“Theme! Theme theme THEME!” That’s the refrain on Twitter, and honestly it’s often the refrain on our text threads – but at the same time, part of pulling off what is essentially a costume is knowing what works on you.
Saoirse Ronan has consistently killed in her wardrobe choices whenever she’s had an event – but she knows she’s not Lady Gaga or Janelle Monae, she’s not going to suddenly rock out an architectural item that’s only nominally clothing.
Instead she shows up in head to toe sequins with dragons on her shoulders, reminiscent of Nicole Kidman’s green sequined gown with parrots, and succeeds in looking absolutely on theme but utterly like herself, unlike some people who come in such heavy costume makeup that you have to squint to see who they are.
On that topic – I screeched at the TV initially when Rachel Brosnahan was announced because I was SURE that the sleek blonde in the fluffy pink floral was actually Evan Rachel Wood. Like, how could the people on E! not see that? And that ERW, who’s rocked suits at red carpets lately, was going ‘Camp’ in a pretty, fluffy feminine gown? It was so obvious, except that, spoiler – I was wrong. Brosnahan posted her outfit on her Instagram, and not only was I shamed, I wondered if I was losing my touch, or failing that, my eyesight.
Admittedly the black velvet bows on the dress and the hair were more Brosnahan than ERW –but I still had to look about sixteen times to make sure that I wasn’t falling into a twilight zone, and run to my nightmare/happy place Twitter to see if I was the only one who was confused.
Luckily for my ego, not only was I not the only one who was confused, apparently it’s not just a tonight thing, or a trick of similar makeup. If you google ‘Rachel Brosnahan Evan Rachel Wood’ you will see that people get them mixed up all the time, to the point where they had to make a post to prove that they were not in fact the same person.
So one way to do subtle camp, I guess, is to cosplay as your celebrity doppelganger. I salute Brosnahan and will buy a virtual drink for all the outlets who are frantically revising their photo captions tonight – it’s a mistake that could happen to anyone. It turns out that I am not alone in this utter confusion.
