandro Inarritu's faces - they legitimately light up once she's passed them and they presumably can see the bedazzled skull on the back of her jacket.
The crowd shots at the Oscars are fun, but people get carried away with projecting meaning onto them. Inarritu wasn't joyously clapping. This is not a mortal sin. Applause would have been the arguably more polite action to take, but one of his colleagues from his film just lost - it's ok for him to be disappointed (which we can assume he was, but don't know for sure!). It's a bad visual, but not one worth burning the entire house down for. It's just crazy to see a short clip from this show and be able to accurately interpret motivation and interiority from it. We can build Beavan up without having to push others down.
Iñárritu DID clap as Jenny Beavan ascended to collect her award. It does a disservice to both artists when these stories are treated in such a sensationalist way just . Some people are desperately trying to find a way to hate Iñárritu because they hated The Revenant or Birdman and that is just unfair.
Yeah, it's pretty easy to hate on Iñarittu, but the man can't help his RBF makes him look like Mephistopheles from a cheap rendition of Faust.
I don't understand why people have to clap. Is that being rude? Maybe they just don't want to. I don't get the outrage.
Cleary Iñárritu is smiling, once he absorbs and takes in all of her outfit. My late grandmother in Texas would have loved Cate's dress ... as a rubber shower curtain.
Today I'm feeling that the internet is becoming a really boring place. A fresh outrage every minute of the day, then outrage at the outrage, then outrage at the outrage at the outrage. It's like so much of the internet crystallises into just two moods - attack and defence. And it's constant. Meanwhile, out in 'the rest of the world', there is an infinite variety of nuanced self-expression.
The Film Experience is my favourite film site. And comments on here are, almost without exception, friendly and film-loving (and Oscars-loving). But please caution against expending too much energy on whether Person A was bad to Person B. It can't be feeding the soul very well. You guys and gals are the good ones. Keep it that way!
with this and the stephen fry bafta comment, jenny beaven is queen of the awards season out[fit]rage. lift your game, alicia vikander
Love her- and anyone who made that over rated twit Inirratu cringe should take home an Oscar every year!
I don't like AGI but he DID clap while she was climbing the stairs. Also im sure Jenny Beaven is badass enough to realize she doesn't need the applause from an audience when shes received the ultimate validation from the Academy.
I do believe for the matter that those faces the men made were mostly cause she was wearing something shockingly un-Oscar-ish and for them to see someone don't give a fuck so boldly was quite amusing.
I loved Beavan's outfit..
And she reminded me of Ulla-Britt Soderlund, and how she was dressed when she collected the Oscar for the Best Costumes for "Barry Lyndon", back in 1976.
(here's the youtube clip of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FesI0_K_JLk )
She may not have been wearing a designer gown, but she was by far one of the best dressed of the night.
Love this, Tim.