Which dresses will we see at the Oscars this year?

One of my favorite nights of the year is not New Year’s Eve or Christmas Eve. No, it’s the night of the Oscars. Starting with a month of watching the nominated movies (or at least half of them), the emotions build up until it’s time for the red carpet. The glamour of Hollywood comes together tonight, and I have decided to make a list of all the dresses that I think will be part of the event.

I have chosen only dresses from the Paris Haute Couture shows of this season. A lot of actresses will opt for a vintage outfit or something custom made. All the muses of the famous maison de couture will probably have something specially made for this magical evening. One thing is certain – Lady Gaga will be stunning in Gucci. It’s a shame that she didn’t get a nomination.

The Classics

I consider myself a big fan of Dior, but this year’s Haute Couture collection isn’t screaming “red carpet”. We have a lot of pantsuits, which sometimes make an appearance, but I wouldn’t count on it this year. At least not a Dior pantsuit.

The Oscars should be a joyous occasion and I find black to me to somber for it. However, we have previously seen some amazing dresses. My favorite is this one that Reese Witherspoon wore in 2011. Here is a Dior version that is somewhat plain, but I couldn’t create my Pinterest board without at least one black Dior dress.

Christian Dior Spring 2022 Couture

Then there is the typical Dior dress that we have seen a million times. I can definitely see Anja Taylor-Joy wearing something like that.

Christian Dior Spring 2022 Couture

And this looks like someone robed the costume design department of Dune.

Christian Dior Spring 2022 Couture

If you ask me, Chanel never delivered outfits worthy of the red carpet. The whole Couture collection looked more like a bunch of work outfits for the official return to the office. Of course, there were dresses with flowers, the iconic jackets and so on. Let’s see who will be looking like a nun in this one.

Chanel Spring 2022 Couture

We are in dire need of something dramatic and Valentino is here to deliver.

Valentino Spring 2022 Couture

Another trend that the designers translated from the RTW collections, is the mini dress. Valentino succeeded in combining the old Hollywood with the new trends and this is the magical result.

Valentino Spring 2022 Couture

The Princess Gowns

I hope to see classic gowns from Alexis Mabille. A relatively new name on the Haute Couture scene, his first collection was in 2008. He’s not really someone I would spontaneously think of, when imagining a red carpet dress, but his creations are very beautiful and elegant. Sadly, the colors don’t fit my skin color and I would never be able to wear them.

Alexis Mabille Spring 2022 Couture

An absolute dream are the dresses of Zuhair Murad. I’m a big romantic and I have noticed his creation a couple of years before they became a regular on the red carpet events. I have selected just a few, but honestly each one of them deserves to be in the spotlight.

Since we’re going back to the trends from the 00s, this two-piece or a variation of it will definitely have its moment.

Zuhair Murad Spring 2022 Couture

I particularly like the fact that Mr. Murad includes so many colors in each collection, so that everyone can find something special that suits their taste.

We cannot miss the couturier Elie Saab when we are talking about gowns. Full-skirted silhouettes sparkle in all kinds of colors in his last collection. One of my personal favorites are the ones that use a nude material but have joyous splashes of yellow and pink, like the one bellow.

Elie Saab Spring 2022 Couture

The Bold Ones

Overall, Azzaro’s collection was very shiny and in metallic shades of grey. I chose this dress as representative for the collection because I think it’s the perfect look for the Oscar nominated Olivia Coleman.

Azzaro Spring 2022 Couture

Another collection with metallic accents is the one of Alexandre Vauthier. This dress screams old Hollywood glam but at the same time has a modern twist.

Alexandre Vauthier Spring 2022 Couture

I’m here for the velvet dresses as well.

Alexandre Vauthier Spring 2022 Couture

Let’s hope that we’ll see a lot of sparks tonight.

The Wild Details

Giambattista Valli showed a lot of dramatic dresses on the podium. Flowers, big bows, and feathers are the details that we see the most. I’m curious if someone will wear this iconic dress:

Giambattista Valli Spring 2022 Couture

An element that we need to see is a corset put in focus. A very interesting version of a corset could be found in the collection of Jean Paul Gaultier. It’s not exactly red carpet material, but I like the juxtaposition between the deconstructed lace and the velvet floor-length skirt.

Jean Paul Gaultier Spring 2022 Couture

And this look reminds me of the episode of The Big Band Theory where Sheldon decided to dress up like the Doppler effect for Halloween.

Jean Paul Gaultier Spring 2022 Couture

We all know that it will be a fabulous event. The color palette will include a lot of white and nude tones, splashes of hot pink here and there, the classic black as usual (especially for the ones that don’t want to take a risk), a lot of metallic and silver. To check out all the dresses I have chosen, check out my Pinterest board. All the photos can be found at vogue.com. Have a wonderful time tonight and I hope that your favorite movies win some awards!

Inside the Mugler exhibition in Paris

I went on a 2 day trip to Paris and was lucky enough to catch an exhibition in MAD dedicated to the French couturier Manfred Thierry Mugler. I didn’t know a lot about the personal life and interests of the designer and could only distinguish his RTW by the special geometrical shapes that are typical for him. An afternoon at the museum of arts décoratifs gave me some insights that made me appreciate his work a lot more.

Ballet influence and Fashion made for the Stage

Before becoming a designer, Mugler was a ballet dancer at the Rhin Opera. This interest of his played a big part in his later work. Since I danced ballet for 10 years, this fact made me feel closer to his world.

Mugler considered the clothes as an essential part of the individual – a way of staging one’s everyday life and making it more beautiful, more fun and more creative. Fashion enabled him to express his vision through a mix of fabric, lighting and music. For the soundtrack of his runway Mugler created an eclectic mix of sounds comprising Nitican chants, Egyptian songs, combined with the sounds of water, metal and laughter, as well as classical music like Beethoven, Verdi or Wagner.

How to notice a Mugler silhouette

The first collection of Mugler was in 1973, when he is only 25. In the golden age of hippie fashion trends like flowers and ethnic looks, the silhouettes of Mugler were almost alien like. All garments were unconventional in the body conscious cuts that underlined the femininity of the models. It was a big contrast with the wide hippie dresses. Mugler was also fascinated by architecture and a lot of his clothes have a very specific shapes. Oversized hats, extra-broad shoulders, well fitted gowns and jackets, wasp waist, revealing cleavage (front and back), tall boots, sharp stilettos – these are some of the typical marks of Mugler’s designs.

Futuristic influence in the 80s

The aerodynamic and robot-style looks invented by Mugler are now iconic. Following the new wave in science fiction (60s and 70s) the designer took a new direction. He mixed the traditional medieval armour with futuristic designs. Some of his looks could be easily used as the uniform of the newest DC movie.

An interesting and unusual approach is when he created an homage to a car designer and the result was a lot of corsets in the form of a tailgate.

Magnificent animals and breathtaking beasts

Going back to the stage of life, Mugler reinvented the human body by giving it a beastly taste. With time the designer got more exotic, used different types of fabrics. His inspiration came from the animal world and more specifically from reptiles, insects, butterflies. The interesting part is that he didn’t use the obvious choice of feathers, fur and leather but mimicked nature by creating optical illusions.

In the late 90s Mugler was on top of his fame with two very special collections. The most famous look of Les insects is the one with a black velvet trail and colourful butterfly wings. The most iconic design of La Chimère represented a mythical creature with reptile like bodysuit. The whole dress is embellished with crystals, rhinestones, feathers and horsehair. The creation of this masterpiece required thousands of hours of work in the atelier but it was worth it. While standing in front of it, one can really see the genius of Mugler. A picture may be worth a 1000 words but it is still too weak to describe this masterpiece.

A Star is Born

Before he got famous, Mugler was so poor that he had to sleep on park benches. What can one do, while lying on a bench at night? Well, contemplate stars of course! The designer later says about a particular star in the night sky: “I felt that it was following me, guiding me, that it was my guardian angel, and old myself there must be something better that was going to happen for me. The star came to me.” I have to admit that I wasn’t a big fan of the sweet aroma of the perfume, but after reading this story I understood why it was so important to him. Five years after starting his brand, Mugler was already experimenting with scents but it took him some time before finding the right balance between tradition and innovation. The new creation started a whole new category of what are called “gourmand” fragrances.

A day at the Opera

The next stop on my to-do list in Paris is the magnificent Opera House. During the last couple of weeks, I was trying to do more of the interesting stuff that every tourist does but also to discover the hidden gems of the city. This one, I admit, is rather an obvious choice. The Opera House triumphs in the middle of a big square, always busy with cars, buses, and numerous pedestrians.

Recently, I watched a vlog about an unusual invention that was meant to be placed amid this cacophony. Since Parisians were very against a subway, one navy captain decided that traveling in the air would be a more logical choice of transportation. I’m not talking about air balloons or flying cars but about ships. These ships would have navigated from one lamppost to another so that all the passengers could still admire the Opera and everything else around them. I’m not making stuff up; you could check out this video and learn all about the project and why they built a subway after all.

So, after watching this I was compelled to come and give a closer look at the Opera. I was happy to discover that I was one of the few who decided to spend their afternoon here. The Opera is closed during the summer which means that there are no performances in the evening.

The visitors enter through a door on the side of the building but one could still climb the main stairs. The ceiling reveals Olympus with all the Greek gods. Even though it’s the middle of the day, the building is quite dark and the only light comes from the chandeliers. There is certainly a magical feeling that starts to envelop me.

On the second floor, there is a big room where the gentlemen were having their cigars during the intermission. Entering this room is like entering Versaille. All the golden ornaments and paintings are simply breathtaking. I love the castle outside of Paris and I never knew that I could catch a glimpse of the same luxury so close to my home.

Another thing that I hadn’t noticed even though I take a picture of this place every time I walk by it is that the balcony is open for visits. Looking from above is not so eventful as one may think because you see only cars, cars and more cars.

I would also like to mention the two identical rooms that symbolized the sun and the moon and the little library in the left-wing of the Opera. These little elements are an enchanting part of the House. The stage is kept off-limits for everyone that didn’t buy a ticket for the evening entertainment.

For this cultural visit, I chose to wear a simple navy blue and white dress. The French are famous for their preference for stripes and I have to admit that it grew on me. To give the whole outfit a structure, I always put a belt so that the dress is not shapeless.

Thus ends the little walk in one of the nicest buildings in the middle of the capitol.

Château d’Auvers and other cultural events

Last weekend I got a visit from my sister and we decided to take a little trip to a castle outside of Paris. We were debating on Friday evening and we finally picked the Château d’Auvers-sur-Oise which is 1h30 from Paris. Since we are both interested in castles, we saw this visit as a great opportunity to have a walk in someone’s chambers and admire the interior design of the XVII century.

Château d’Auvers-sur-Oise

We arrived at the castle which was rather small. We were thinking of spending at least the same amount of time as our journey to this place. I was still an optimist and suggested a walk in the park that was advertised on the website. My first disappointment was when they told us that the whole place is renovated and there are some art installations showing us works from the Impressionism. If I wanted to watch a documentary, I would have stayed home. My sister was in a good mood and cheered me up but I still have more or less negative feelings about the castle.

The art installations were mostly big screens that displayed the above-mentioned docu movie. It was somewhat interesting but looking and pictures of the painting are not nearly as satisfying as seeing the real deal. I was impressed by 2 of the 8 rooms. One of them was a recreation of an artist atelier. I was preoccupied with taking pictures so I’m not sure whose atelier they recreated but I think it was Monet. Anyway, the impressionists preferred painting in nature, so this room was not that important.

The next room was also arranged in an interesting way. In comparison to the other rooms with simple flat screens, this one was more 3D and every small screen was painted in different colors which made the whole ambiance more interesting.

We then went to the garden which was as small as the castle. It was somewhat our fault that we made a poor choice. In the summer, one can enjoy the maze which is not a lot of fun during the winter when you can see through the branches.

The Brassens market

On Sunday we started the day with a book market. The Brassens market was originally a place where they butchered animals before selling the meat. Nowadays you can browse through some second-hand books and maybe find a treasure. I have lived in Nice and the market there was incredible. Every day of the week it had a different theme and books were one of them. This one was not so impressive although it’s named the most famous market for old books in Paris. It’s in the 15th arrondissements aka in the southwest of the city. To go there, one needs to ride the line 13 of the subway. I was unease the whole time because I have heard some bad things about it. It turned out not so criminal but I wouldn’t recommend this place if you like to display your gold jewelry and other expensive accessories.

Carnival de Paris

The 23rd of February was also the Carnival de Paris. It’s an annual event dating from the XVI century. People disguise and put masks on before starting a procession from the Père Lachaise Cemetery. The procession ended at Place de la Republique where everyone gathered and started celebrating the Carnival. Music and dancing in the streets is something that has always fascinated me and we walked next to the processions for some time so that we can check out all the participants.

Centre Pompidou

We ended our very cultural weekend in one of the museums with the longest working hours. Centre Pompidou is famous for its unusual modern architecture. The whole façade of the building is made out of pipes. The construction is very geometrical and pleasing for people who like Sheldon don’t like chaos.

The view of this building is breathtaking. There is a cute restaurant worth visiting especially during the summer. One can see all the important buildings from up here – the Eifel Tower, Sacre-Coeur, Notre-Dame. The pipes that can be seen on the façade are actually the escalators that take visitors up to the last floor.

The temporary collection was a mystic experience. I was happy that we did it after dark. It was like walking into a cemetery. Some rooms were full of black and white pictures of people from the beginning of the last century. One room was covered with white sheets that gave the illusion that ghosts were floating through it. In another one could observe rectangular objects covered with black sheets so it looked like coffins. Some light bulbs were hanging from the ceiling and those that were directly over a “coffin” were turned off. The whole exposition was accompanied by a quiet heartbeat as the music background.