There’s a certain Oscars red carpet formula we’ve come to expect from Hollywood’s leading ladies. Whether it’s a form-fitting couture frock dripping with sequins, or a lavishly oversized princess dress crafted from layers of frothy tulle, the gown has always ruled the Academy Awards. Sure, there have been a few notable exceptions—who can forget Céline Dion’s backward tuxedo at the 1999 ceremony, or Billie Eilish’s tweed Chanel suit in 2020?—but these diversions are rare.
Tonight, however, there was a feeling of change afoot, with a very specific item of clothing coming to the fore: the humble white button-down. But of course, this being the Oscars, it wasn’t the kind of white boyfriend shirt you might have hanging around the back of your wardrobe. Instead, it was elevated to befit the glamour of Tinseltown’s biggest night out.
One of the ceremony’s three presenters, Wanda Sykes, showed up in a sleek white tuxedo jacket by Sergio Hudson, an airy pair of matching trousers, and, yes, a crisp white shirt with glittering crystal buttons. Arriving soon after was Uma Thurman in an impossibly chic Bottega Veneta look consisting of a loosely-fitting white silk shirt and a meticulously-cut black column skirt, glossy as an oil slick and perfectly cut to hit the floor.
Some of Hollywood’s youngest ingénues were embracing the breezy insouciance of a white shirt, too. Ever the trend-setter, Zendaya stepped onto the red carpet in one of her favorite silhouettes—an ab-baring Valentino two-piece—but swapped out her typical bandeau tops for a cropped ivory silk shirt, the sleeves nipped at the elbows to show off her extravagant Bulgari bracelets. Finally, the fashion renegade to rule them all, Kristen Stewart, wore perhaps the boldest take on the white shirt trend. In a custom Chanel shorts suit, her subversive take on occasionwear was pulled together by her crepe de soir blouse that was unbuttoned all the way down to the waistline for that final rebellious touch.
Of course, the classic white button-down for women is far from anything new. Marie Antoinette caused a scandal all the way back in the 18th century when she wore a white blouse in a portrait painted by her favored artist, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun. By the 1920s, Coco Chanel revolutionized women’s wardrobes by incorporating tailoring and menswear-inspired shirting into her collections, while the Golden Age of Hollywood saw stars from Katharine Hepburn to Marlene Dietrich regularly wear the pieces. And that’s without even mentioning the endless memorable white shirts worn on-screen, from Annie Hall to Pulp Fiction to Pretty Woman.
But the underlying assumption that only gowns are appropriate for the Academy Awards red carpet has remained curiously strict—and dare we say it, a little outdated. (Lest we forget the controversy that followed Sharon Stone’s outfit to the Oscars in 1998, where she paired a lilac silk Vera Wang skirt with—you guessed it—a white shirt from Gap, which the tabloids unfairly ripped apart as being inappropriate for the typically flashy event.) So here’s to ripping up the rulebook on the red carpet going forward. If tonight’s looks proved anything, it’s that in the right hands, the white shirt is anything but simple.
This article was originally published on Vogue US.
