When it comes to fashion’s classic colour combinations, there’s not much better than black and white, which brings to mind references from Coco Chanel to Audrey Hepburn. And it is the tried-and-tested formula that stars at the Baftas wore at the award ceremony on Sunday night. The red carpet was a sea of monochrome.
If this is the ultimate in “safe pair of hands” evening dressing, there were deviations. Some stars combined different pieces – in a way that felt a little more like “real life” dressing. The Princess of Wales wore a flowing white frock combined with long black gloves, while Julianne Moore had a Saint Laurent column black dress with a fluffy white marabou coat. Jamie Lee Curtis wore an outfit that would work just as well off the red carpet – a white satin skirt and black jacket.
Other stars combined this classic colour combination with more of-the-moment fashion trends. Hayley Atwell wore a white top and black skirt, with a sliver of midriff visible between the two. Fashion designer Vera Wang wore a simple black crop top underneath a long white asymmetric dress. She accessorised it in a very fashion-industry way, adding sunglasses and shrugged-on jacket. Glass Onion star Jessica Henwick also wore a crop top, adding a long black skirt and matching blazer. Most men conformed to this trend too, of course, simply by wearing their black tuxes with white shirts.
There were some fun examples of not entirely sticking to the script. Costume designer Sandy Powell, a woman who always pushes at red carpet traditions, wore a black suit with a white shirt, with trousers that had a zigzag shape. Nicole Coughlan, of Bridgerton fame, looked like a mid-century star in a pretty white dress with black flowers and cobalt blue accents.
All black was also popular. Cate Blanchett and Yvonne Orji wore long black dresses with white accents (pearls for Blanchett, shoes for Orji). There was something of a goth feel, too – Munroe Bergdorf wore layers of black lace, and Carey Mulligan was in a simple long black Dior dress. Gwendoline Christie’s tiers of black would have been approved of by the costar of her recent Netflix series, Wednesday.
If all black is classic with dark tendencies, wearing all white has an impact too. Emma Thompson wore head-to-toe white, including a white coat by sustainable designer Laura Pitharas, with trainers. Lily James and Naomi Ackie had white dresses, with a slightly “sci-fi” feel – Ackie’s dress, with metal peplum, was a highlight.
Beyond monochrome, the sci-fi feel was something of a micro-trend. Anna Taylor-Joy wore a futuristic hooded minidress, while Cynthia Erivo’s copper dress with asymmetric neckline looked like something from another planet, as did Florence Pugh’s orange tulle design and Sheila Atim’s silver “foil” dress with matching gloves.
If black and white dominated, purple – not typically a red carpet colour – had something of a moment. Viola Davis wore a Stella McCartney design in amethyst, while Angela Bassett and Aimee Lou Wood went for the lighter violet shade currently loved by fashion. Jodie Taylor-Smith wowed in a way that classic black and white could never hope to – she wore a dress made of mauve marabou feathers, matched with makeup in the same shade.
