But part of the trend is probably also connected to the mood of the moment and the promise (and fears) of the incoming presidential administration, with its bombastic, celluloid reverence for the days of yore when America — and Hollywood — ruled the world and men wore ties and women wore pointy bras and (yes) gloves. Well, it’s happening politically. Why not sartorially? Besides, when you aren’t sure what’s coming, it’s safest to retreat to the surety of the past, especially when bathed in the soft-focus glow of the dream machine.
The problem is, while these women and men all looked plenty glamorous, with many of them making assorted best-dressed lists, they didn’t look modern. They didn’t even look as if they were having all that much fun with fashion. Nothing about these styles challenged established norms of dress, or created new ones.
Maybe the red carpet isn’t the place for that. Maybe that’s the job of the runway. But given the increasingly interdependent relationship between fashion and film (embodied this time around by Saint Laurent, which not only produced “Emilia Pérez,” but also dressed the stars Zoe Saldaña and Karla Sofía Gascón), that seems more and more like a false dichotomy. Part of the job of the red carpet is to translate the interesting parts of the runway for semi-real life.
Save for a few outlier experimentalists — Ayo Edebiri, who seemed delighted to find herself in a Loewe trouser suit with extra-long gold feather tie; Ali Wong in shredded red Balenciaga with her hair down and her signature dark-frame glasses; Jeremy Strong in a jade-green Loro Piana suit with matching bucket hat and glasses that made him look like a leprechaun tycoon — that didn’t happen.
