It’s the one 2010’s countdown we have yet to get around to, the Oscars Best Dressed List! Scroll down to reminisce over the best red carpet looks from the last decade and the ceremony’s true winners.

2010: Rachel McAdams in Elie Saab Haute Couture

Launching our countdown is this timeless look; a playful, flowy organza princess dress, adorned with a delightful watercolour print and minimal accessories. Lorraine Schwartz diamond chandelier earrings, neutral makeup and high ‘do prove as great styling choices, and all I have to say is that your hair looks sexy pushed back babe.

2011: Michelle Williams in Chanel

the Best Actress nominee was mesmerising in this modern yet romantic piece. The combination of the dress’ pearly hue, Williams’ platinum blonde pixie cut and the minimalistic makeup make her the human embodiment of an angle, and we stan.

2012: Angelina Jolie Atelier Versace

Arguably the best look on the red carpet that night, and undeniably the most iconic; the “Angelina Leg” moment echoed so loud through editorial time and space, it is still referenced hard to this day. For the cultural impact alone, Angie won that year’s carpet.

2013: Jennifer Lawrence in Dior Couture

This dress was so stunningly beautiful, it didn’t even matter it was also responsible for Jennifer Lawrence tripping over it on as she made her way to accept her award for Best Actress. The unique drop-waist silhouette and the strand of 150 Chopard diamond beads necklace draping backwards make for a showstopping fashion moment.

2014: Cate Blanchett in Armani Privé

In a design I can only imagine had been inspired by an actual siren, the Blue Jasmine star looked absolutely mesmerising, like a couture clad version of The Birth of Venus. We love, love, love this look, and don’t believe anyone else could have carried it as elegantly as miss Blanchett.

2015: Emma Stone in Elie Saab

Intricate, vintage-inspired beadwork over close-fitting, high slit dress? Yes, please. This work of art not only is spectacular on its own merit but the colour complimented Stone’s skin tone and hair colour so beautifully it’s like a match made in couture heaven.

2016: Naomi Watts in Armani

Even when she’s not nominated, Watts looks like an absolute winner. This extraordinary deep navy and aubergine gradient dress, embellished with iridescent sequins had an ethereal effect which beat every other look in that night.

2017: Janelle Monáe in Elie Saab

Once again, the princess dress received an interesting modern interpretation. Seemingly stepping out as a villain in a new Disney live-action production, Monáe looked like the dark princess of our dreams. The metallic embroidery adorning the sheer black bodice and the

golden Forevermark choker create a seamless majestic look befitting the musician’s enchanting presence.

2018: Saoirse Ronan in Calvin Klein by Appointment

In an ultimate combination between girlish and feminine elegance, this sweet, oversised bow emblazoned powder pink dress complimented Ronan’s pale complexion as well as her status as a young 20-something three times Oscars nominee.

2019: Billy Porter in custom Christian Siriano

Sorry to everyone else, but there really was no question as to who won last year’s red carpet. Gender fluidity? Check. Infinite charisma and poise? Check. A truly mind-blowing, elegant and glamorous look? Check, check, check. The tuxedress to launch a thousand obscure outfits marked the end of yawn-inducing menswear, and for that alone deserves recognition.

2020: Zazie Beetz in Thom Browne

The only black dress to make this list, I simply love this piece and the excellent styling of this look. The sequins complement the structured shape of the corset and are beautifully juxtaposed to Beetz’s awe-striking natural hair texture. The subtle green hue reflected in the jewellery marks our jealousy from how flawless this lady looked last night.

Words by Maya Avram

Graphics by Séverine Denis-Lessard

The post Oscars Through the Decade appeared first on Voir Fashion.

It is not often we witness the works of female directors grace the cinema screens of Hollywood, so it is a marvel that actress, screenwriter and director Greta Gerwig has announced the release of not one, but two upcoming films, Little Women and Barbie fresh off her success from the critically acclaimed, coming-of-age indie Lady Bird (2017). Her imminent prolific career and fervent fanbase are attributed however, to more humble beginnings as an actress on the outskirts of fame, starring in a number of low-budget mumblecore films.

Mumblecore is the name given to the subgenre of indie films characterised by naturalistic acting and dialogue and a preoccupation with the intimate relationships of people in their 20s. Emerging from the early 2000s, it has resonated with young audiences across the world with its treatment of disillusionment, social awkwardness and miscommunication between strangers— themes all too familiar to the information-saturated minds of Generation Y. As a key figure of this stylistic movement, Gerwig has appeared in a number of films from Joe Swanberg, some of which she co-wrote and co-directed, including Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007) and Nights and Weekends (2008). But it was not until the release of Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha (2012), that she started to gain mainstream recognition for her charmingly clumsy and relatable portrayal of protagonist Frances Haliday.

With witty and highly quotable lines such as ‘I’m so embarrassed, I’m not a real person yet’, and ‘I like things that look like mistakes’, Gerwig charms as the 27- year old aspiring ballet dancer, traversing through friendships, romances and career struggles. As she states in an interview, ‘Some of the independent movies that make money have a very specific thing that you can tell audiences they’ll feel about it…Frances Ha will touch your deep feelings of failure and unworthiness.’ Taking the feel-good promise of commercial indies at the time and turning it on its head, Gerwig seeks instead to touch people’s hearts through the acceptance of uncertainty in the world, and as a result, carves out an intensely realistic reflection of youthful aimlessness.

Her iconic screenwriting collaboration with Baumbach on the film (who later becomes her lifelong partner) has also allowed her to move away from the spotlight in front of the camera to the manipulation of it from behind. With the advantage of experience from both sides of acting and writing, Gerwig became ready to take the world by storm with her directorial debut, Lady Bird, a coming-of-age film set in Sacramento, California about a high schooler named Christine McPherson (played by Saoirse Ronan) who makes everyone call her by the nickname of Lady Bird. The film immediately shot to fame and critical acclaim, winning Gerwig a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture in a Musical or Comedy and a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The mesmerising element of the film, however, seems not to be rooted solely in the poignant depiction of human interactions, but also in the treatment of the female subject, with Christine shining as the fiercely original teenage character bursting simultaneously with confidence and anxiety.

Gerwig’s account of Christine’s life is revealed to be semi-autobiographical, as she states in a behind-the-scenes video ‘I tend to start with things from my own life, then pretty quickly they spin out into their own orbit.’ By taking bits of inspiration from her own past growing up in Sacramento, such as the famous scene of Christine jumping out of a moving car, Gerwig infuses the film with a personal interconnectedness and improvisational quality, accentuating the importance of female subjectivity to the storyline. As we watch the conventional coming-of-age tropes play out (a character falling in and out of love, losing her virginity, discovering intellectual passions), we become aware of the film’s realist tone, constantly rejecting the urge to romanticise the often romanticised narrative of the teenage girl. Settings are stripped of any hint of gaudiness or theatricality, with a heightened emphasis on the mundane and the monotonous rounds of school and home. Characters are vulnerable to emotional impulses and desires, reinforcing the yin-and-yang idea of both good and evil existing at the same place and time, with Gerwig herself quoted as saying in an interview with Dazed Magazine, ‘I never think about female characters as being likeable or unlikeable. With all my characters—not just with female characters—but with every single character in this film. There are no villains.’

Even the outfits worn by the girls in the film have been thoroughly researched to make sure they remain faithful to the early 2000s era in which the story is set, as Gerwig reveals that ‘The costume designer April Napier and I spent a lot of time looking at old Seventeen magazines. And, there was a catalogue called Delia’s which was something everyone in the United States bought. You always wanted to look like one of the girls from Delia’s!’ Clothing is selected therefore on grounds of narrative accuracy rather than a desired beautification of the female image.

With planted seeds from the likes of Sofia Coppola and her scrutinisation into the art of female dynamics in The Virgin Suicides (1999) and Marie Antoinette (2006), Gerwig herself has transformed into a fundamental figure for the preservation of femininity in film and for the garnering of interest in the growth and maturation of the leading woman. In her upcoming film Little Women (set to release on 27 December 2019) where four sisters come of age in the aftermath of the Civil War, she once again provides a voice for the modern independent female, telling Margaret Gardiner in an interview that ‘I’ve always felt that whether you’re writing a novel or making a film, what you choose to put 30 feet tall on a screen tells the audience it’s important and for me, making lives of girls and women important and 30 feet tall and shot on celluloid—it’s worth it and you’re saying their lives have mattered.’

It has also been confirmed that Gerwig is to pair up with Baumbach on the script for her upcoming film Barbie, starring Margot Robbie as a doll who is expelled from Barbieland for not being perfect enough and sets off on an adventure into the real world. Filming is set to begin in 2020.

Words by Shir Ariya

Graphics by Araceli Alonso

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