Ingenues grown up

The Variety Power of Women event happened last night, honouring Jamie Lee Curtis, Wanda Sykes, Aly Raisman, Nicole Scherzinger, Kate Hudson, and Sydney Sweeney. What stood out to me was the group shot – and specifically the way they’ve been positioned.

Sydney in the middle, and Kate on one end. I’m singling these two out because of awards season, as both are campaigning for a Best Actress nomination for their work in Christy and Song Sung Blue respectively. Variety’s Power of Women highlights the philanthropic work of each of the celebrities being honoured but given the time of year, you know how it works – the visibility doesn’t hurt, especially in a competitive year. And if we’re talking about Kate and Sydney here, we have two ingenues belonging to two different generations. Sydney is currently in her ingenue era but exactly 25 years ago, with Almost Famous, it was Kate Hudson who held the title, on her way eventually to a Best Supporting Actress nomination, which remains her only Oscar nomination to date. 

Back then, it was Kate who was the bubbly blonde, a media darling, making headlines everywhere. Now she’s in her 40s, mounting her first serious Oscar run since then, alongside the media’s current blonde obsession who gets the center spot in the group shot. Some things change… and some things don’t. 

Kate is wearing Carolina Herrera, a classic column with a half cape. Sydney is in Christian Cowan and it’s probably the best red carpet look she’s served in months, if not longer. She’s wearing this dress like it’s meant to be worn – full exposure, snatched AF, and even though it’s obviously risqué, she looks more comfortable in it than she’s looked in so many of the other choices she’s made on the red carpet. That is what this dress needs more than anything else: confidence. And she’s selling it with an easy confidence here that, personally, I find is missing from some of her other appearances. 

Finally, wearing this dress for this event, in a room where it would have been mostly women – the reaction, I assume, would have been more appreciation than titillation. There’s something to that in the styling strategy too.