Oscar Week: Let's Bring Crazy Back to the Red Carpet

Is it just me, or have award show gowns gotten a little boring in recent years?

Just about every actress who hits a red carpet these days is meticulously and tastefully styled to within an inch of her life - usually in some elegant but uninspired shade of ivory,black or champagne. In that milieu, just having Marcia Cross show up in a lavender gown feels like an electrifying moment of fashion innovation.

Miraculously, Joan Rivers and the gang at Fashion Police manage to come up with an hour's worth of catty fashion commentary after every major awards show, and I'm sure they'll milk this year's Oscar looks for every quip and insult they can get.  But, me,  I kind of miss the days when actresses were free to follow their own batshit-crazy fashion instincts, without the intervention of Rachel Zoe and her ilk.  And this week, I find myself particularly nostalgic for the kind of Oscar night fashion faux pas we seldom see anymore.

Like Bjork and the crazy-ass swan dress she wore in 2001, when she came to perform her Best Song-nominated number from Dancer in the Dark.  I'm not sure what makes me more wistful about this picture - the refreshing nuttiness of Bjork's fashion sense or the fact that a Lars von Trier film actually got an Oscar nomination. (Where are the nominations for Melancholia this year?  Damn you, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and your safe, predictable conventionality!)

Remember the '80s when seeing Cher's Oscar-night get-ups were half the reason  you tuned into the show?  On the left, Cher's sartorial reaction to being snubbed in the 1985 Best Actress race for her work in Mask.  On the right, her only-marginally-more-tasteful attire, plus a trophy for Moonstruck. No one works a hot Bob Mackie mess like Cher.  She is sorely missed at these events.

Nowadays, Demi Moore models tasteful, sophisticated dresses for Ann Taylor.  But in 1989, she was designing her own stuff, like this bustier/bike shorts combo with the added excitement of a detachable skirt lined in upholstery fabric. 

An earlier example of self-designed Oscar garb: Barbra Streisand and the scandalous, sparkly see-through pantsuit she wore to collect her trophy for Funny Girl.  You gotta love Babs in her pre-Donna Karan days.  She was young and trying to find her style. 

Then there's Cate Blanchett.   Very fashion forward.  You can usually count on her to arrive in something both stunning and interesting.  But 2011 was an off-year for Cate, who chose to show up in a gown apparently constructed around a macrame-trimmed toilet seat cover.

But the great thing about Cate Blanchett (most years, anyway) is that she consistently shows us that beautiful Oscar gowns need not be boring.  The exquisite back detail on this dress from 1999 makes it an Oscar night classic, distinctive and gorgeous.

Also fashion-forward and fascinating - if considerably more eccentric - is Tilda Swinton.  Not everyone could pull this thing off (and some might argue that Tilda doesn't), but I like her daring.  In 2008, I took potshots at her non-existent makeup as well as the dress.  In retrospect, though, this look seems weirdly cool.  I don't know how good Tilda actually was in We Need to Talk About Kevin, but I wish she'd been nominated just so we could see what she'd wear to the ceremony.

Finally, if anyone can be counted to bring the crazy these days, it's Helena Bonham-Carter.  Actually this dress from last year's Oscars isn't one of her wildest - not till she showed us her Union Jack garter, anyway. And I love the fan - or is it an evening bag designed to look like a fan?  I lalso love that she doesn't take it all so seriously. If only more actresses were so relaxed and unfussy.