Image courtesy of Business of Fashion

A recent Q&A session between The Cut’s Jenna Marotta and Simon Doonan, creative ambassador for Barney’s New York and generally brilliant fashion commentator, had me doing a double take. Before I explain, here is an excerpt from what Doonan said in the interview, which began with Marotta asking whether Doonan had watched the Golden Globes:

Really, I don’t understand how people can get it up for gowns. It’s highly paid actors wearing free clothes that are given to them. And they’re the only people on earth who really need to buy gowns (and actually need to buy and have the money), but they get them for free – illogical – and [are] representing brands in a way which is not particularly representative of a brand. It’s very hard to tell who did what dress, because actors all want them to be very simple because they don’t want to be made fun of in the blogosphere.

Slow. clap. Because, even though I love to look at the gowns worn to awards shows, and have even written Fashion Hit and Miss-type articles on them, I know that Doonan is right. Niggling at the back of my mind every time I compile a best dressed list is the thought that the actress being lauded for her style savvy was probably instructed on what to wear by a trained stylist, was probably given whatever she is wearing for free by a designer to promote a brand that she probably cares little about.

The actress/singer-fashion star position is a difficult one because many performers likely didn’t set out to be fashionistas and may not even have any interest in fashion. This is annoying to me personally, because given the opportunity to wear whatever I wanted for free and generally be fancy all the time I would be bathing in glittery gowns. That doesn’t mean that that’s one of, say, Jennifer Lawrence’s dreams – she is constantly expected to wow fashion critics but she had this to say of red carpet dressing: “I really would not call myself a fashion icon. I would call myself somebody who gets dressed by professionals. [It’s like], ‘Dance, monkey, dance’ right on the red carpet.’ I would call me more of a monkey.” Is it really fair that someone whose talent happens to be entertaining is also expected to have the ability to dress up like a pro? Or at the least to have the ability to discern which stylist will make them appear to have the ability to dress up like a pro? The idea that female entertainers can be valued based on their gown-choosing abilities is both silly and unrealistic since they may not be interested in fashion and they almost definitely aren’t doing the choosing regardless. Then again, in a world where female entertainers are valued largely based on physical beauty, the whole thing (sadly) makes sense.

I would like to add to this whole discussion that I don’t actually place the content of awards shows themselves over the content of red carpet bloodbaths. No profession is as over-paid and over-congratulated as entertaining, which continues to be one of the only jobs you can be “discovered on the street” for. That said, entertainers and some (rare) editors are the lucky few granted access to the best fashion has to offer. So what’s the solution to the meaningless red carpet? Turn it into a paper bag princess parade? Fire all the stylists and force those dancing monkeys to choose their own costumes? Stop watching? Sigh…

What do YOU think the red carpet should look like? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

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