The Oscars red carpet was once referred to as fashion Christmas but following this year’s event with Demi Moore poured into a fitted silver gown, Timothee Chalamet in butter yellow leather jeans and Zoe Saldaña in a triple pouffe Saint Laurent dress, it’s become Halloween. All tricks and no real treats. The blame can be shared between luxury labels, dictating the outfit choices of actors and actresses on their payroll and stylists eager to court favour at Chanel, Givenchy and Dior.
The main culprit, however, is Jodie Foster. The Oscars: a parade for haute couture fashion rather than stars’ personal style. Credit: Sydney Morning Herald Along with delivering two memorable Oscar performances in The Accused and Silence of the Lambs , Foster – with some help from Giorgio Armani – changed the way stars approached red carpet dressing.
When Foster collected her first Oscar in 1989, she looked like she could have been on her way to the prom, in a periwinkle dress brought off the rack in Milan. The dress wasn’t chic, on trend, or Cher-level shocking. Foster’s underwhelming approach represented a time when what actors wore offered insights into their personalities off-screen.
One look at Foster’s dress and it was immediately obvious that the former child star of Freaky Friday and Taxi Driver had very little interest in fashion. Jodie Foster’s infamous periwinkle blue dress at the 1989 Oscars. Credit: Getty Images Eight years earlier, Sissy Spacek picked up her statue.