Robin Givhan:
You know, I think it’s kind of hard for people to believe that there was a point where the stars would show up pretty much left to their own devices.
You know, in the very early days of the Oscar red carpet, most of the celebrities were sort of dressed by the costumers from the studios. And then they were kind of left to their own devices, and there were some pretty outrageous moments. And then Armani hired a woman named Wanda McDaniel, who came in and sort of created almost a system.
And Armani started dressing a lot of the celebrities, who really, I think, felt indebted to him for doing it, because it allowed them to get a bit of support when they’re out there on the red carpet being photographed. And he dressed them in his sensibility. So it was all about sort of the classic tuxedo and elegant evening gowns, not a ton of skin, not a lot of sheer, but very much the Armani aesthetic.
