For 86 years the Academy Awards show is where the most talented actors in Hollywood vie for a gold Oscar statuette, but it’s on the red carpet where actresses vie for Best Dressed. That doesn’t mean they achieve Best Dressed and instead end up on the Worst Dressed list.
There’s a sense of spectacle about the Academy Awards red carpet where actresses dress up like royalty in gowns; it’s the prom for celebrities. They use their star power to elevate their image as well as the image of the designer; often actresses become style stars on the red carpet—like Lupita Nyong’o—and might snag a Vogue cover in the process.
The Worst Dressed list is subjective, and the people who end up on the list may not deserve it, but part of the fun is picking out why their gowns are fashion don’ts. Watching the Academy Awards red carpet is getting to play fashion critic whether you build the stars up or take them down a peg.
Before you sit down like you’re seat side at a runway show to critique the best in Hollywood, here is the top Worst Dressed women at last year’s Academy Awards.
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Charlize Theron’s black Dior gown has invisible straps, clings to her body and fish tails 1940s style, but the invisible straps are off-putting ruining the fluidity of the gown. There’s also a vampy witch quality to the gown that reads as cartoonish.
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Anna Kendrick’s J Mendel dress looks childish because it does too much throwing everything against the wall. All the possibilities are there: the off the shoulder that’s thwarted by the illusion chiffon. It would have been cleaned up if the see-through midriff embroidered with red floral had been filled in with black that would have made for a consistent look.
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Bette Midler’s low-cut red floral gown by Reem Acra is flamboyant, which is a perfect fit for Midler, but not for the Oscars. It’s too vampy: body-hugging and shows off cleavage in a bright red. Her blond bob is very Marilyn, but at the same time it’s very Ethel Mertz.
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Sarah Paulson’s nude beaded Elie Saab gown with gold accents is so matronly with those long sleeves and that dowdy Ramona Quimby hairstyle left over from American Horror Story: Freakshow. Let’s just say it looks she found the gown in her great-grandmother’s attic.
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Sally Hawkins’ white gown with gold embroidery is too old, as in Victorian old. With slightly pointed shoulders and cuffs that go almost to her knuckles, it reminds me of the old wedding dress Geena Davis wears at the end of Beetlejuice, when she starts wasting away and levitating.
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Jennifer Garner wears a 1920s-inspired Oscar de la Renta gray fringe gown. It might have worked if she had ditched the long tresses for a short flapper-style bob; that would add some drama, as would some ruby red lipstick.
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Julia Roberts wears a Givenchy black column dress of Spanish lace that is very gothic. Throw in a black blazer and she’d be ready to attend a funeral. It might have been saved if she had tussled her hair or did without the peplum.
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Angelina Jolie’s silver dress by Elie Saab hides her skinniness and instead makes her look as shapely as a potato sack. It’s the antithesis of her slit dress that became a viral sensation at the 2012 Oscars.
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Liza Minelli’s cobalt blue Halston pantsuit with a draping off-one-shoulder blouse is good, but the matching pants with black orthopedic-type shoes are an old lady stereotype. It would have been better if Liza had paired the blouse with a black pencil skirt, black stockings and black heels for a sleek 1980s look.
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Whoopi Goldberg’s in one of those roomy white shirts (that Fabio used to wear) stuffed into a black strapless dress; the final strike is when she adds black and white striped stockings and ruby red heels. I get it; it’s her tribute to the Wicked Witch of the East who was killed by Dorothy’s house.