With tiny, elegant dresses to squeeze into and cameras to wow on Sunday, celebrities have likely spent the last week getting red-carpet ready.
“There’s a lot of starvers doing the water and air diet–easy on the water,” said celebrity stylist Phillip Bloch. “Definitely that all goes on, but who wouldn’t do it? You’d do it for your best friend’s wedding.”
Bloch, who has styled many famous stars, including Halle Berry, Salma Hayek, Jim Carrey and John Travolta, said that Oscar day is not so much an awards ceremony as it is a giant fashion show.
Bloch said primping for the ceremony can begin as early as 7 a.m., since there are major demands on a stylist’s time that day. Depending on star power, you can be squeezed into the hectic schedule. A typical Oscar day for a stylist could include three or four clients. “It can start very early,” he said.
“The celebrities are there to please the fans and the press,” he said. “It’s about the dresses.”
For women especially, Bloch said, the dress can be a major career boost if they choose wisely. A minor star who stands out at the Oscars, he said, can improve her status by making it onto magazine covers.
“I’ve worked with celebrities in the past where their career was based on the dress,” he said. “Think Liz Hurley, or even Salma [Hayek] in the early days. Until you have a resume and a portfolio to go with it, you have to get noticed for wearing ‘That Dress.’ “
“That Dress,” Bloch said, is the one people always remember and associate with a star.
“It’s like when you say, ‘Halle Berry and the brown Valentino,’ ” he said. “There’s not many stars who have a dress you can remember like that.”
For many actresses, though, the goal is to be remembered for more than the way they look. Berry was able to pull that off when she won a best actress award for “Monster’s Ball,” Bloch said, but getting there is not easy.
“You have to actually be a great actress and find a great role like Halle did, like Salma did, like Charlize did,” said Bloch, noting that a dress cannot make up for a lack of talent.
Once an actress attains that professional status, the goal is to choose a simpler Oscar look that does not detract from her own star power. At that point, “you don’t pick ‘That Dress,’ ” Bloch said. “You pick a great dress, and you stick with simple, simple, simple.”
Bloch cites celebrities such as Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger, Jennifer Aniston and Kate Winslet as actresses who have reached the level of stardom that does not rely on the perfect dress to get noticed.
“They’re the kind of girls who are beautiful, and they get enough press,” he said. “It just works for them. If everybody else did it, their picture would probably never run.”
Not having your picture taken, Bloch said, is the worst thing that can happen to an actress at the Oscars. “You absolutely don’t want to show up and the next day have people say, ‘Oh, she was there?’ ” he said.
There’s less pressure on men to make an impression, Bloch said, although most still do make an effort to look nice.
“Let’s face it: Armani has this market very well cornered, as do the Pradas and the Calvins,” he said.
Seeing red
Celebrity stylist Phillip Bloch is eagerly awaiting Sunday’s red carpet. He said he is especially excited to see what Cate Blanchett,
Charlize Theron and Kate Winslet will be wearing.
He also hopes that the “adorable” Natalie Portman will have a chance to redeem herself for recently committing one of the greatest red carpet faux pas: wearing something absolutely dreadful.
“What she wore to the Golden Globes was just awful,” Bloch said, shaking his head.
“Awful.”
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mcarberry@tribune.com
