Who chooses which brands will appear on the Oscars red carpet?

For some years now, red carpet look reviews have flooded social media pages, platforms on which figures like Luke Meagher, aka HauteLeMode, have built their careers. The three videos in which Meagher comments on the looks of the 2023 Oscars have accumulated a total of 974 million views, while the four on the Met Gala have reached 1.5 million. Not that there weren't any before, but since brands have realized the media traction of Hollywood events, they have increased the dose of celebrity endorsement, up to ten years ago mainly applied to perfumes and beauty. Last night, at the 2024 Oscars, we witnessed the definitive proof of how, given that the way of doing fashion has changed with social media, the way of doing marketing has also evolved. More than a night of glamour, of stars with enviable looks (there were, but as reported by High Fashion Twitter they could have done better), the event served as advertising for luxury brands thanks to their darlings.

A slew of brands organized parties and afterparties (which perhaps in this case are called eveparties) before the Oscars. Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Armani, Prada, Versace, Saint Laurent, and Philipp Plein showed their support for the actors vying for a golden statuette by throwing extravagant parties in preparation for Sunday, while after the awards it was Gucci and Armand de Brignac's turn, a liquor brand of LVMH. And so the leading brands of opulent Europe took a direct flight to Los Angeles to support their ambassadors - fortunately, one might say, given that indeed the best men's suits were all Italian, from Willem Dafoe in Prada to Mark Ronson in Gucci, Cillian Murphy in Versace, and Simu Liu in Fendi. There are pairings between actor and fashion house that are now indissoluble: besides Dafoe and Prada, united for decades, and Ronson and Gucci, it's a classic to see Anya Taylor-Joy and Jennifer Lawrence in Dior, Emma Stone in Louis Vuitton, or Michelle Yeoh in Balenciaga. At the same time, it surprised us to find Florence Pugh, historical Valentino ambassador, in Del Core, and the same Taylor-Joy and Lawrence in Miss Sohee and Givenchy archive at the afterparties.

On one hand, there were numerous luxury brands dressing the ambassadors - let's add the newcomer Kim Kardashian in Balenciaga, the epic Charlize Theron in Dior, and Ryan Gosling in Gucci - on the other hand, stylists who managed to steal the scene from the minimal and sleek looks of the evening were rare. Andrew Mukamal, image curator of Margot Robbie, chose two vintage dresses by Atelier Versace and Mugler, while Law Roach, who has been exploring the world of archive fashion with Zendaya for years with unmatched audacity, last night limited himself to a satin dress from Armani Privé. While in 2023 there were countless stars promoting second-hand luxury, this year there seems to have been a trend reversal: Tab Vintage, one of Hollywood's most beloved vintage research platforms, collaborated only with Cardi B and Laverne Cox. As if the entire entertainment system had sacrificed creativity in favor of brand deals (what a novelty), the last remnants of artistic exploration in style were in the heels of the Godzilla Minus One cast, shaped like the claws of the film's protagonist monster.

The growing participation of luxury big names at the Oscars could offer two valuable insights into a dynamic that is gaining ground in Hollywood: stars prefer to be paid to attend the most glamorous events, as participating as ambassadors is the only option that includes compensation (the gift bag reaching almost $180,000 in value, but including vouchers for vacations and aesthetic treatments rather than bundles of cash), and thus inclusivity is completely disappearing, for independent brands as well as minority-owned brands, unbridled creativity as well as looks expressing a political or social message. Only tiny anti-war pins remain, hanging at the last minute on the double-breasted jacket of an actor dressed in black. In the last ten years, the Oscars have experienced a decline in viewership, from 40 million viewers in 2014 to 18 million in 2023. We cannot attribute blame to a single factor, to the obsolescence of contemporary television or to the loss of interest from the public in pop culture, but it is certain that the hyper-commercialization of looks on the red carpet is contributing to diminishing the media traction of the event. Years later, we still remember Littlefeather's long queues, Björk's swan-shaped dress, the pink cloud enveloping Gwyneth Paltrow as she tried to thank the Academy in tears, Cher's 1970s sequins, and Madonna's 1990s white boas. Of this year, perhaps only John Cena's hairless torso remains.