Style is not a four-letter word, but don’t tell that to red carpet reporters. They seem to think “fashion” is another F-bomb, banned from broadcast media for being too crude.
Witness the Golden Globes in January, where icons like Nicole Kidman and Julia Roberts were asked about anything but their clothes during lengthy red carpet interviews before the ceremony. Instead, they went on to bore us with tales of their podcasts, marriage, even Kidman’s thoughts on Olympic swimming without ever once mentioning the one thing we had tuned in for.
This fashion phobia started in 2014, when the social-media campaign #askhermore implored interviewers to discuss serious issues on the red carpet, especially with women. Created by actress and producer Jennifer Siebel Newsom (whose husband is California’s current Gov. Gavin Newsom), the project was a well-meaning idea that wrongly conflated politics with Hollywood fashion fandom. No, Hillary Clinton shouldn’t have to discuss her clothes at a debate. But Hilary Swank at the Oscars? Yes, please.
The campaign caused a noticeable drop in designer shoutouts on the red carpet. “We’re nervous if we bring up clothes, we’ll lose face time with the big names or their publicists will get pissed and blacklist us,” one red-carpet reporter confided in me when we covered the Globes two years ago. Indeed, to ensure the A-listers turned up for interviews, networks have shied away from style questions, often asking movie stars about their acting process or activism instead.
As the #MeToo movement crescendoed in 2017, the style shaming got even worse, as if Versace’s sex-bomb gowns made Harvey Weinstein a creep in the first place.
By last year’s Golden Globes, stars like Natalie Portman and Penelope Cruz forsook fantasy for protest gear, wearing black to declare #TimesUp on workplace harassment.
That’s great, but fashion isn’t a shameful or stupid topic. In fact, it creates art — and jobs — for millions of Americans. If the style shunning continues at the Oscars this Sunday, it could be devastating for a very important industry.
To be sure, fashion wrestles with its own demons — but it also brings jobs: The style sector is one of the biggest employers in America, putting over $250 billion back into our national economy. The Oscars red carpet is itself a million-dollar enterprise, with designer labor making one-of-a-kind couture pieces.
As Hollywood style critics Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan (aka The Fug Girls) put it in their 2019 Golden Globes commentary, when you banish fashion from the red carpet, “none of [the industry’s] hard workers get credit for their labor. That misses the point. You can ask her more and still ask her” about clothes.
In fact, if you care about both artistic expression and American workers, you should.
If the style shunning continues at the Oscars this Sunday, it could be devastating for a very important industry.
“It still makes a huge impact when someone mentions us on the red carpet,” confirms designer Christian Siriano, who makes gowns for Jennifer Lopez, Kendall Jenner, Amy Adams and more from his New York atelier.
“It drives sales, it promotes the industry and it definitely helps with Instagram,” including Siriano’s 1 million followers.
“But it goes both ways. When a celebrity feels beautiful or powerful, other people naturally pay more attention. That helps her message, whether it’s about politics or a new movie. The actresses make us more visible, but we make them more noticed, too. It goes both ways.”
When a movie star refuses to talk style on the red carpet, “It’s a big disappointment,” Siriano adds. “It’s a risk you take every time you dress a star, because the exposure is so great … But if you’re a new designer spending all your resources on one [celebrity] look,” and it doesn’t get mentioned? “It can cost your business a lot.”
When Reese Witherspoon declared “we’re more than just our dresses” at the Oscars in 2015, she was right: Witherspoon is a producer, an actress, an activist and a mom. But Witherspoon also knows the might of a gorgeous dress — after all, she creates them herself for her brand, Draper James.
Witherspoon’s pretty clothes don’t negate her talent, but somewhere along the line, “What are you wearing?” became red-carpet code for “What are you, stupid?”
You can look great and also be great. Loving fashion isn’t dumb or meaningless, and neither are the men and women who talk about it — and the people who make it, fueling our economy and our collective dreams in the process. Why is it shallow or sexist to discuss it?
Faran Krentcil is a fashion writer and editor.