Lupita Nyong’o approaches red-carpet dressing like method acting. She embodies a character, develops a narrative and runs with it, from the rouge on her cheeks to the diamonds dotting her ears. For the Critics’ Choice Awards, the Best Actress nominee embodied a strong yet supremely elegant woman, rather, in fact, like the Us star herself.
To help realise her cool, confident vision, Nyong’o and her stylist Micaela Erlanger looked to Michael Kors Collection, who they have a long-standing relationship with (Nyong’o is an advocate of the designer’s Watch Hunger Stop campaign, as well as an admirer of his red-carpet designs). “We wanted something totally clean and timeless,” Erlanger tells British Vogue. The caveat: the effortless look had to be realised in a colour Nyong’o had not worn before. No mean feat considering her reputation as a colour chameleon.
Kors ventured into new Pantone territory: chocolate brown. The halter-style dress (also a neckline first for Nyong’o) with leather racerback and soft crepe-jersey skirt has a slim silhouette, but a soft volume to it. “It’s restrained. No, relaxed,” says Erlanger. “It’s not a traditional awards-season dress.”
