Long before the world developed an obsession for the celebrity wardrobe, and when magazines like Heat! were but a twinkle in their creators' eye, anyone even remotely interested in fashion looked forward to the frock-fest that is the Oscar Ceremony.
Now, this annual event is just one of
many - and some might say too many - red carpet parades.
It remains, however, the godmother of them all and that is, at least in part, because of its history.
Clearly acknowledging this fact, Oscar producer Laura Ziskin is giving over this year's Oscar fashion show, which typically forecasts the styles that fashion insiders feel might make the red carpet come the big night, into a retrospective of some of the more memorable outfits spanning five decades.
A Celebration of Oscar Fashion will feature many of the most show-stopping looks ever to have made their way down the Academy Awards red carpet.
Curated by the larger-than-life-size US Vogue editor-at-large Andre Leon Talley, it will be unveiled to a private audience of press, stylists and stars in Los Angeles at the end of this month.
Highlights will, by all accounts, include Diane Keaton's trademark masculine trouser suit, Sharon Stone's highly irreverent Gap T-shirt and floor-sweeping Valentino haute couture skirt combination and, of course, Barbra Streisand's 1968 transparent jumpsuit complete with of-the-moment bell-bottom trousers.
The latter, in particular, was worn by the actress long before the tyranny of the celebrity stylist took hold, transforming the Oscar red carpet into the well-mannered but all too often bland and politically motivated parade that it is today.
With this in mind, the Marjan Pejoski swan dress with matching purse worn by Bjork in 1991 will, sadly, be conspicuous in its absence.
"They won't give it to us," Ziskin told Associated Press.
Still on the Leon-Talley and Ziskin wish list, meanwhile, is the Versace dress Ellen Barkin wore in 1993, the Halston gown worn in 1990 by Glenn Close, and Julie Andrews' 1965 outfit (which was featured in last year's Oscar poster), as well as "anything from Natalie Wood".
But of course.
- INDEPENDENT
