What do the Oscar gowns of the past 22 years tell us?
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 1:31PM 
It's something like an urban legend that actresses only wear gold to the Oscar ceremony if they think they are going to win. But check out this frankly amazing infographic from US Dish for lots of other interesting statistics regarding our favorite public thing (Oscars) and one of our secret favorite things: colorology.
What pleasurable research hours they must have put in! They've broken down Supporting Actress and Actress gowns from 1990-2011 ceremonies to determine the top trends for the nominees based on designer, color, dress style, and hairdo. And they've crunched those numbers further to show which elements are most likely to appear with winners and losers. So, for instance, if you really really really want to win you should be wearing gold with your hair up in a floor length gown designed by Gautier. Or at the very least updo, floor-length, brown Randolph Duke!
IT'S SCIENCE!
It won't surprise you to hear that of the 200+ dresses of the nominees, black was worn most often (28% of the time) but I was mildly surprised to see that red was down in 4th place (8%).
I only wish they would have had a Streep Sidebar, since she's there the most frequently and it's actually really hard to find EVERY Oscar dress worn by one specific actress over the years. Not that I've tried b... okay, I've tried. Don't judge.
Reader Comments (11)
Annoyed: what on earth are Alba, Aniston, and Bjork (eventhough she's worth a special mention) doing in there instead of Meryl, Julianne and other actual nominees.
Also I don't think there should be 220 dresses considering all the double nominees like Julianne, Holly, ... which makes doubt their math. Tho I do wanna applaud their effort all considered.
LOL. I just imagined Nathaniel desperately yelling, "IT'S SCIENCE!!!"
This is at the bottom of the site:
"Now that you've seen how the dapper and dainty social elite dress for special occasions, remember that friends don't let friends don drab duds. Share this graphic as a subtle way of giving your fashion-failure friends the hint."
Doesn't that sound like that Hunger Games "fashion" website we were discussing a couple of days ago - except that THAT was meant to be a parody of - well, of exactly this sort of thing?
BTW - I couldn't figure out why there was that big pic of Nicole in the red halter dress with the bow on the page; if I recall correctly she wasn't even a nominee that year (2007?), just a presenter with Daniel Craig. (That was the year she actually lisped while saying "Dreamgirls" - or trying to. Like she'd suddenly channeled Toulouse-Latrec.)
If ever there was an article written just for us gays, this is it!
Black? oh no. I would wear electric blue (because i WILL be SEEN) or gold (as in "i'm matching my dress to this Oscar that i came to pick up"). No demure colors or pastels. Dress to win! I may not have agreed with Halle Berry or Sandra Bullock's Oscars, but damn, they came dressed as winners. It is what you are supposed to do! There will be no "oh, you look nice", only "OH SNAP".
I swear, i'd be the best Best Actress winner ever.
Halle Berry's Oscar dress is my favourite of all time. Amazing. Cate's too.
And there's nothing wrong with trying to find all the dresses worn ever by an actress.
I found all of Kate Winslets (1996, 1998, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010). She's awesome.
No Gucci at all among the most often chosen brands? Does Gucci not make gowns? I don't remember.
James: this was Gucci http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-t1D9s95axnA/Tx2FyCXCkSI/AAAAAAAACi8/RbLGCrhVDbQ/s320/Charlize-Theron-wi-med.jpg
Theron wore Gucci the year she won.
Meryl wore a floor length, gold Lanvin gown with an up-do....and WON!!!!!