High penguin, it’s so very black & white

Regardless of whether you’re a classicist or a multiplicist, you were bound to have noticed how all men receiving, or nominated for, Oscars wore black. Oscars are black-tie events, yes. But for one night, the world gets to see how Western wear‘s standard male gala gear is High Penguin – white shirt, black jacket. Even the variation of Best Supporting Actor Robert Downey Jr‘s unbuttoned, no-tie look looked radical because he was wearing a black shirt under his black suit, and with his Adam’s apple showing. While the women wore variations of colour and cut – Best Actress Emma Stone’s torn zipper could well bring back Vivienne Westwood-era punk chic – the men stuck to Henry Ford’s dogma on the darkest of colours: ‘Any customer can have a car painted any colour he wants as long as it’s black.’ And in the case of yesterday’s Mister Oscars, white shirts.

One radical departure from this monochromatic line was Ryan Gosling’s appearance in anti-ascetic, bedazzling Gucci Ranveer Singh-pink. But, then, Gosling was there performing ‘I’m Just Ken’ from the Barbie soundtrack (guitarist Slash stuck to his trademark black motorcycle leather), and not receiving an award. His black glasses, though, stood out in that psunami of pink. But coming back to the Oscars’ dogma for black, imagine if the men stuck to B&W in a Bollywood ball. The mind does not boggle.