It was every actress’s dream: her first Oscar nomination, an occasion that obviously called for clothes and accessories that underscored its importance. And so the newly minted star walked the red carpet leading to the Kodak Theater, her glowing skin offset by Harry Winston diamond loop earrings and a diamond drop pendant, her slender figure encased in a flower-strewn, pink Simin Couture gown and her dainty feet shod in custom-made light pink satin Jimmy Choo mules. As she posed for the camera and smiled for the requisite interviews, she gamely opened her Swarovski clutch to reveal the Clif Bar inside. Not exactly your average black-tie emergency reserve.
Then again, Abigail Breslin, whose charming performance in Little Miss Sunshine earned her this attention earlier this year, wasn’t exactly a red-carpet veteran; at the time, she was a mere 10 years old. Like most girls her age, Breslin chose her party outfit with her mother, Kim, and she looked every inch the tween she is, her dress befitting a princess instead of a queen. Yet the labels she wore are anything but traditional fare for such a pint-size professional. “I didn’t know about the designers before, because I had never been to anything as fancy as the Academy Awards before,” says Breslin. “But I am so glad I know them now. They all have such great styles.”
While Breslin’s moment was a sartorial anomaly in her otherwise normal wardrobe, such occurrences are becoming more and more frequent as actresses well below legal voting age are turning up at premieres and awards shows decked out in designer regalia that we’re more accustomed to seeing on full-grown women.
Take Emma Watson, the 17-year-old star of the Harry Potter franchise. As the fifth cinematic installment of the beloved book series hit theaters this summer, Watson made the rounds of international publicity dressed exclusively in Chanel and wore a couture gown for the Raisa Gorbachev Foundation gala in early June. Ironically the look, a gold-spangled airy confection, accounted for her second appearance in Us Weekly’s unforgiving “When Bad Clothes Happen to Good People” box. (Watson was 15 at the time of her first.)
