The Hollywood Reporter – 28.02.2018

Style

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 106 FEBRUARY 28, 2018

BLIGE: JON KOPALOFF/FILMMAGIC. SPENCER: FRAZER HARRISON/GETTY IMAGES. MCDORMAND: JEFF SPICER/JEFF SPICER/GETTY IMAGES. HAWN: DAN MACMEDAN/GETTY IMAGES. METCALF: DAN MACMEDAN/GETTY IMAGES. HAWKINS: GEORGE PIMENTEL/WIREIMAGE. KIDMAN, JANNEY: AXELLE/BAUER-GRIFFIN/FILMMAGIC.

MIRREN: AMANDA

EDWARDS/WIREIMAGE. JUDD: STEFANIE KEENAN/GETTY IMAGES FOR ESQUIRE. SIRIANO: JAMIE MCCARTHY/GETTY IMAGES FOR CHRISTIAN SIRIANO.

ALBRIGHT: IAN MORRISON.

Fashion

R

efreshingly, this Oscars season

has put an unprecedented number of

age 40-plus women in the fashion

spotlight, from I, Tonya’s Allison Janney, 58,

to Mudbound’s Mary J. Blige, 47; Lady Bird’s

Laurie Metcalf, 62, to The Shape of Water’s

Octavia Spencer, 45. But navigating the poli-

tics of red carpet dressing can be harder for

non-ingenues. Even if you are an Oscar nomi-

nee, fashion houses won’t always loan to you,

much less make custom designs, especially

if you are not a sample size 0 or 2. “It stupefies

me when brands pass over older women

because they have the purchasing power,” says

stylist Tara Swennen, who has had to suss out

gowns from lesser-known designers for Janney,

a size 6, including the metallic sequined

Yanina Couture gown that landed her on many

SAG Awards best dressed lists.

Twentysomething starlets still may be more

The Politics of Dressing Oscar’s Over-40 Stars

Bowing to the purchasing power of more mature women, luxury brands increasingly are opening their

closets to non-ingenue, non-sample size actresses: ‘It should be about owning your age’ By Booth Moore

afford to play in this rarefied air of designer

fashion are age 35 and up,” says Neiman

Marcus fashion director Ken Downing, who says

when he’s buying for the store, Cate Blanchett,

48, is an icon he returns to often. (Nicole

Kidman, 50, is another example

of an over-40 star who has no

trouble attracting the admiration

of the fashion industry.) It hasn’t

hurt that mainstays of mature

dressing, including covered-up sil-

houettes and timeless black, have been trends

on the red carpet in the season of #MeToo and

Time’s Up.

Over the years, Los Angeles designer

Monique Lhuillier has dressed many a

Hollywood starlet, including Blake Lively and

Tay l o r S w i f t. But the single most transac-

tional red carpet placement of her 20-year

career was at this year’s SAG Awards, when

Blige, 47, in
Elie Saab at
the Producers
Guild Awards.

Spencer,

45, in a Tadashi

Shoji tea-

length dress

at the Golden

Globes.

likely to score six-figure fashion and beauty

contracts from Dior, Chanel and Louis Vuitton.

But older actresses are emerging as a red

carpet force, serving as relatable role models

for older customers and offering an opportu-

nity for rising designers to make a mark. “A

lot of brands have a tight target list of who

they want in their clothing,” says stylist Mary

Inacio, who works with Metcalf. But as a star

gathers nominations, doors can open. “In the

beginning, it was not easy to pull for Laurie,”

adds Inacio. “Brands didn’t see her as a fashion

person. But then the Globe nominations

came, and she was on Colbert wearing a Rag &

Bone sweater, giving off fashion-editor vibes,

and they started to realize she has a good body,

she has style.”

Even in youth-obsessed, Botox-plumped

Hollywood, image makers are seeing a return

on dressing older women. “The women who can

Siriano

Kidman, 50,

in Armani

Prive at the

SAG Awards.

Hawn, 72,

in Monique

Lhuillier,

at the SAG

Awards.

McDormand,

60, in

Valentino at

the BAFTAs.