Angelina Jolie
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| Black and Forth: Say what you will about Angelina Jolie’s addiction to frills-free black frocks, but years from now, when Zahara, Shiloh and Vivienne stumble across a stack of yellowing copies of Us Weekly in the attic, they won’t be teasing their mom over how outmoded and uncool she looks. Instead, they’ll start squabbling over who gets first dibs on her vintage but still stylish couture. The ever-more-waxen Oscar-winning mom of six opts for timeless over attention-grabbing in a strapless, sweetheart-necklined Elie Saab gown with an eye-catchingly sheer skirt and her de rigueur cat-eyeliner and cascading chestnut locks. And perhaps to ensure that Jennifer Aniston could spot her in the crowd, Jolie accessorizes her low-key dress with a kiwi-sized emerald ring, matching teardrop earrings and a grinning, goateed Brad Pitt, whose hands repeatedly wandered from the pockets of his rakish, bow tie-topped monkey suit to the posterior of his prepossessing amour. |
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Jennifer Aniston
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That Was Jen, This Is Now: When it comes to major life decisions, few are more critical than selecting the gown that you’ll wear to walk onstage at the Academy Awards and stand in front of your ex-husband and the woman he ditched you for — not to mention the millions of tabloid-devouring viewers eager to tear you apart. In magnitude, it ranks right up there with picking the person you’d want to pull the plug should the time ever come. This was a defining moment for Jennifer Aniston, who, to her credit and our surprise, didn’t blink. While the preternaturally toned and incandescent star’s taste in beaus may be questionable (although her self-described “Oscar boyfriend” John Mayer did wear the heck out his tux), her sense of style is impeccable. She boldly breaks free of her basic black comfort zone and slips into a beaded strapless Valentino number seemingly tailor-made to blind Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie with its sparkly awesomeness. Simple yet sublime, understated yet assured, it’s the perfect couture complement for an actress who just scored two No. 1 movies in a row and stared down the big 4-0 with aplomb. And despite seeming a mite nervous while presenting with the epically laid-back Jack Black, Aniston likely drew strength from her own version of armor — her trademark gleaming, unfussy tresses, which she dresses up with an abbreviated French braid across her forehead, a neo-bohemian look that we’re guessing will soon appear on many a former devotee of “The Rachel.” |
Freida Pinto
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Armed and Fabulous: The one-sleeved trend became so ubiquitous so quickly that we sort of figured that by the time the Oscars rolled around, it would have taken its place on the fashion scrapheap alongside leg warmers, fanny packs and stonewashed jeans. Boy, are we glad we called that one wrong. Freida Pinto breathes new life into the lopsided style with a beaded, sheer-armed John Galliano gown in a royal blue that’s as vibrant as she is. Like peanut butter and jelly, spaghetti and meatballs, Paris Hilton and inadequate panty coverage, some things are just made to go together, and the “Slumdog Millionaire” starlet’s sari-inspired embroidered couture is a perfect match for her flawless beauty. |
Anne Hathaway
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Lithe Spirit: When we first spied Anne Hathaway in this paillette-bedecked Armani Privé metallic column, we thought, “Gee, she looks nice. Maybe not wow or anything, but definitely nice.” The dress itself is exquisite and hits the sloe-eyed beauty in all the right places, even if some of those places have grown distractingly weensy as award season has progressed. But our initial impression changed when we watched Anne gamely impersonate Nixon onstage with host Hugh Jackman and cheer loudly when fellow Best Actress nominee Kate Winslet took the prize. The sheer force of her bubbliness, coming as it does on the heels of a year that saw her con-man ex head to the big house, pushes this champagne gown from pretty to pretty fantastic. It also proves that a sparkling personality really does shine through, although the nearly $750,000 worth of Cartier jewels that Hathaway is draped in probably helps, too. |
Marisa Tomei
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You Can Pleat Me: A thousand monkeys with a thousand rolls of Bounty Select-a-Size would need a thousand years to construct the architectural wonder that is Marisa Tomei’s extravagantly pleated Versace gown. The slimline actress has been swinging for the fence while making the red-carpet rounds in recent months, and while she fouled out at the Golden Globes in a ruffled, should-have-walked-the-plank pirate shirt, she hits a home run at the Oscars in this silvery, hand fan of a satin organza creation with a traffic-stopping train. It’s a refined look that’s light years away from the pole-climbing stripper Tomei played in “The Wrestler,” a decorous point she drives home with her loose, side-swept hair and subtle makeup. |
Kate Winslet
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Heart and Soul: The British tabloids have dumped no end of grief on Kate Winslet for her emotional acceptance speeches while collecting kudos for “The Reader.” So it seems only fitting that the gorgeous thespian chose to wear a heart literally on her sleeve on the night she finally collected her long-hoped-for Oscar. Winslet takes a red-carpet risk in an asymmetrical, silver-blue Yves Saint Laurent gown with a silk overlay that’s also emblazoned with symbols of love and affection, a unifying theme that helps tie together her split-personality of a dress. Kate pairs her thoroughly modern outfit with an oddly sculpted hairdo that hearkens back to a time in Hollywood when Grace Kelly was the epitome of elegance and shellacked, bulletproof manes were all the rage. |
Penelope Cruz
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Something Old, Something Whew: Looking for a little extra mojo at the Oscars? Two words: Choose used. In recent years, vintage gowns have brought good luck to Reese Witherspoon and Julia Roberts, and, on Sunday, Penélope Cruz won a little gold bald guy of her very own as she wore an intricately detailed Balmain gown from the ’50s. The be-banged, charmingly motormouthed Spanish looker livens up her stately dress by decking herself out in recession-snubbing diamonds valued at around $3 million. Still, should Cruz ever decide to go the thrifty route, she could get one more use out of her now-famous frock, assuming her under-the-radar romance with her “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” co-star, Javier Bardem, progresses to the next level. If that happens, she just needs to dig out her classic couture, toss on a veil and vow to stick together until death, career or otherwise. |
Sarah Jessica Parker
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Sarah, Pain and Tulle: If we had to rate Matthew Broderick’s Oscar night stiffness, it would fall somewhere between the Tin Man from “The Wizard of Oz” and the corpse-of-the-week on “CSI.” Perhaps feeling a little tense over persistent tabloid talk of trouble in his union to Sarah Jessica Parker, the once cucumber-cool Ferris Bueller appears more rigid than Madonna in traction as he escorts his haute couture-clad spouse down the red carpet, his grim expression a sure sign that he’d rather be sitting at home in his PJs watching “Square Pegs” reruns than playing second fiddle to the tulle tent encircling SJP’s waist and her beaded, belted and painfully up-pushing bustier that creates an overhang so impressive Boy Scouts could camp under it. Broderick may not appreciate Parker’s mammary-heavy, hint of mint Dior gown, but we do. This is exactly the type of stylish excess we expect from the fashion-adoring “Sex and the City” star, who counteracts the ballerina preciousness of her diaphanous designer-wear with coppery curls separated by a severe middle part that mimics Broderick’s body language to a very stern T. |
Evan Rachel Wood
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Knock on Wood: Winning or washed-out? Opinion is split on Evan Rachel Wood in this draping ivory Elie Saab gown with clamshell cleavage. On the one hand, there’s something to be said for the shock of the sun-shunning starlet’s alabaster, Snow White-after-she-ate-the-poisoned-apple-and-slept-for-a-few-years-in-a-glass-coffin look. On the other, there’s the risk that medical staffers waiting in the wings at the Oscars might get a gander at her anemic style and order a plasma transfusion — stat! To us, Wood’s high-and-mighty head pose and continued channeling of on-off boyfriend Marilyn Manson’s ex-wife Dita Von Teese aren’t annoying enough to detract from her frock’s super-flattering silhouette, which would likely look even more ravishing in, say, an arresting blood red. |
Natalie Portman
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Pinky and the Brain: Natalie Portman provides a refreshing blast of color on this year’s relatively muted red carpet in a pleated Rodarte strapless gown that’s as sweet and tasty as the treat that inspired its hue — the delectable Hostess Sno Ball. The winsome, sharp-witted actress fetchingly matches her lips to her dress but leaves her neckline jewel-free, which is a shame, because a few glittery baubles might have prevented the hairs on the back our neck from standing up courtesy of the creepily colorful sequined cutouts on Natalie’s bodice, which — yikes! — appear to be following our every move. |
