It was the fashion moment seen—and memed—around the world. Framed by Cannes’ sunlit palms and sailboat masts, there they stood: Timothée Chalamet, Wes Anderson, Tilda Swinton, and Bill Murray, the art-house power squad from the recently released film The French Dispatch. Chalamet looked great in an Elara T-shirt that was graphic and anti-glam. Anderson was a preppy seersucker wearer. Swinton, an exemplary sartorialist, wore a Haider-Ackermann snow cone-blue suit. Murray, who was supposedly a boomer on vacation gave very little of his opinion. Twitter went nuts, labeling the quartet, in order, “tiktok, twitter, instagram, fb.” (Or, to this writer’s satisfaction, “pitch, first draft, final proof, comments section.”)
The snapshot was a sort of catharsis and a culmination: IRL red carpet fashion was back! The scene is, however, a little different. The Cannes quartet gave us a glimpse of a hybridized paradigm in which stylists and celebrities were playing with a wide variety of cues. They ranged from the casual and Zoomified to the most electrifying of chic. With a more open-minded approach to step and repeat style, the risks that celebrities and their stylists took while dressing within the Zoom window limits seemed to have paid off.
Virtual dressing was a hot topic last yea, and it developed almost as fast as the news cycle. There were many stories of people wearing sweatpants and dressing up for digital meetings. However, eventually, a desire to not be in athleisure increased.
For the 2020 Emmy Awards, held virtually, the show’s producers sent a note to nominees with a dress-code prompt: “Come as you are, but make an effort!” That command is actually a pretty good way to contextualize the fresh outlook around the return of in-person, high-profile dressing (even if it’s still touch-and-go; at press time, COVID-19’s Delta variant was spiking).
Asked if the virtual advanced how she approaches the physical, celebrity stylist Elizabeth Stewart, who works with Viola Davis and Amanda Seyfried (and who styled this issue’s Women in Hollywood portfolio), says, “Once we got the hang of it, there was a lot of freedom in choosing looks for virtual red carpets.” Her implication was that all the screen time did, in fact, impact the manner in which in-person fashion is considered in 2021.
Jason Rembert, stylist to Lizzo and Issa Rae and the founder of the label Aliétte, echoes the position: “Virtual red-carpet fashion helped push the envelope. We had to work differently, utilizing photography, lighting, and backdrops to help create those red-carpet looks from our own confined spaces.” From a creative standpoint, he says, “it was beneficial for us all.” Nicola Formichetti, the stylist and creative consultant for Haus of Gaga/Haus Labs, says that those in his profession “had to become more resourceful in order to keep creating, but more importantly, keep inspiring.”
This year’s red-carpet looks feel enlivened by a refreshed, charged-up sense of dynamic liberty—with resultant confidence, ownership, openness, and often boldness—regardless of whether someone is going for the low-key, the high-wattage, or something in between. All this adaptation seems to have empowered wardrobe decision-making with cheerful and optimistic outfits from all labels.
At the 2021 Oscars where only a few people were allowed to attend, Regina King presented a full, butterfly-winged Louis Vuitton princess knockout thanks to her stylists, Wayman bannerman and Micah McDonald. It was the stuff fashion dreams are made of. Formichetti praises Lil Nas X’s Richard Quinn and Andrea Grossi outfits at the BET Awards, which were styled by Hodo Musa, and Rina Sawayama’s turn at the BRIT Awards in frilly Balmain. Also at the BET Awards: Zendaya alighting in Versace—from spring 2003. Law Roach, a renowned architect, is her stylist. It was a version of the same dress Beyoncé sported to perform her song “Crazy in Love” at the same ceremony, also in 2003. All four examples demonstrate the 2020 Emmys directive. These people were true and serving their sartorial beliefs.
“My clients are unapologetically searching for synergy,” says Solange Franklin Reed, who dressed her client Jodie Turner-Smith in vibrant Christopher John Rogers this past summer to promote her Anne Boleyn miniseries. “They’re emboldened to request the brands and, what’s newer, the specific teams that truly make them feel seen. I appreciate that we’re aligned on intentionality.”
As stars return to step and repeat (Zendaya, Balmain in Venice!) Olivia Rodrigo in archive Versace during the VMAs!), so does the go-for-broke attitude they showed off on their virtual equivalents. Bella Hadid, another Cannes star, is a no-brainer. The premiere of Tre PianiThe Schiaparelli Haute Couture black wool crepe deep-U-neck, black wool crepe gown was worn by Daniel Roseberry. On top of it, her necklace—also by Roseberry—depicted lungs with golden, spindly bronchi and rhinestone-tipped alveoli. It was striking and memorable due to the fact that one could extrapolate from the respiratory visual that had greater resonance. When there’s been so much negative health-related news over the past year and a half, Roseberry inverted the gloom and made something beautiful of the body, worn to perfection by Hadid. In that one moment, it was sealed: This era’s red-carpet fashion is proving to be a breath of fresh air.
This article appears on the November 2021 issue ELLE.
Source: elle
