(Fashion)
Diane Kruger Chose This Spring Trend For Chanel's Intimate Pre-Oscars Party
While awards season is jam-packed with events, the Chanel and Charles Finch 12th Annual Pre-Oscar Dinner is always one of the most anticipated, drawing a stunning crowd of Hollywood A-listers (maybe even A+) year after year. Taking place this past Saturday night, this year’s event was no exception with everyone from Margot Robbie, Penelope Cruz, Demi Moore, and Robert De Niro to Sofia Coppola, Lucy Boynton, Margaret Qualley, Chris Pine, and Tracee Ellis Ross making their way to The Beverly Hills Hotel for cocktails followed by an intimate seated dinner.
“I’ve been a fan of the brand since I was a little girl,” says Penelope Cruz, who wore the label on the Oscars red carpet. “I admire what they do, and I’m really happy to be an ambassador of the brand.” And while fashion veterans like Cruz have long been members of the rarified Chanel world, young actresses like Camila Morrone are more recent inductees. “I feel like every woman was introduced to Chanel by their mother or their grandmother or saw it from a very young age, says Morone.
Singer/songwriter Maggie Rogers was not only excited about being on the invite list, she was excited about the other people on it, too. “I’m so interested in having conversations,” she said. “It’s a very private, intimate evening, and everybody here is an artist I respect and admire. There’s been so much incredible work this year. It’s nice to have a time to celebrate it but also as an artist to have real discourse about the art.”
Want to hear more from the evening's A-list attendees? Below they share their red-carpet hacks and what they do—if anything—to stay comfortable through the anxiety-inducing, toe-pinching awards season.
“I’ve been buying ruffled shirts at vintage stores for the last two months, and I walked into my fitting with Chanel, and there was the perfect ruffled shirt,” said Rogers of her outfit of a lace, ruffled blouse from Chanel’s Cruise collection with a tweed coat from the Spring/Summer range. The high-volume, romantic top is 2020's follow up to the high-volume sleeves that dominated the past year.
Morrone, too, embraced some of the season's biggest street style trends, opting to style a black velvet-and-tulle dress with edgy combat boots. “If I could live in this outfit every day I would,” she said. “Why would I suffer in a heel when I could wear these awesome Chanel combat boots?” She adds that for most red carpets she has one hack for handling uncomfortable heels, “the second I have the opportunity, I take my shoes off and just walk barefoot.”
As for Cruz’s pink iridescent tweed jacket and skirt from the Spring/Summer collection, she embraced bold colors, refreshing the idea of classic suiting. “I love that it is so pink,” she said of her outfit designed by Chanel’s artistic director Virgine Viard, who took on the role after the passing of Karl Lagerfeld last year. “It’s so classic Chanel, but it’s very rock ‘n’ roll at the same time.”
Formal dressing is an intimidating task on a good day, but the pursuit of being comfortable while keeping your look on point is an almost impossible task. “I’m often the most uncomfortable on the red carpet because those dresses are not made for comfort,” said Kruger. “You just kinda suck it up.” Luckily, for the Pre-Oscars event, Kruger's tweed jumpsuit was a more comfortable option.
A red-carpet aficionado, Rachel Zoe knows the quicker she moves, the sooner she will be off her feet. “Honestly, I try to go really fast and just speed through,” she explains of her go-to red carpet tactic. For the evening, Zoe opted for a white look which she accessorized with a pearl belt and silver shoes.
“I’ve been so excited to see every carpet because I love seeing what people wear and the way they put it together,” said Morrone. “Being in the industry, I get to see a lot of these dresses before they go on, and then I get to see someone in them and the way they finish the look and personalize it.” Rogers agrees that the way someone wears an outfit and what it says about his or her personality is more important than who they are wearing. “The last big red carpet I was on was the Grammys,” she said, “and it was so nice to see people like Billie [Eilish], Lizzo and Ariana [Grande] really, really expressing their music and their personal style on the red carpet.” After all, there’s nothing chicer than truly authentic personal style.
