Look of the week: Hunter Schafer's gorgeous Oscars after-party look

Written by Leah Dolan, CNN

With the good, the bad and the ugly, “Look of the week” is a regular series dedicated to unboxing the most talked about outfit of the past seven days.

The three words that best describe Hunter Schafer’s Vanity Fair Oscars party look? Less is more.

Dressed in a bias-cut white silk skirt, a single ivory feather, and—crucially—nothing else, Schafer raised a few eyebrows. Google searches for the actress and model skyrocketed Sunday night when her look took to social media. On Twitter, pictures of Schäfer immediately received tens of thousands of likes, while their own Instagram post has now been liked more than 2 million times.

But more than just a headline-grabbing moment, Schafer’s ensemble was clearly considered. Fresh off the Fall-Winter 2023 runway, the look debuted earlier this month at fashion house Ann Demeulemeester’s show in Paris. It was designed by Ludovic de Saint Sernin, who has been the label’s creative director since December.

Celebrity fashion works best when there’s a story behind a look. For example, Edie Sedgwick’s plausible reference in Kendall Jenner’s Bottega Veneta tightsor Paul Mescal winks at traditional masculinity in a plain white tank top.

For his first Ann Demeulemeester collection, De Saint Sernin was inspired by “making fashion as an authentic act of self-involvement”. It was a love letter – almost literal – to the Belgian label’s founder, with images of “authorship and autobiography” burned into the clothes (Sernin called his quill bandeau “quill pens” in the show notes).

Hunter Schafer’s barely-there Oscars after-party look was more poetic than it first seemed. Credit: Karwai Tang/WireImage/Getty Images

These ideas of self-expression, self-love, and self-definition took on new meaning when carried by Schafer. As a trans woman whose rise to fame was inseparable from her gender identity — her big break was playing trans teen Jules on the HBO series Euphoria — Schafer’s body is under constant scrutiny online. The comment sections of her Instagram posts often end up in open forums where users feel entitled (and seemingly compelled) to ask intimate questions about the trans experience or to challenge Schafer’s femininity.

Fittingly, there’s a long line of anti-gender sentiments sewn into Schafer’s outfit. Founded in 1985 by Ann Demeulemeester and her husband Patrick Robyn, the brand has a long heritage of gender-biased fashion.

“I was interested in the tension between male and female, but also the tension between male and female within a person,” said Demeulemeester Fashion ahead of a retrospective exhibition of her work last year in Florence, Italy. “That makes every person so interesting for me because everyone is unique.”

Schafer’s outfit debuted on the Paris runway earlier this month. Credit: Kristy Sparow/Getty Images

In his latest co-ed collection, De Saint Sernin — known in the industry for his eponymous gender-neutral label — brought his androgynous worldview to Ann Demeulemeester, with fitted, romantic menswear silhouettes and sensual fabrics for everyone (think skin-tight Mesh tops, leather and open shirts made from a translucent organza material).

Strapping a feather across her chest, Schafer let us know she’s still writing her narrative — and defining herself on her own terms. There is a whole story behind these two pieces of clothing. As De Saint Sernin said in the show notes, “Thirty-six looks, each a heartfelt sentence.”

The powerful ensemble could become one of Law Roach’s final celebrity styling credits. roach announced via social media on Tuesday that he would be retiring from the industry after 14 years of creating conversation-boosting looks for the likes of Zendaya, Bella Hadid, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ariana Grande and Megan Thee Stallion.

Source : www.cnn.com