The Politics of Red Carpet Fashion, Explained
Pop the champagne! Awards season is upon us, and there's so much more at stake than just a handful of shiny statuettes. After all, an all-but-unknown actress can become world-famous by the time she's reached the end of that 16,500 square feet of red carpet on Oscar night. All this week we're talking to the Hollywood stylists who make legendary fashion moments. Here, Cristina Ehrlich, the red carpet stylist to Brie Larson, Allison Williams, and others, tells all.
What's your specialty?
Creating an identity for either hot new young girls-Brie Larson, Margot Robbie, Greta Gerwig, Allison Williams-who are kind of a clean slate, or working with women-Tina Fey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Julianna Margulies-and turning them out to look effortless and elegant. I have this ability to hear what my clients need and what their biggest insecurities are, and to find a way to make it fun for them. At the end of the day, it's clothes. I don't want to say it's not that deep, but they're actors, comedians, writers, producers, and the pressure on them is already so huge-the clothing part should be fun. It's about identifying what their style is and what they feel most comfortable in. I look at each of them as their own entity.
How has it changed since you started out in 2002?
Fashion, for a lot of actresses, is a very big part of their business now. It's not just like, "I have a premiere! What should I wear?" A lot of my clients have advertising commitments-they're the face of L'Oréal, American Express, Garnier, Simple Skin Care. The politics behind calling in [designers'] clothes has gotten so hardcore. There's only one set of samples with most brands, and every designer has star pieces-the ones that, like, five celebrity stylists are calling in at the same time. It becomes, Okay, do we send this to Ruth Wilson or Brie Larson or Kate Hudson? Everybody has to play nice in the sandbox. A designer like Jason Wu may love the idea of sending me a dress for Gugu Mbatha-Raw, but if nothing's available, I may have to try for six months. The biggest frustration is when [a client's rep] calls me and says she needs a fitting tomorrow. I'm like, well, it doesn't work like that.
Some actresses take fashion more seriously than fashion takes them.
What if a designer doesn't think an actress is right for his or her brand?
I'll have a dream to put a designer on a girl, and the PR people will be like, "She's not really our demographic." I'll say, "Okay, can I just show her a couple of dresses and let you see how she looks in the clothes?" Often I'm able to convince them. You also have scenarios where an actress has a really hot moment-you can get her anything in the world-and then she has a dry period or goes off the radar or has a baby. All of a sudden she'll pop up and want to go to something, and nobody has anything available.
Is that why an actress might resort to buying off the rack, like Hayden Panettiere did with the Tom Ford dress she wore to the Golden Globes in 2014?
A hundred percent. That's why I'll find myself scrolling through red carpet photos and be, like, Why on earth would [designer Roksanda Ilincic] approve to dress that person but say no to me for someone else? Then you find out that the dress was bought. In fairness to the actress, it totally counts. Some actresses take fashion more seriously than fashion takes them.
What's the downside to actresses going rogue?
The PR for the brand may not put out a press release about her wearing it. So this actress may have dropped $3,600 at Barneys on a dress, but it doesn't guarantee that she's going to get press.
I've had a nominated A-lister going to the Oscars and her zipper broke; she had to lie on her side in the SUV and have the dress sewn onto her.
Has your approach to awards season changed?
Seven years ago, if I had an A-lister going to all of the events, I'd have had numerous designers making dresses, and may the best dress win. Nobody is that frivolous and extravagant anymore. It's important to me that these girls know it's a huge expense for the house to make a custom dress, so I try to narrow it down and create a point of view. If we know they're going to three awards shows-the SAGs, the Globes, the Oscars-I try to create an arc: a starting point, a middle, and an end.
Any memorable wardrobe malfunctions?
I've had a nominated A-lister going to the Oscars and her zipper broke; she had to lie on her side in the SUV and have the dress sewn onto her. I've had the clasp on a clutch break-the actress couldn't get her ID, and they wouldn't let her in without it. I had one actress's heel snap, and she limped out on stage with a heel missing. I've had a dress that was perfect, and when we steamed it for the last time, the steamer left a big circle right on the front. The number-one trickiest thing is when these girls get into the car in a silk gown-it's going to have a crease straight across when you sit down. You've got to say right at the fitting, "If you want to wear this, you have to let your publicist know you need a car where you can slide in and lie on your hip."
This article originally appeared in the March 2016 issue of ELLE.
