Stars of the 2025 movie awards season delivered intelligent and superior fashion and style to audiences yearning to fantasize and dream in these uncertain, challenging times.
Leave it to the artists and Hollywood to infuse the magic, whimsy and beauty in and at all times.
This year’s show biz awards season carried on and forged ahead after catastrophic Los Angeles wildfires destroyed whole parts of the city made famous by the entertainment industry and its stars who call it home. As in any American metropolis, a diverse range of people and groups came to the fore as the faces of lives and a landscape forever changed.
Whether with vigorous fundraising or boots-on-the-ground volunteering and crisis work, angels from all walks drove the city of angels’ ongoing recovery efforts. The best movies and television nominees answered the call to not disappoint millions of fans seeking to celebrate the movies they escaped to in good times and bad this past year. Now was a most urgent occasion for a season of fashion excess in the tuxedoed and glam-gowned Globes, BAFTAs, Image Awards and more leading to the pinnacle 97th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday, March 2. No worries over affording groceries, dodging political debates or exhausting compassion for all there is to care about and donate to now. Just pop the popcorn, pour the champagne, and watch a good show.
Some standouts of the season were Pamela Anderson as always, Demi Moore, Zoe Saldana, Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo and newcomer Mikey Madison. The Christians, as in Dior and Siriano, ruled the night. Here’s an appreciation of the most unforgettable and discussed celebs who blessed the red carpet with both traditional and modern glam approaches to dressing up.
Pamela Anderson
Though Anderson said “Meh” to the Oscars after she dazzled at all other major shows, we start off with her look at the SAG Awards just preceding it. It takes cojones to face glaring lights and younger competition barefaced save for lip gloss and a mascara swipe. She’s allowed healthy skin and hair alone to speak for themselves as her canvas in recent years, inspiring women around the world. She touts SonsieSkin as an ambassador for their “mindful minimal” skin care products behind her makeup-free fresh face. For her exit from the season that saw her nominated for everything but an Academy Award, she floated off in an immaculate one-shouldered ivory chiton-like dress from Dior.
Cynthia Erivo
At opposite end of the minimalist spectrum is Cynthia Erivo, whose makeup and style choices famously fuse Afropunk with haute couture. This year, she remained as otherworldly as Oz in signature dramatic ensembles that always showcase vision and craftmanship too often forgotten. The labor involved in her Siriano creation was visibly undeniable. To walk her yellow brick road up to the Oscars red carpet, she wore a deep Emerald City green velvet ballgown with exaggerated shoulders up top and a showstopping skirt on bottom. One can only wonder how she got along with those nails.
Zoe Saldana
Up to last night, Saldana’s style choices could be called safe if not boring were they not so well-tailored and precise as her acting has always been. She stuck to classic fits and colors, usually black, in her sophisticated lady mood this awards season. But for her Best Supporting Actress win, she pleasantly surprised in a fanciful, deep rose bubble dress by Saint Laurent. Her contrasting diamond-and-emerald choker by Cartier and black opera gloves uplifted the entire look to a winning moment that may be referred to for years.
Mikey Madison
Like Saldana, Madison’s classic silhouettes and almost office attire dress skirt/shirt combinations channeled Lauren Becall and Grace Kelly’s legendary class and simplicity. Most often seen in black and white or a combination of, she saved her creativity for last. Basic black Manolo Blahniks anchored her in tradition she favors. But her bubblegum pink Dior gown with a bowtie and black velvet bandeau top was a delight to mark her first Academy Award win on. Her simple messy bun and bare minimum makeup gave refreshing nod to a generation of young women determined to clean and natural beauty.
Demi Moore
By contrast Moore is Old Hollywood, so she had no need to hearken back to it on the red carpet. Instead she gave us everything in structurally complex and fashion forward ensembles everywhere she was up for and mostly won Best Actress this year. Her famous figure adores strapless, low cut and/or tight-fitting gowns like the silver and rhinestone crystal custom Gorgio Armani Prive she closed her awards season run on. No one came close to doing grown and sexy better than Demi at the Oscars.
Halle Berry
Well, maybe no one but Halle Berry. A gift that just keeps giving, she always serves in ways expected and unexpected, but fell in line with the traditionalists this year. The Coco Chanel ambassador showed off how to achieve the perfect nude face with Chanel complexion, eye, lip and brow makeups. A razor-sharp bob put the spotlight on the result. Then she slipped into the Siriano parade in a body-hugging, mermaid-fit, shattered mirror dress befitting a modernist. She’s always pivoting, schooling and ready for her closeup.
Ariana Grande
She was just lovely all season, capitalizing on her diminutive stature and frame to showcase amazing inventions of fashion and design the way they deserved. Her Oscars night look was from the Schiaparelli Spring 2025 collecting debuting at Paris Fashion Week. The champagne pink, tight-topped but flowy chiffon bottomed dress continued her and Cynthia’s clever tactic to stay somewhat in ‘Wicked’ character. Now that she’s fully staked her place on the Hollywood red carpet scene, it feels like she’s always been there.
Whoopi Goldberg
All respects to the EGOT, a veteran of the Oscars red carpet as winner and frequent host. It’s hard to categorize her unmissable ballgown, but she took a chance on it so we must talk about it. From a distance, the luminescent slate blue fabric makes the creation look like it could be rubber or leather. Each level of the dress is giving — from the boatneck top leading to pointy shoulders, comfy pockets at the waist and a Cinderella skirt flirting with the floor. We are unsure what sparked this return in rare form but more, please!
Colman Domingo and Timothée Chalamet
Special shoutout to the gentlemen for tasting the rainbow on the carpet! Colman burned it up in a dangerously red Valentino tuxedo jacket with a catch-me-if-you-can sash. Chalamet countered in a gentle daisy-colored, loose-fitting leather suit. Givenchy was responsible for this one that’s followed the trend of dividing the internet on Chalamet’s eccentric outfits. Regardless of if either look won or misfired, who says red and yellow suits will start popping up everywhere this summer thanks to these two?
Curious about what these celebs and nominees get inside their infamous Oscar gift bag? Check out Beauty News NYC’s report on six figures worth of swag organized annually by LA-based marketing firm Distinctive Assets.
