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Marion's Flea Fashion Redux
Awards season wraps up this Sunday night at the 84th Oscars, when 2011’s biggest cinematic cliffhangers will be revealed: Who will take home movies’ most coveted gold statue—and what will they be wearing when they do it?
Will My Week With Marilyn Best Actress nominee Michelle Williams go with the elegant understatement of recent Oscar de la Renta, Chanel Haute Couture, or Erdem champagne-hued standards, or will she mix it up? (Her appearance earlier this month at the 2012 British Academy of Film and Television Awards in an H&M column gown will lend her arrival some added suspense.) In the Best Supporting circle, Octavia Spencer, who took the Golden Globe for her turn as The Help’s brassy Minny, has made increasingly bold red-carpet statements. Will her colorful winning streak continue? As for the A-list presenters and spectators, their current runway faves portend Stella McCartney (Kate Winslet), Armani Privé (Anne Hathaway), and Gucci (Jennifer Lopez) sightings.
But the more compelling question for those of us who love vintage is who will take the bigger risk and rock some old-school Hollywood glamour? Going vintage hasn’t always seemed a suitable red-carpet choice. It rarely crossed starlets’ (or their stylists’) minds until the 2001 Oscars, when Julia Roberts, in a 1992 Valentino, fittingly paved the way, winning Best Actress for playing another type of firebrand: legal clerk-turned-environmentalist Erin Brockovich. And many stars have since followed suit—most recently Kristin Davis, Tina Fey, Christina Hendricks, and Gillian Anderson.
But there’s no telling who else will make what’s old—or in the case of Julia’s Valentino, older—new again. And at this point, it’s a little late to pitch vintage. The pre-Oscar juice-fasts to make choices fit mean most final selections are already hanging on the back of the dressing-room door. But it’s fun to play armchair stylist, and the recent picks of these stars from across the entertainment galaxy suggest a trip to the Flea might have awarded them more than a few sartorial runner-ups.
For your consideration…
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- Adele, gorgeous in custom Armani at the Grammy’s, would hit a striking note in Britannia Antiques’ stunning ’80s sequin column ($345)
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- Take Dulcinée’s ’40s cotton lace gown, $188 (right), add orange undergarments, and you have Fergie’s Jean Paul Gaultier Grammy look in reverse
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- Jessica Chastain (in Vivienne Westwood at The Debt’s London premiere) would knock ‘em dead in this ’60s Vintage by Sue Harmon strapless ($185)
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- Zoe Saldana (left in Givenchy) might fancy these Vintage by Sue Harmon ’50s frills ($250)
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- This Vintage by Sue Harmon ’50s gown (right, $250) would speak to Taylor Swift’s inner princess
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- White Dove Vintage’s ’80s curve-hugger (right, $125) could give Kristin Stewart’s Prabal Gurung LBD a run for its money
