February 11, 2020 – By Beatrice Tridimas
And the Oscar for the most sustainable dress goes to…
Sunday night’s Oscars saw the awards season draw to a close, but there’s still one award left to give. Whilst the Academy might have quite dramatically failed to address issues of inclusivity (again), we can celebrate the effort put into making this year’s red carpet green.
Amongst the sustainable looks this year, there was a gorgeous array of vintage dresses, ranging from Jane Fonda and Elizabeth Banks rewearing dresses they’ve previously appeared in, to Kim Kardashian taking her pick from an old Alexander McQueen collection. There was also a trio of dresses designed as part of the Red Carpet Green Dress initiative which partnered with sustainable fabric, TENCEL, for the awards and, of course, the leading man’s inspiring and emotional speech…
And so, the nominees for the most sustainable look are:
Margot Robbie
Bows. Brooch. Bardot. This vintage Chanel dress from 1994 worn by Margot Robbie was the ultimate triple threat at last night’s ceremony. Rewearing, or wearing vintage, anything that makes the most of what we already have is the real winner when it comes to sustainability. And she wasn’t alone. The likes of Kim Kardashian, Lily Aldridge and Penelope Cruz all wore vintage too!
Saoirse Ronan
Not completely recycled, nor completely made anew, Saoirse Ronan’s dress was the perfect combination of new and old. The black bodice of the dress was made from the off-cuts of her Bafta’s gown. Pretty nifty, huh?
Kaitlyn Dever
Queen Dever stole the show, hitting headlines on Monday morning for her stunning Louis Vuitton dress. Louis Vuitton partnered with the Red Carpet Green Dress campaign this year to design this stand out look for Dever and a wedding-cake white for Lea Seydoux. RCDG also partnered with Laura Basci for Oscar-winning Andrei Chela’s dress. The dresses were made from TENCEL Luxe, a new luxury development of Lenzing’s cellulosic fibre formed TENCEL.
Sandy Powell
The most unique on the carpet tonight, costume designer Sandy Powell, wore the very same suit she had covered in signatures at last week’s Baftas. Intending to auction the suit for charity, it looks like Powell wanted to fill in a few more gaps!
Joaquin Phoenixc
Best actor winner for the first time after four nominations, Jaoquin Phoenix, has appeared in the same Stella McCartney suit for all of the awards ceremonies this season, as promised. Pretty good effort! In Sunday night’s acceptance speech he covered all manner of topics from racism to the environment, standing up for cow’s rights (yes, that’s right) and calling on human beings to respect nature. Whilst being a very emotional speech, Phoenix’s message was clear and it was a pretty good one at that.
Other highlights from the red carpet included Natalie Portman’s regal cape, which named the female directors excluded from this year’s nominations, and Waad al-Kateab’s gorgeously embroidered dress, which carried the message ‘we dared to dream and we will not regret dignity’ in Arabic. Al-Kateab’s dress was a powerful, promising (and pink) reiteration of the message of her nominated documentary film about the Syrian civil war For Sama.
And whilst we’re supporting female film makers, be sure to watch these female directed films coming out in 2020…
Mulan – Niki Caro (March 27th)
Black Widow – Cate Shortland (May 1st)
Troop Zero – Bert and Bertie (January 17th)
Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always – Eliza Hittman (March 13th)
The Rhythm Section – Reed Morano (January 31st)
Emma – Autumn De Wilde (February 21st)
The Photograph – Stella Meghie (February 14th)
Promising Young Woman – Emerald Fennell (April 17th)
Respect – Liesl Tommy (October 9th)
Wonder Woman 1984 – Patty Jenkins (June 5th)
Beatrice Tridimas
Beatrice is an ethicist and book-lover, pursuing her passion for writing at KeiSei whilst studying for a masters degree at UCL. She graduated from the University of Edinburgh earlier this year.
