Oscar look and politics, all the manifest dresses on the red carpet

For 96 years, the Academy Awards have celebrated Hollywood and attempted to keep their distance from politics. Systematically failing. What in the intentions of the Hollywood majors should only be a cinema festival for cinema ends up welcoming various degrees of protest and dissent. And so, on the stage of the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, at least since the 1970s, social, civil and environmental battles have been carried out: from the war in Vietnam to the fight against AIDS, from the #MeToo movement to support for Ukraine, from equality gender to sustainability.

In some cases, such as after the attack on the Twin Towers in 2001 or again during the pandemic in 2021, the format of the event has adapted to current events, measuring itself with a sobriety more in keeping with the times and giving up its grandeur. Much more often, however, it was the stars who gave voice to the protest: with their award acceptance speeches or by wearing bows and pins linked to social causes, but also in a more subtle and creative way, through fashion, with capable outfits to send powerful political messages.

Speeches, pins and colored bows

Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Marlon Brando are among the most famous examples of protest in the history of the Oscars. One sentence was enough for the former to condemn the war in Vietnam in 1972: “There would be a lot to say, but I’ll just thank you, gentlemen of the Academy.” The second, in 1978, he took the stage alongside the Palestinians, to whom he had dedicated a documentary. The third, in 1973, decided not to show up at the event and refused the award for best actor for The Godfather the actress and activist of Apache origins Sacheen Littlefeather. Brando thus intended to bring the public’s attention to the incorrect ways in which Hollywood had portrayed Native Americans in films.

Over the years, there have also been more discreet forms of dissent, protests that have the small size and symbolic strength of “ribbons”, the colored bows pinned on dresses and jackets. The red ones appear in the nineties, as a sign of support for AIDS sufferers. In 1992 Liz Taylor and Paul Newman displayed them on their tailored outfits. In ’93 Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins appeared on the red carpet with red bows, followed in 1994 by Tom Hanks, awarded for his portrayal of an AIDS patient in Philadelphia. In 2022, the rosettes appear again. They are blue and yellow like the Ukrainian flag, a few days after the start of the war. While Mila Kunis, born in Chernivtsi, in western Ukraine, asks for a minute of silence for her country and organizes a fundraiser, many decide to pose with blue ribbons. Among them, also Paolo Sorrentino with Luisa Ranieri and Filippo Scotti, director and protagonists of It was the hand of Godnominated for best foreign film.

A variation on the bow theme are the small metal pins in favor of social causes. For example, the pins with the Planned Parenthood logo (the American organization that fights in favor of abortion legislation and sexual education) that Emma Stone and Dakota Johnson did not hesitate to wear in 2017 to support the right to abortion.

On the subject of civil rights, many other issues have found their place on the Academy stage in the last decade. But it was perhaps equal opportunities, sustainability and the fight against racism that inspired the stars to use the most creative forms of protest, especially in terms of looks. We have analyzed three recent “fighting” outfits, which speak clearly through golden embroidery, traditional costumes and small, large sacrifices.

Joaquin Phoenix, a season with the (same) tuxedo

For the entire 2020 awards season, including the Oscars, Joaquin Phoenix has kept one promise: always wear the same black tuxedo with a single button, with grosgrain trimmed lapels and bow tie, made for him by Stella McCartney. Objective: to encourage more vision sustainable fashion. Phoenix, an environmental and animal rights activist, chose the British designer who no longer uses fur, leather and feathers, also because she is committed to the research and use of sustainable fibres, such as organic cotton, recycled cashmere and nylon, wool coming from farms that pay attention to animal welfare and the viscose from certified forests.

Some critics have downplayed Phoenix’s gesture which, however, has the merit of having established a precedent in the culture of red carpet fashion, and moreover in the year of Joker’s success. The message is simple: “one outfit is enough”. And if that’s not enough, let it at least be recycled. As in the case of Margot Robbie who that same year arrived in a vintage Chanel Couture dress designed by Karl Lagerfeld, found by her stylist, Kate Young, in the maison’s archives. And like the usual, inimitable Jane Fonda: at the Oscars with a dress by Elie Saab from the FW 2014 Alta Moda collection, already worn on the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival.

Natalie Portman’s manifesto dress

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Let’s stay in 2020. As in many previous editions of the Oscars, that year too there is no woman among the candidates for best director. Natalie Portman then chooses a very elegant way to point it out, and to protest in favor of discriminated against female directors. In agreement with Maria Grazia Chiuri, who created it, she wears a long Dior Couture cape in black satin with contrasting gold embroidery on the edge, the names of all the film makers ignored by the Academy. Her look is unique, a masterpiece of high fashion, savoir faire and feminist denunciation. Two years earlier, the actress had presented the award for best director by noting in her speech, which went viral, the disconcerting absence of female candidates: “And here are the candidates, all male…”. In 2020, as the pattern repeats, it pays homage to the excluded – Greta Gerwig (Little Women), Lulu Wang (The Farewell), Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers) and Melina Matsoukas – with the most commented and viral outfit of the evening. Under the embroidered cape, Portman wore a dress from the Dior Couture SS 2020 collection made of sheer tulle with gold embroidery, layered over a black bodysuit with a sweetheart neckline. A decidedly elegant way of asserting equality even behind the camera.

Respect for traditions

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From equal opportunities to respect for one’s origins. In the sign of diversity and celebration of world cultures, in 2018 the American actress and presenter Tiffany Haddish walked the red carpet wearing a traditional Eritrean princess dress, complete with matching golden “headpiece”. He wanted to honor his roots in this way and remember his father, who died that same year. The Girls Trip star chose a “zuria,” an embroidered dress worn by women in Eritrea and Ethiopia, topped with a kaba, a cloak traditionally worn by grooms at weddings. No concessions to the fashion system, no profitable agreements with the fashion houses (at least for once): Haddish wanted to weave her vision of the world and her personal history into her look, enhancing African craftsmanship and remembering her father . “I’m wearing an authentic Eritrean princess dress and I’m very proud of it.”