Is orange ever going to be the new black, or will black always be safer? That was the conundrum in the air runway-side as the two Academy Awards nominees, Nicole Kidman and Isabelle Huppert, sat on either side of Roberta Armani, Giorgio Armani’s celebrity-ambassadorial niece, to watch the designer’s Spring couture show. Presumably neither of these great actors were there just to pass an idle hour; they were actively scanning for something to wear for that most daunting of public appearances, the Oscars on February 26. Kidman was wearing a black ’40s-style silk crepe dress with a high neck and long sleeves. Huppert was in a teal shot silk pant-suit. Both outfits must have been by Armani, yet the curious thing is that their exact looks were hard to link directly back to a specific runway show. It doesn’t take much detective work to conclude that, in practice, the house of Armani must prefer the woman to wear the dress, than the dress to wear the woman. In other words, what’s up there on the runway is adaptable and open to personalization, if the personality happens be as starry as either of these women.
Would either be up for wearing orange, though? There was a lot of it in the Spring offering: tangerine, clementine, Chinese lacquer orange-gold; orange sequin, orange crocodile, orange chiffon, orange satin. It’s a tricky color, but not to worry. There was stuff to work with. Had Huppert, up for Best Actress for her role in Elle, wanted to stick with tailoring, there was the opening sequence of sequined jackets and black pants to choose from. As for Best Supporting Actress nominee Kidman, if we are to play fantasy dress-a-celebrity, there are three dresses on the reserve list for her. A very pale, almost not-orange asymmetric jeweled column dress with a hint of a sari about it could suit her complexion beautifully. Safer, if the plunging neckline were filled in, was a black dress with a frilled cape; almost 1930s Old Hollywood. Finally—and Kidman isn’t known to dodge bold statements—perhaps she will go for the half-and-half solution: a sleeveless dress with a black embroidered top, and a softly spangled orange chiffon skirt. We’ll soon see.
