Icons are supposed to be born on the Oscars red carpet, right? But all I could think watching the fashions from last night’s event was meh. But I knew the producers had supposedly reengineered the mechanics of the carpet, so I held out hope for what we might see from inside the Kodak. But instead of being surprised with an all-time best, I was shocked by an all-time worst, and from a truly surprising source: Reese Witherspoon.
The former Best Actress has delivered some of the most stunning looks to ever walk down a red carpet (remember her flawless Nina Ricci run of 2007, and that one canary yellow gem?) so when she walked onto the stage I was ready to gasp. And I did. But not in a good way.
The gown by Rodarte was, ahem, fashion forward enough with its black and blue color blocking, the swaths of toilet paper for straps, the randomly placed glitter, and the not quite invisible bra underneath — but then she decided to take the extra step and wear matching makeup. Two words: haute mess. So it’s with a heavy heart that I say move over Cameron and Gwyneth, and make room for Reese in the Oscar Fashion Catastrophe Hall of Fame.
What do you think, PopWatchers? Does Reese deserve a lump of coal in her spanx this year? Are there other looks from Oscars 2009 you think will go down in fashion history?
More Oscars coverage:
Fashion: The best and worst on the red carpet
Oscars ‘09 Readers Poll: What did you think?
Dave Karger’s OscarWatch: The morning after
Missy Schwartz’s picks the night’s 13 best/worst moments
EW reports from the Kodak Theatre, parties… and bathrooms!
Ken Tucker’s take on the telecast
Adam B. Vary’s report from backstage
Whitney Pastorek on the scene at Prince’s Oscar night house party
Complete list of winners
EW live blogs the Oscars telecast
EW live blogs the red carpet shows
EW’s Oscars Central (Dave Karger’s video interviews, photo galleries, and more)
Comments (1-30) of 107 Add your comment
Actually, I kinda liked Reese’s dress- I loved the color, but not those wierd black straps. Had the dress not had those it would have been one of my favorites of the night.
wow, I couldn’t agree with you more! She walked out on stage and I nearly died of fright….that dress was truly hideous! I was so sad for Reese who usually looks spectacular at these events.
It would’ve looked nicer as a strapless gown. I thought her eye makeup was much worse. She looked tired and yucky with that dark eye shadow.
I think she should get a pass on this one because she is clearly trying to hide either a pregnancy (or some weight gain). Also, at least her dress wasn’t boring, as so many were last night. I think Jessica Biel should take the crown for worst dressed of the evening.
I didn’t like her dress but there are far worst dresses like Tilda Swinton. That lady looks consistently awful and scared.
I swear I remember an almost identical dress in a different color (gray?) on some recent season of Project Runway, but I just can’t place it. As I recall, it was tragic there too.
I ordinarily wouldn’t comment on something like this, but her appearance really did stand out, and not in a good way. I didn’t really mind the dress, but the makeup: egad. Looked like she just got socked in both eyes; some bizzaro goth formal look.
IHeartSlezak(and Mandi) i was thing the same thing.
I LOVED IT!
Uh, Sophia Loren? Anyone?
The dress was one of those where it’s not hideously awful, but there are a few too many things wrong with it. I did love the color on her.
And yes, Tilda Swinton tends to dress very avant-garde in ways I never would, but she carries it off beautifully.
She looked absolutely ridiculous. That was the most horrible dress I have ever seen…it was a big mishmash. And to top it off…her hairstyle was atrocious. Basically a non-style. What happened, did she run out of time or something? That’s how my daughter sometimes wears her hair when she’s running around in sweats…and even then I say “do something with your hair!”
Bad: yes
All-time worst: no
I second the motion on Sophia Lauren. A friend of mine asked “Is she a tranny drag queen? It looks like her mask is about to fall off”…not my words but I won’t lie, I was thinking it.
It was not that bad. The colors were beautiful and the neckline was great.
The glittery part…yeah, that was an odd choice. But her dress in not even in the same category of awful that Sofia Loren and Whoopi Goldberg were part of last night.
:shiver:
Bad dress with strange straps. Loved the color but nothing else AND it made her look fat. Eye makeup was a disaster! Reese, where are your fashion advisors? Did anyone else think she looked ill at ease on stage?
plus her hair wasn’t pretty at all. it looked like it was just in one of those cheap, plastic clips in the back. yuk.
Toilet paper for straps? I thought she was carrying a backpack.
Reese didn’t even jump out at me as anything awful…but Sophia Loren? That was definitely super bad! Dress, hair everything about her looked awful!
This dress is just a big ? The color is nice but it looked like it was put together in 20 minutes. There’s no shape and I agree with the person who said it does make her look fat.
Yes, it was an unflattering dress, but it’s not the worst ever. That honor will always be held by Bjork. Second prize is Demi Moore’s bicycle shorts dress. It’s a close race, though, because I think Demi was actually trying to be glamorous, unlike Bjork!
I actually really liked this. I think it’s cool when people do something unexpected in general, and this is one that (for me) works.
It’s why I always love what Cate Blanchett is wearing, it’s never typical and she stands out.
The dress on it’s own isn’t spectacularly awful, but on Reese Witherspoon, who has previously been so tasteful in her fashion choices, it’s pretty awful. The makeup added to the train wreck. I think Gwyneth Paltrow’s wacko-goth-Heidi ensemble was worse, but only by a stitch.
Worst-dressed by far was Goldie Hawn. Her dress was ill-fitting and cut her bust in half for the dreaded double-cleavage look. Couple that with her bad botox and you have the worst red carpet appearance since the heyday of Sally Kirkland.
Her whole look was bad. She looked like she just got out of bed and said, “Oh crap, I gotta go to the Oscars”. Then she threw some dress on that was in the laundry basket that didn’t smell too bad, twisted her hair up in a scrunchy and jumped in the limo.
Yeah, how could you say this was the worst- did you SEE that horrible leopard print thing Whoopi had on? And Sophia Loren was completely scary- dress, hair, makeup, too much surgery or something.. yikes.
Reese looks gorgeous in just about anything – and she is always one of the most unique. I agree her makeup was a little drab, and the design of this dress was odd. But I loved the unusual blue/black combo – I just didn’t understand the straps (if you can call them that), and that strange sheer mesh bra-type thing on the bodice — it was too noticeable and seemingly unnecessary — I just wasn’t sure why it was there at all. It looked like the sort of strange mesh that female ice skaters have on their dresses — but that works from a distance on the ice — NOT up close at the Oscars. That was the weirdest part of the dress. But Reese still manages to look cute and unique, even if it wasn’t her best dress.
Btw, I agree with others who say Whoopi looked terrible. But, I tend to ignore her because she’s never looked good, or glamorous. It’s the women who know better, like Reese (and Goldie), and then make red-carpet snafus, that really get my attention.
I thought Jessica Biel’s napkin dress was far worse. Like the color of Reece’s dress, but weird overall and her makeup looked awful. Not flattering, I too thought she was preggo or attempting to hide recent weight gain.
Oh, come on. This dress is gorgeous.
Clearly, you can’t appreciate fashion.
I’ll bet you think Angelina was best dressed in her black jersey-looking “gown”.
Beyonce looked like a joke. Worst dressed, by far.