Beauty or Beast: Atrocious and Outstanding Oscar Fashions (2/28/11)

After about four-and-a-half hours of Acadamy Awards goodness, here’s a quick recap: Natalie Portman won “Best Actress in a Leading Role” for her role in Black Swan, Colin Firth won “Best Actor in a Leading Role” for his role in The King’s Speech, and the award for “Best Motion Picture” goes to… The King’s Speech!! The King’s Speech also won “Best Director” and “Best Original Screenplay.” Though I have yet to see this film, I am absolutely dying to get to the theaters to watch it after hearing nothing but excellent reviews from all of my friends. The other films nominted for “Best Motion Picture” include:

Black Swan

The Fighter

Inception

The Kids Are All Right

The Social Network

Toy Story 3

True Grit

Winter’s Bone

127 Hours

I actually feel bad that the only film of the ten that I’ve seen is Inception, which I loved! “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” went to Melissa Leo, while “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” was won by Christian Bale, both for The Fighter.

But now what really matters: the best and worst of the red carpet fashions:

This year’s Academy Awards, the 83th to be exact, was hosted by James Franco, who was nominted in the ”Best Actor” catagory for 127 Hours, and Anne Hathaway. Anne had a total of eight costume changes, including a tuxedo. And yes… James wore a dress! Of the eight outfits, my favorite dress of Anne’s had to be her second red dress, in a deeper shade than the first, but still a Valentino. My least favorite of hers? The gem encrusted gray Tom Ford gown, which covered every inch of skin below the chin.

In my personal opinion, the best dress out there tonight had to be Hailee Steinfeld’s dress. Hailee Steinfeld, only 14 years old, was nominated for “Best Supporting Actress” for True Grit.

I also really liked Marisa Tomei, Halle Berry, Helen Mirren, Hilary Swank, and Mandy Moore’s dresses the most, though I’ve heard quite a bit of praise for Natalie Portman’s look and also for Mila Kunis’ lowcut lavendar Ellie Saab. I’m afraid to say what color Natalie Portman’s dress is (magenta or purple?) after witnessing both her’s and Jennifer Hudson’s (apparently it was orange!) dresses change color from the red carpet to the inside of the Kodak Theatre. Justin Timberlake did say he thought the red carpet looked awfully fuchsia. Both Hailee and Halle were wearing Marchesa, while Marisa was dressed in a 1950 Charles James navy gown.

Though I found most of the fashions this year bearable, Nicole Kidman’s Dior dress had to be my least favorite by far! Another confusing trend, I thought, was Cate Blanchet’s dress. While elegant and unique, her Givenchy certainly reminded me more of her elf role in Lord of the Rings rather than a gown fit for the red carpet with her large ring-like detail acting as a major distraction.

Halle Berry did say that it’s interesting to see everyone’s own interpretation of glamour and themselves. What were your favorite Oscar fashions for 2011?