Let me say some nice stuff about Janelle Monae before I get to the bad stuff. First of all, it’s an incredible achievement for Monae to be part of two Best Picture-nominated films, Moonlight and Hidden Figures. She was wonderful in both films. She’s beautiful, she’s talented, she has a rockin’ body and she seems very cool. Now for the bad stuff: her fashion choices exhaust me. As in, her black-and-white fashion-branding is tired. Maybe I wouldn’t mind it if she mixed it up and did monochromatic all-white or all-black every now and then. But she doesn’t – she insists on mixing black, white, grey, patterns, stripes, polka dots, beading, capes, etc. And it’s exhausting.
Twitter blew up with compliments for Janelle’s Elie Saab look but this, to me, did not feel like the right dress for the occasion. As I often feel with her looks, there’s no place to rest your eye. Sorry, peeps. I wasn’t feeling it.
Speaking of, Ava Duvernay wore Ashi and I thought she looked like a Disney princess in motion, but in photos this dress is not that cute. I like that Ava – who was an Oscar nominee – went for a big statement dress. But this looks like repurposed curtains, the skirt is too stiff and the waist on the gown isn’t the best.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.
That much boobage looks tacky.
SO tacky. And she’s a beautiful woman, she doesn’t need to try this hard.
She gets an A for the hair and makeup and an F for that godawful dress.
@Carmen Agree 100%
She does have really nice boobs though.
Worst dress of the night for me. Looks like a fabric store exploded onto a mannequin.
Ha! My husband and I were saying the same thing. She has a really nice chest!
Janelle likes the over the top thing, correct? She’s not a follower, so it seems that it suits her.
Her figure is amazing!
Usually I would agree with tacky but the well designed flowers around gives more of a middle-ages museum painting of the female nude in springtime quality. I loved it. The dress itself is art in motion. It will age very well in Hollywood history.
I think it’s one of the best fashion-art pieces that Oscars(or even HW) have seen in the last decade. Stunning. Beautiful.
It is a modern take on the panniers from the 17th and 18th centuries. I love the structure of it.
JMs dress is amazing! and as for not having anywhere to rest your eyes….her face! JM was in two oscar nominated films. She wins my vote for best dressed.
Yes!!! I couldn’t believe my eyes reading this lol she was hands down best dressed for me, she went big on a very big night for her 👏👏
Hideous dress, but her face and hair are perfection.
Yeah, hair and makeup are perfect, and the dress would be too if it wasn’t this see trough.
I have to give props to anyone in this century who is willing to wear a farthingale. That is serious fashion devotion.
u need to be very tall to carry a dress like the one janelle monae is wearing. janelle is not tall, that gown drowns her.
The gown is wearing her.
I kept wondering how she sat down in it and thinking I wouldn’t want to be sitting next to her.
I have to disagree with you on both dresses. I actually like how busy Janelle’s dress is. It fits in with her overall aesthetic. She looks adorable here.
I am Ava she did not get the Oscar. Ava dresses more on the conservative side and it shows with this gown. If she got rid of the turtle neck and wore better jewelry I would have liked this more as it fits who she is.
I loved Ava Duvernay, I genuinely thought she looked great, but I totally agree that Janelle Monae needs to mix it up. This was just too many things on one dress. I appreciate having your own style but this isn’t it.
i would have loved it if the skirt was just tube straight black. I understand the “évasé” skirt is very 19th french century.. Her make-up is too gold/bronze and this is where she should have gone with her natural hair instead of his awful wig.
I don’t have a problem with her makeup and I actually like the wig but I have to agree with you on the skirt. I would have loved it without the extra poof.
Agreed. I would have like the look better with a different skirt. Otherwise flaunt it while you are young, your body is ridiculous and gravity is on your side.
I love it!
Me too.
Me three.
Me four!
She looks like royalty. I love it.
I know! She looks like a 17th century French empress. “I wear everything because I CAN, bitchez”. I wish she had a scepter.
Yeeesssss!! +10000
That shit in motion was spectacular and super delicate she looks flaw Free, ava a Bit dowdy in lace but that beat is INCOMPARABLE her makeup is Godly
I loved Janelles dress. It was as if she was like, “eff it. Who knows when I’ll be back at the oscars? I’m wearing EVERYTHING.”
Haha IKR? I hope she’ll be back as a nominee someday, she was great in Moonlight and I’ve also heard great things about her performance in Hidden Figures.
I like Janelle’s dress but feels like the skirt is throwing me off. If it was just straight or just ballroom it would have looked great. But it looks like a combination of both. I also like Ava’s dress but something’s off. Maybe it’s too big or monochromatic.
i love janelle monae, but could she even sit in that dress?
She can do no wrong, in my book. She’s gorgeous and the only one who can pull off such a magnificent gown.
Agree times a million. Talk about a statement dress, this was it! Janelle was gorgeous. Her dress reminded me of that famous portrait of Elizabeth I interpreted for now and she looked like royalty IMO.
It’s interesting, but I don’t think I like it. She looked quite beautiful though, and what an accomplishment, to be in both movies.
Janelle’s dress was a too big and either she should have taken of the collar or the top should not have been transparent or something like that since it seems too much. Love the hair piece.
I reserve all my hate for that belt!!
Ugh!
That skirt is so poofy, that all I could think about was that show in England about gypsy weddings and the one episode where the bride couldn’t get down the aisle her skirt was so huge. I liked the belt, though.
I thought Ava looked nice. The color was beautiful on her.
She is so beautiful and I love the dress.
I love it. I love her hair, her face, her makeup, all of it. I don’t want to rest my eyes, this is Oscar night. If I want to be soothed I’ll take a pill or look at someone like Reese Witherspoon. I don’t want boring.
I love Janelle’s look.. from the waist up. The bottom is a freaking mess, it would have been just lovely with a simple black pattern.. but nope, let’s blow it up.
If it didnt have the giant side skirt, Janelle would have my hands down fave dress. However, I loved the side skirt in motion.
Ava looked too covered up. The long sleeves with the high neck and the full skirt was just too much. However, it was closer to good than bad. The texture was interesting and the steel gray was a color that stood out
She’s so gorgeous she doesn’t need all of that going on, the belt so killed it!
Take away the skirt, line the bottom of the dress and make a lace belt that blends in and you’re got yourself one hell of a dress. In it’s current state-the dress is a no.
Janelle’s dress screams drama to me but she seems to be containing it with queen-like poise, which is what makes it work for me.
BUT what I CAN’T with is her ‘Cara Delavingne eyebrows’. This trend needs to stop. Why can’t people/stylists understand ‘Don’t mess with the structure of your natural brows, just trim the overgrown hair’. It’s the one thing that stands out to me in Janelle’s look and I don’t like it.
I love the natural eyebrow trend. It’s great for women and girls (like myself) who grew up with thick hair hair and thick eyebrows and got teased for it. I remember BEGGING my parents to let me get mine done but I had to wait until I was 15.. then I got ahold of tweezers and tweezed them til they were tiny and crazy looking lol… but now everybody wants thick brows and many of us have chose to embrace it. Pretty cool.
True if the thick look is your natural then it’s fine. So is mine btw (South Indian). I only trim the overgrown bits and get them a little into their natural shape. The process takes me 10 mins at the most. What I don’t like is the trend of penciling dark lines into your eyebrows to make them look a thicker, like a slug above the eyes. Her’s look unnatural.
@Almondjoy, loving this trend too! Unfortunately, though, I was born with very thick eyebrows, but I was in high school when pencil-thin brows were fashionable, so I tweezed mine to death and they still won’t grow back fully to this day! It’s really too bad, I’d like nothing more than to have a pair of luscious Jennifer Connolly brows 🙁
Best. Of. The. Night. I don’t care what anybody says. Her face, the hair, the makeup, her eyebrows and THAT DRESS. Amazing.
Janelle wears black and white to honor her parents, she’s said it multiple times and she’ll keep doing it so get used to it!
She’s my fave of the night, too. Janelle has always gone big with her fashion concepts, and this night was no different except for the amount of sheerness, which was not so typical for her. She’s always been fascinated by a space-age aesthetic, and this was also consistent with that vision, a sort of Marie-Antoinette-goes-to-an-outer-galaxy vibe. The transparency makes a lot of gown seem light; the details are so interesting, her figure is amazing, her face is glowing. I’d rather have someone to look at on the red carpet who enjoys fashion, rather than the snoozefest “I don’t care about fashion” dresses (Felicity Jones? Brie Larson? zzzzz) I didn’t know that about her black-and-white choice; I, too, rock the “working-class” black and white uniform and it makes me feel stylish and put together on a budget.
Never knew this about her honoring her parents! Mild annoyance has turned to mad respect.
I agree. I think she looks gorgeous. Normally I’d think “too busy” but somehow it looks beautiful on her, and her face is perfection.
Agreed, this is what the Oscars are all about! Remember when the Oscars red carpet was actually interesting? (I’ll never forget Bjork’s infamous swan dress, for example …). I’d love for more people to take risks like this. The fashion has just become so boring.
I love it. She took a risk, which is rare on the red carpet and has the style chops to pull it off.
Sorry, Janelle in that dress reminds me of the cheap Barbie knock-offs with the giant crochet skirts that people would use to cover the extra toilet paper roll in their bathroom in the 1970s.
It’s weird because I feel like Janelle Monae has a great sense of style everywhere other than on the red carpet. I don’t mind the monochromatic palette, since that is her signature, but this whole season she has chosen gowns that totally overwhelm her. That skirt would not look out of place in Elizabethan England.
I don’t hate the color of Ava’s gown, but the high necked trend has got to go. I feel like very few women can carry it off-it looks fussy when it is a high neck/long sleeves combo.
Janelle is a beautiful woman…..but this?
Over the top into Disney character caricature zone.
It reminded me of the Ellie Saab look of Halle Berry’s in 2002. Short hair and everything…
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QV4_cyp6p8k/UTdo_eWEI-I/AAAAAAAABCU/dFiEsiRiO8Q/s1600/elie+saab+2002+halle+berry.jpg
I loved Monae’s look on the carpet. I expect over-the-top from her and she never disappoints.
Sometimes, Janelle Monae can almost seem a close cousin of FKA Twigs – at least in face, stature, bearing, cool vibe and fashion adventurousness.
I see it!
This is how you wear a crazy dress and make it work, even though it wasn’t my favorite. I wish Janelle’s skirt wasn’t so full on the sides
Now I simply loved Ava’s dress and her whole look. She was beautiful.
I like the top part (though I’d prefer more coverage), but the bottom is too much. Too big, too busy. And I’m not into the belt.
I loved both of them. Janelle is just flawless and I love the risks she takes. She has fun. Ava wore a dress from a Saudi Arabian designer as a sign of solidarity, which makes me inclined to like her dress too.
I like both gowns too. And good for Ava. Her tweet says:
“A small sign of solidarity. I chose to wear a gown by a designer from a majority Muslim country. Thanks to @AshiStudio of Lebanon.”
http://ashistudio.com/findus
I freaking loved this steam punk Marie Antoinette showgirl getup like it was my own baby.I don’t care,she killed it.
Ah, this dress was my favourite look of the night!
I love the fact it looks like something aristocratic from France before the revolution, yet it doesn’t look heavy. I’m also amused by the fact she’s nearly naked and still looks covered up (both the top and the skirt are sheer.)
I thought Ava looked beautiful. She made a point to wear a dress by a designer from a Muslim-majority country–Lebanon.
Janelle’s dress looks like my third grade craft project. Ava’s dress looks like a toilet paper caddy.
Janelle is a fashion girl and this is a fashionable dress, it’s art and red carpet drama most people aren’t going to get it or like it but I loved it. And I’m so glad she’ll take the risk.
Ava looked beautiful I was disappointed she didn’t win for her documentary.
zomg please let her attend met gala.
she will slay.
looking forward to many many more years of janelle. so talented and beautiful. mesmerizing.
I think that JM looks amazing. I’ve been a huge fan of hers since I first heard of her 7 years ago. I love that she wears black and white as sort of a “uniform” because, while she makes art, she’s also working, and this is her job. I think that’s so cool.