Feminine Differential = Oscar Gowns

Did Margot Robbie, America Ferrera and Greta Gerwig’s Oscar gowns have a hidden ‘Barbie’ meaning?

 

America Ferrera, Margot Robbie and Barbie Director Greta Gerwig

My Note: I have always enjoyed the Oscar show of it's display of ultra feminine gowns.  Although Barbie was snubbed in several categories the primary players left their mark on the red carpet fashion and song.  Even Ryan Gosling rocks the Oscars stage with kenergetic ‘I’m Just Ken’ performance.  Many called it the highlight of the night. Here is CNN's take on the Barbie gowns of the evening.

CNN - The cast of “Barbie” will go down in red-carpet history for their dedication to method dressing, as stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling diligently showed up to press events, premieres and award shows in outfits that could have been borrowed straight from Barbie and Ken’s dollhouse closets.

But at the Academy Awards on Sunday, where the summer blockbuster was nominated for nine awards, including “Best Picture,” Robbie appeared to pass the pink torch to co-star America Ferrera, wearing a striking black (but decidedly non-Barbie-like) gown while Ferrera arrived in shimmering hot pink.

Still, it seemed as if the actors’ dresses were connected, and linked to that of “Barbie” director Greta Gerwig’s too. While Robbie and Ferrera’s dresses were polar opposite in color and mood, they were both courtesy of Versace and seemed to be made of the same chainmail material. (Robbie’s was fresh off the Fall-Winter 2024 runway, while Ferrera’s was custom-made.) Gerwig’s gown, meanwhile, was a sparkling Gucci number of crystal mesh that also had an armor-like feel.

The collection of feminine chainmail was a subtle play on power dressing — appropriate for the movie’s message of female empowerment. But they weren’t the only “Barbie” cast and team members to sparkle. With a touch of Ken’s flair for opulence, Gosling wore a custom Gucci black tuxedo suit lined with sparkling beading, while Simu Liu opted for a black jacket cinched with a glittering brooch clasp.

Ryan Gosling’s fan-favorite performance
 at the Oscars in a studded suit.

Despite missing out to Oppenheimer’s Robert Downey Jr. for the best actor in a supporting role award, Gosling later channeled all his Kenergy during a delightful performance of the song “I’m Just Ken.” He was joined by a crew of Kens including Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Ncuti Gatwa and Scott Evans, and a surprise appearance by guitarist Slash, and wore a hot pink studded suit with matching leather gloves — and shades of course.

Though Ferrera didn’t win Best Supporting Actress (the award went to Da’Vine Joy Randolph for “The Holdovers”), her outfit embodied the spirit of the four-minute feminist monologue that helped earn her the nomination, in which her character laments about the ways in which women have to weather impossible and contradictory societal standards.

“When I first read it, it just hit me as the truth,” she told the Los Angeles Times last July. “There’s no woman in my life who those words aren’t true for. Not a single one. So it felt like a gift.”