From the vulgar to the protest: the most talked-about outfits in the history of the Oscars

The Oscars ceremony, beyond being an awards ceremony for excellence in cinema, is one of the most important social events of the year. Many sectors are at stake on the red carpet, especially fashion, since in 1994 on the Golden Globes red carpet the comedian Joan Rivers asked for the first time "Who are you wearing?" Far from freedom and aesthetic transgression, all of this is scrupulously guided so as to leave no room for dissonance. And if we have ever succumbed to the spirit of openness that exudes the seventh art, we must not forget that in the United States they still have a long way to go in freedoms and human rights. The result is a red carpet dominated by social privilege, conservatism, lack of diversity and by a machismo that, while it excludes women from nominations outside of the acting categories, condemns them to be the colorful note that promotes the event.

Bent over to the most rancid stereotype of femininity, they see how their bodies are reduced to commercial bait. The classic and boring princely outfits that strict dress codes for actresses recommend have sometimes played tricks on them, as when Jennifer Lawrence fell in 2013 when collecting the statuette due to the difficulty of handling the volume of that Dior. Angelina Jolie in 2012, with an open suit to show off her thigh, exaggerated the resource so much that it generated a wave of memes and her left leg enjoyed its own Twitter account, to compensate for the fact that the right leg had stolen all the limelight.

However, although fashion has been one of the spaces to which the voice of many women has been reduced in the pageant, at key moments they have also used it as a tool to make themselves heard. Gwyneth Paltrow, who in 1999 wore a pink Valentino dress that crowned her America's sweetheart, had to suffer an avalanche of criticism when in 2002 she tried to break that angelic image and the stiffness of the pageant with a gothic-style dress. In 1986 Cher opted for a spectacular Folies Bergère-style dress, to make herself seen after the Academy had not taken her seriously for nominations.

Trousers for women, always a headache at the Oscars, are banned to this day, as if the Academy hadn't realised that we are in the 21st century. Hence the symbolic gesture of actress Julie Christie in 1967, who, contrary to the Oscar establishment, dared to be the first woman to accept the statuette in trousers. Two years later, Barbara Streisand would also accept the Oscar in trousers, which, under the spotlights, made her silhouette transparent. Kristen Stewart in 2022 caused a real shock by defying protocol rules and wearing a tuxedo with very short trousers.

In 2020, Julia Roberts collected the Oscar in a Valentino dress from 2002, which marked a trend towards recycling in line with environmental awareness. Something that would mark future red carpets, like when Reese Witherspoon wore a Dior dress bought in a store in 2006. vintage in Paris or Rita Moreno in 2008, who reused the dress she had already worn to the 1962 Oscar ceremony.

But if anyone deserves the statuette for the most groundbreaking fashion, it is Björk, who in 2001 wore a sheer dress that she let fall on the red carpet, defying the carrinclonerism of the event. As a result, Björk was the victim of harsh mockery that, although she may have slipped off coming and going, did cause Oscar fashion to become much less imaginative, as it did not jeopardize future professional careers or the conservative values that characterize the film industry.