Upstairs on 7th

Upstairs on 7th: Academy Awards 2023

Another Academy Awards has come and gone but the shock of some of the clothes may linger for quite a while!

Here are my best and worst picks for 2023. I will turn this over to Katy for her picks.

Overall, Halle Berry, who wore one of my all time favorite dresses to the Oscars the year she won, not only wore a bad dress to the show, her dress to the Vanity Fair Party was so bad that she wins for my worst of all.
Best skin goes to Cate Blanchette. It literally glowed!
Most selfish attendee goes to Tems for wearing a wedding dress to the Oscars that had such a huge headpiece that no one sitting behind her could see the stage.
The I don’t know who this is award goes to this producer of some movie that wore a very beautiful dress.
Rita Ora looked very pretty.
Anjelina Jolie started this leg thing and Nicole Kidman looked so pretty as usual doing her version of it. Although I am getting a little sick of it.
My two favorite dresses were worn by Lady Gaga and Michelle Yeoh. They would have looked even better if the carpet was red. There were lots of white dresses but they didn’t look as dynamic on a champagne carpet.
Best earrings went to Emily Blunt for the gorgeous earrings she wore.
Best diamond necklace goes to the Tiffany necklace worn by Florence Pugh.
And loveliest dress worn by a woman you didn’t expect to see at the Oscar’s goes to Malala.
Ok, Katy, you’re up!
Overall, I thought it was a great Oscar’s for fashion, but maybe even more so for the tenacious! Four first time actor winners, all with long, winding, roads to get to the podium. I loved it! A small aside to say I was particularly moved by Ke Huy Quan’s win which may have to do with the number of times my brother and I watched our VCR tape of The Goonies, which we rented from Campus Drug Store and then hid under my bed until my father was forced to buy it. We watched it in a loop for years. Speaking of Ke Huy Quan, he’s my first pick for Best Dressed! He went classic all the way and I particularly loved his jewelry. The vintage art nouveau pansy brooch from Fred Leighton was beautiful and if he returns it, it can be yours for $9700 on their site.
My next pick is Cate Blanchett. I wracked my brain and consulted Google to see if she’s ever had a fashion misstep and I really don’t think she ever has. I also appreciate that she has been recycling looks for the last couple of years. I think that is something she will keep doing and hopefully others will follow suit. In particular she wore one of my favorite Oscar dresses of all time to the BAFTA’s this year and it might have been even better the second time around. It’s Maison Margiela, btw. So for this year and for every year, Cate is GREAT!
Michelle Williams also had one of my top picks for this year, wearing Chanel, and remains on my all time best list for her most gorgeous color on a red carpet Vera Wang dress (speaking of the red carpet, why was the red carpet, not red, and why was their no memo sent out to the stylists?!)
Rodarte is one of the lines that I will probably never own, but ALWAYS admire, and the Mulleavy sisters delivered two of my favorites for this Oscar night. Kate Hudson and Jessie Buckley were sparkly and dramatic and I thought the dresses expressed their personalities so perfectly. The work on Jessie Buckley’s dress is just incredible, don’t you think?
Prada is my secret love because it is simple and stately, and the dress they made for Hong Chau, who was nominated for “The Whale,” is a perfect example of this. It’s also a good indication that we will be wearing pink for at least a little while longer.
Lastly, for my best of, in what I could call my activist category, I also chose Malala in Ralph Lauren (my Mom and I do agree on things every now and again,) and Alexei Navalny’s wife and the producer of his documentary, Odessa Rae, both in Chloe.
I hate to choose a worst. Thankfully it was harder this year. No one dressed like a bird (sorry Bjork,) and there were no meat dresses (you’ve come a long way Lady Gaga). To soften the blow, let me just say that I love Mindy Kaling but to quote someone else (though I wish I had come up with it,) this dress was just everything, everywhere, all at once. Four ideas, one dress. Her figure looks great, she’s beautiful, she is a real fashion lover who is usually right on the mark, but this one, for me, not so good.
Let’s end on a positive note, shall we? A full circle moment. I’m not crying, you’re crying.
Until next year,

Ricki and Katy