Jason Momoa’s “Free the Bicep” Tank Was a Best Dressed Golden Globes Moment
Liana Satenstein
Last night, Jason Momoa and his hair—a Pantene commercial-worthy cascade of shine and volume—arrived at the Golden Globe Awards. Momoa stepped onto the red carpet with his inimitable wife, Lisa Bonet, wearing an emerald velvet suit jacket, black pleated pants, and a velvet dress shoe. Around his chest hung a matching pendant in an otherworldly hue of green, the sort of shade that occurs only in the shimmer of the Northern Lights. (You could really become hypnotized looking into that dangling stone.) Completing the look were Momoa’s signature stacks of rings and a seafoam green stone bracelet.
Then, as the night progressed, I have to assume that the inside of the Golden Globes ceremony was a little chilly, as Momoa ended up giving his jacket to Bonet to stay warm. And underneath the velvet blazer was a black muscle tank that revealed plenty of his tattooed biceps, causing quite the stir. His blazer-less moment even caught the eye of actor Brian Cox who plays the crotchety, power-hungry media CEO in Succession: As he made his way to receive his award, Cox couldn’t help but pause briefly to point to Momoa’s bulging muscles.
Like many, I appreciate a classic black tie moment. I like great tailoring: a nice little tie with a pointy little end that hits the right place. Pants in obsidian black, with a crisp white shirt the color of baby powder—you can’t go wrong! But there are also times when, like Momoa, you have to show a little personal flair. His suits are often colorful; in particular, he has an affinity for pink. In February 2018, for example, he attended the 91st Academy Awards wearing a full pink velvet suit and held a clutch. (He wore a pink scrunchie around his wrist, too.) More recently, in September, he wore a jewel-tone purple suit with a silk nighttime shirt. And last July, at the Fendi Couture fall 2019 show in Rome, he sported a semi-sheer button-up shirt that was pinstriped in gold with rolled-up sleeves, with his signature scrunchie sitting just above his watch once again.
Speaking of that rose petal pink scrunchie that feels soldered to Momoa’s wrist, he’s perpetually decked out in a whole range of accessories, with a particular fondness for jewelry. His necklaces run the gamut from stones fastened in twine, to hulking coral beads, to silver pendants with scorpions and skulls. Momoa wears chunky handmade bracelets that he himself could have hammered into shape on an anvil. The pieces look as if raided from a liberal arts college town’s crystal shop, or maybe the jewelry box of a middle-aged artist in the American Southwest. And he looks great. He pulls it off. The reason why? Because it feels genuine.
That sense of authenticity also explains why many of Momoa’s most standout red carpet moments involve nods to his Hawaiian roots. The actor has long been a passionate supporter for humanitarian causes in Hawaii, and was an ardent voice during the Thirty Meter Telescope protests, which occurred in response to the government building a telescope over Mauna Kea, a land considered sacred in the Hawaiian religion. Often when smiling for the cameras, the native Hawaiian will throw up a shaka sign, a friendly hand symbol in Hawaii. (The tattoo that he showed off on his arm at the Golden Globes? The pattern is an ode to a Hawaiian god.) Last December, at an Aquaman event in Sydney, Momoa arrived in the palest of pink suits with a voluminous lei around his neck, again in solidarity with the Thirty Meter Telescope Protests. It was only a few weeks before that the Supreme Court approved construction on the Mauna Kea site.
Momoa is a man. He’s a huge man. He’s a hulking Aquaman who has touched down on earth to show us that men’s fashion can be a little softer and more playful (and can feature lots of raw, uncut beaded jewelry). He loves his culture, and supports it whenever he can on the red carpet through his clothing choices. At the end of the day, what better look is there than that?
See Every Look From the 2020 Golden Globe Awards Red Carpet:
Golden Globes 2020: Fashion—Live From the Red Carpet
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