Elsewhere, Ariana Grande divested herself from the Wicked way of dressing for the evening—though her look wouldn’t look entirely out of place in Glinda’s wardrobe: She opted for white gloves, paired with a butter yellow beaded and petal-skirted Givenchy haute couture gown from 1966. It seemed a significant portion of attendees were gunning for the main role in that long-rumored Audrey Hepburn biopic with their looks (which is, allegedly, in development and set to star Rooney Mara—but who’s going to get in Grande’s way right now?).
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Some took the Gilded Age vibes much more literally. Demi Moore, picking up her first award in her 45-year career, took to the stage in a dazzling gold Armani Privé gown, so sharp and clean in its lines that she looked like a statuette herself. Angelina Jolie wore a braided silver look from Seán McGirr’s second collection for Alexander McQueen, and Cate Blanchett rewore a custom gold sequinned Louis Vuitton gown, with caped shoulders that recalled silhouettes beloved by Katharine Hepburn.
Dramatic draping and bold ball gowns gave other stars a distinctly 1940s-into-the-’50s feel. Elle Fanning—who has been exploring the aesthetics of the ’60s in line with her turn in A Complete Unknown—wore a rose gold custom Balmain ball gown with a voluminous skirt and leopard print accents on the bust, directly inspired by a 1953 Balmain look. The old-school dream was kept alive in the details, too: the red Dolce & Gabbana gown on Elle’s sister Dakota, with its silky scarf thrown over her shoulder, harked back to Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. (Dakota, too, was at the Globes supporting a mid-century-inspired project: Steven Zaillian’s noirish Ripley.) Naomi Watts’s custom Schiaparelli, on the other hand, with its black corseted top and blooming, blush-pink bottom half, recalled the ’fits of Ava Gardner.
