The Best Dressed at the 84th Annual Academy Awards

Those who follow entertainment and celebrity culture probably waited at their television sets in anticipation after all the media marketing and hype that surrounded the 84th Annual Academy Awards or Oscars that aired on ABC on Sunday. I must admit that I was excited to see the show too. I love to watch awards shows such as the Grammys and Oscars. I also love music and movies so I am always interested to see which ones have received the highest honors and recognition. Although I have not watched many of the movies that were up for consideration this year (2012), I still watched the awards show. I definitely feel like the show ran too long but I enjoyed it. Billy Crystal returned to host the show for the 9th time after a several year hiatus.

A favorite thing for many like myself is to look at all the fashion statements made on the red carpet. There is even a pre-oscar show dedicated to the interviewing of the celebrities on the red carpet and asking them what they are wearing. What fashion designer did they choose for the night.

Many fashion designers provide formal gowns to celebrities free of charge or at discounted prices if they will showcase them on the red carpet. Some designers have lasting relationships with particular celebrities for a mutually supportive relationship.

For example, Carolina Herrera claims to have a working partnership with Renee Zellweger. Zellweger regularly wears Herrera's fashions for various occasions and Herrera knows what Zellweger likes, often providing custom made gowns to her.

Here are my favorite fashions from the Academy Awards show on Sunday night.

Some might want to concentrate only on the women's formal gowns since all men's tuxedo's seem to look more or less the same but some men did indeed stand out with a particularly polished and put together look. In addition to the usual suspects like George Clooney and Brad Pitt who most always look great, my favorites were Christian Bale and Tom Cruise who looked youthful and as good as he did 20 years ago. Tom Hanks also looked great. His entire look was well put together. Something about his dark hair and gray beard looked very distinguished.

When he appeared on the red carpet, I was surprised by how Nick Nolte's look has changed over the years, I hadn't seen him around on television in a very long time and I had not viewed any of his recent movies. He has aged a lot.

Now for the ladies' fashions:

Viola Davis wore a beautiful green gown by Vera Wang and wore her natural short coiled African American hair, a very refreshing statement to see when the large majoritiy or African American women in Hollywood wear not just chemical relaxers but also unnaturally long wigs or weaves.

Cameron Diaz had a nice haircut, nice makeup and a beautiful beige toned floor length dress.

Sandra Bullock wore a two toned dress with a white bodice and black floor length skirt. She always looks youthful and fresh faced, years younger than her age when she wears her brunette hair swept up in a long ponytail as she did on Oscar night. The dress has a train and looked better at some angle in photos than in others.

Michelle Williams' gown seems to have gotten a lot more positive attention from fashion critics in the media, perhaps also because she was nominated for an Oscar while Emma Stone was just presenting. Nevertheless, I think that both Emma Stone and Michelle Williams looked comparably great in their bold color choices for formal gowns and their makeup and hairstyles looked good too.

A few looks that were nice and garnered much media attention but were not on my own list of top choices for fashions of Oscar night include the following: Angelina Jolie and her right leg (lol) , Gwyneth Paltrow, and Penelope Cruz.

Perhaps, they can have honorable mentions.:-)

I think that Angelina Jolie looked much better at the Golden Globes ceremony earlier this year than she did at the Oscars.

While I like white, ivory, and beige formal gowns a lot, I found Gwyneth Paltrow's dress more plain and structured than striking, although it was a favorite among many of the fashion critics.

Penelope Cruz wore a light to medium blue dress. It seemed to be in the family of cornflower or periwinkle blue but it was not a favorite of mine and I think her hair is much more flattering for her when it is long or in a bun rather than the short haircut she was sporting.

Nevertheless, these and many others still looked great on Oscar night. We love to see the celebrities put their best fashion foot forward for the big occasion!