“Now that the Globes are back, let’s have some fun,” said stylist Jennifer Austin.
The fashion world seems set for its first big red carpet moment of the year when the awards show returns on Tuesday. And while a slight shadow may hang over the carpet, the industry is rejoicing.
“The strides they’ve made and the changes they’ve made have been good,” continued Austin of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. She dresses Angela Bassett, nominated for best supporting actress in a motion picture for her role as Queen Ramonda in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”. However, she added: “We have a long way to go.”
Taylor Swift at the 77th Golden Globe Awards, 2020.
Christopher Polk/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images via Getty Images
After facing backlash over its operating standards and lack of diversity (it previously had no black members), the HFPA held a private, star-less, carpet-less ceremony in 2022. Some boycotted the show, or even returned their Golden Globes, and until recently it was unclear who would appear this year. Turns out Hollywood is ready to move on. Among the presenters will be many A-listers – Ana de Armas, Billy Porter, Tracy Morgan, Jamie Lee Curtis, Quentin Tarantino and Natasha Lyonne. And some names are expected to hit the headlines, including Rihanna and Selena Gomez.
This comes after the organization announced plans for reform and welcomed 103 new voters (made up of 22.3 percent Latino, 13.6 percent black, 11.7 percent Asian, 10.7 percent Middle Eastern and 41.7 percent white, with 58.3 percent identifying as “ethnically diverse”) .
“It’s a time of change,” said stylist Cristina Ehrlich, who dresses Lyonne. “As much as it is a very difficult time in the world right now, fashion’s job is to provide beauty and optimism, glamor and fantasy.”
For leading stylists, preparations for the upcoming show are no different from previous years. First of all, it was always a bit frantic and hectic because of the weather, the coming days after the holidays.
“It’s strange because it always comes so soon after Christmas,” said Rose Forde, stylist to Emma D’Arcy – who is nominated for best television actress in a drama series for “House of the Dragon.” “Historically speaking, from a style perspective, globes are always a bit awkward.”
“Because it’s so early, I have to plan early,” said Kate Young, who dresses Gomez, Margot Robbie and Michelle Williams — all nominated. “It’s something that has to be planned before the vacation.”
At the moment, international brands know how to “have a lot of their stuff ready to go to New York or LA,” said Ilaria Urbinati, who also dresses all the nominees – Donald Glover, Adam Scott, Barry Keoghan, Damien Chazelle and Diego Calva.
However, the new challenge was shipping issues; most companies are now unreliable and costs have skyrocketed, making it difficult to receive samples.
Glenn Close and Jennifer Lopez at the 77th Golden Globe Awards, 2020.
Christopher Polk/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images via Getty Images
“We had to switch to using Worldnet [International] instead of FedEx or UPS… They carry packages by hand, and that’s a lot more money,” Urbinati said. “Regular shipping companies have become completely unreliable since COVID-19. We’ve lost more stuff to shipping this year than any other time in my career.”
“You have to be a little pickier,” Austin said of receiving samples, because of the cost.
This year at the Globes, Bassett will be wearing “something simple but different,” Austin revealed. “It will be a different silhouette for her. It’s a build-up. We are all preparing for the Oscars. You must have a plan of attack. You start high, you continue high, but your crescendo is the Oscars.”
How does the Globe award compare to other awards today?
“With the Globes, it’s formal,” Young said. “It’s super formal. It’s more than the premiere, maybe less than the Oscars or Cannes.”
“For me, the Globes is huge,” Urbinati said. “The Golden Globe and the Oscar are two big ones. Let’s put it this way, if I have a guy who goes to all those Globes, Critics, SAGs, Oscars, etc., I’ll always save my two best outfits for the Globes and the Oscars just to get the most exposure.”
The big change on the red carpet, stylists reiterated, is how over-the-top the look has become—seemingly for attention.
“To be honest, I think it’s gone a little crazy with all the ceremonies over the last few years,” Forde said. “Recently, there is more and more a kind of fight for space, fight for coverage and fight for attention. There are so many people trying to say so many different things and having so many fashion moments. I’ve always tried, with every ceremony I work on, to make sure my clients just look cool, relevant and themselves… but I also won’t go for the biggest fashion moment unless there’s real honesty behind it.”
When it comes to menswear, there are fewer rules to be broken on the carpet now, Urbinati said: “It’s more challenging, but also fun trying to figure out how to make something that’s unique, surprising and special in a world where everyone wears crazy s— t”
While representing designers with a sense of the moment, stylists want to deliver looks that are natural to the development of their clients’ personal style and careers, so there’s a story to tell.
“I would be interested to see, from a style standpoint, what people will do,” Forde said. “Are people really going to push it? Will he be a little more restrained this time?”
It’s a guessing game.
“Looking at the people who are nominated, just going downhill, whether we’re looking at Viola Davis or Ana de Armas or Margot Robbie, Michelle Yeoh, I can pretty much tell she’s going to wear this brand or that brand,” Ehrlich said of the best actress nominees, thinking on the relationships that brands establish with talent.
Robbie, who reportedly canceled her contract with Chanel, has recently worn Celine, Bottega Veneta and Alaïa. Armas, a rising star, wore an Oscar de la Renta gown for a late-night appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s show, but opted for Louis Vuitton at the Governors Awards. Meanwhile, Davis, who was dressed by Elizabeth Stewart, wore a custom Christopher John Rogers gown to the ceremony and was recently photographed in a custom Tory Burch gown. Yeoh, who will be dressed by Jordan Johnson, made a splash on the cover of Time magazine’s 2022 Icons and wore Schiaparelli to the Palm Springs International Film Festival on Thursday night.
“I think there’s going to be people who are going to really go out and have plunging necklines and plunging back lines, and then I hope, because I think it’s time, that we’ll see a little bit more of the old Hollywood classic. “, added Ehrlich.