We Have to Talk About All These 'Old Hollywood' Vintage Recreations

And the Oscar goes to... referencing the archives!

I’m Emily Stochl, a vintage & secondhand fashion reporter 🎤 and this is Pre-Loved, an indie media platform about vintage fashion coverage, and trend forecasting with a twist.

Red Carpets have swiftly shifted from 90s-Y2K revival, now embracing ‘Old Hollywood’ glamour, from empire waists, to sweet necklines, matching opera gloves, and tear-drop diamond jewels. Monied excess is in, and the Red Carpet gowns worn this year had the voluminous skirts and sweeping trains to prove it.

When the Golden Globes kicked off this Red Carpet season, it was hard to miss the vibe shift, so much so it was widely speculated dressers were styling thematically, gunning for the starring role in the long-rumored Audrey Hepburn biopic. Dressing for the job you want — as Veronique Hyland wrote for Elle — these young starlets were emulating a more “seasoned” past, with nods to Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlene Dietrich, Sophia Loren, Ava Gardner, Shirley MacLaine, Marilyn Monroe, and — of course — Hepburn abundant.

And with the rising Tradwife aesthetic a certain sign of our times, we should be primed to see more looks that are, like these, gilded, traditionally feminine, and mature. Indeed, vintage dealers tell me 1960s styles are already booming across formal and bridalwear this year.

So, make way for the mid-century at the Academy Awards, complete with an opening duet by Wicked co-stars, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo; where Grande notably belted “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” covering none other than Judy Garland in Wizard of Oz (1939), rather than performing, say, “Popular.”

Later on, the show rolled out a somewhat confusing James Bond montage (was that an Amazon advertorial?) featuring a Margaret Qualley dance break to the 1962 “James Bond Theme.” Then, Raye sang “Skyfall, wearing her ‘50s pin curls and archival Atelier Versace from 1997.

Award shows often try say something about the state of the world, but Sunday’s was strangely light on politics given the direness of affairs. For now, we’re left to ruminate on what it means that the stars are gravitating to formalwear from a former era — one that was definitely not a “simpler time,” as conservative politicians would have you believe with their weaponized nostalgia.

A little reminder to Hollywood: you can dress like it’s the 1950s, but you don’t have to be defanged to do so. Afterall, even Donna Reed, was an anti- Vietnam War advocate in her time...

The Pre-Parties

Alright, I won’t keep you waiting any longer, let’s get the vintage recap rolling! Starting with the pre-parties, Mikey Madison kicked things off strong at the Nominee Dinner, wearing a 1987 Bill Blass gown from Shrimpton Couture.

It’s a distinct choice not to dress a young starlet like 25-year-old Madison in something edgy or sexy, particularly given her breakout role in Anora. Rather Madison wore a gown with a bustle, which vintage dealer Cherie Balch calls a “classic and elegant throwback to one of the great American designers.”

Ariana Grande wore a 1991 YSL Haute Couture gown from Lily et Cie, which was previously worn at the 65th Academy Awards when Catherine Deneuve presented the Costume Design Award to Eiko Ishioka for Bram Stoker’s Dracula. This look is perhaps my favorite of the vintage Grande has worn on press tour.

And co-star, Cynthia Erivo, followed up on her recent (fabulous!) SAG Awards archival pull with another vintage Givenchy look, this time 1998 Couture.

Oscars Red Carpet

On to the ceremonies! The Academy Awards Red Carpet tends to have less vintage than other award shows, as the stars lean more runway-forward, saving their fun archival looks for the after parties.

That said, we did have a few true vintage looks to report. Scarlett Johansson presented the award for makeup and hairstyling — alongside June Squibb, who stars in Johansson's upcoming directorial debut, Eleanor the Great —wearing a deep navy velvet archival Thierry Mugler A/W 1999 gown with matching gloves.

Coco Jones wore custom Coach, apparently a vintage evening gown upcycled with fabrics from 1930s, and YouTuber and comedienne, Quenlin Blackwell wore archival Vivienne Westwood.

Vintage Recreations

As the Red Carpet trends toward the 1950s-60s, we’re likely to see fewer true vintage pieces, as those dresses are around 75-years-old today. There are exceptions, of course, and we’ve seen incredible older vintage this season, including Ariana Grande’s previously-unworn 1966 Givenchy gown at the Golden Globes. But, these looks are certainly harder to come by, and more fragile to wear.

I started tracking the boom in vintage recreations nearly two years ago, when Natalie Portman wore a recreation of Dior's famous Junon dress from A/W 1949 to Cannes. Now, we all remember the fiasco of Kim Kardashian wearing Marilyn Monroe’s dress to the Met Gala! There are some vintage dresses that are never meant to be re-worn, and the Junon dress with its hand-sewn, delicate gelatin sequins, is one of them — the original is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. So, when the look was recreated for Portman, the fashion press largely knew the dress was a vintage homage, and reported it as such.

By contrast, at the 2024 Golden Globes, Carey Mulligan’s stylist posted about her look as though it was vintage Schiaparelli from 1949, not a modern-day re-interpretation by Daniel Roseberry, causing many outlets, including Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, to run the story calling the dress “vintage.” [Those outlets have never corrected that impression, whereas others gave their readers’ updates for clarity.]

This is but one of a dozen such examples in recent years. In a world increasingly obsessed and confused by AI and grappling with the loss of “authenticity,” legacy fashion media seems to struggle with reporting on these archival recreations.

Actually, we should celebrate the design talent that goes into creating modern replicas. For example, Elle Fanning’s Academy Awards gown was designed by Sarah Burton, one of the first Burton has shown publicly in her new tenure at Givenchy. This is an important part of that gown’s story! So, too, is the fact that Burton went to the archives for the look, taking inspiration from a Givenchy gown modeled by Ivy Nicholson on the runway in 1952.

Or, another Old Hollywood recreation, Oscars Best Actress Mikey Madison’s, inspired by a Dior S/S 1956 gown that walked the Paris runways nearly seventy-years ago. Instead of the pearls the original was paired with, Madison wore hers with a century old Tiffany’s necklace.

Dior, Schiaparelli, Balenciaga, Balmain — all of these houses have done vintage recreations in the last two years alone. Here, Doja Cat is wearing Balmain, which is a reinterpretation of a leopard print dress from A/W 1953. Balmain used a similar beaded effect to recreate the leopard on Elle Fanning’s Golden Globes gown, a look inspired by the same collection.

“But isn’t creating something new, instead of wearing something that already exists, defeating the whole point? ‘It’s taking the exciting nature of a vintage reference, but still creating excess that didn’t exist before,’ Alexis Novak, founder of Tab Vintage, tells Vogue.”

I’m sure you’re not surprised I agree with this take. That said, replacing animal fur with beading is a use-case where I do support a vintage recreation — it could also be appropriate for expanding size options, or referencing a museum-quality piece.

Recreations can be done in a way that honors the sustainability aims of vintage, for example, by using vintage or deadstock materials — something Gabriela Hearst did when she recreated vintage Chloé looks for Olivia Wilde and Maude Apatow at the Met Gala, making sustainability as much a part of the story as the reference.

The After Party

Alright, let’s round this thing out! The vintage pulls at the Vanity Fair after party are always strong, as the stars are a little more emboldened to have fun!

Keke Palmer, who has been on a bit of vintage-tear lately (I loved her 1985 archival Chanel look at the SAG Awards!), wore a 2004 Versace from Opulent Addict. This piece has quite a history — it was worn by Donatella Versace for Harper’s Bazaar in 2003, and by Christina Aguilera at the 2003 MTV music awards.

We can always count on Laverne Cox to pull some incredible archival Mugler (Cox has a 500+ piece personal Mugler collection in her New York apartment), and she wore a S/S 1997 look called, “Kiss of the Spider Woman” for the after party.

The bow trend is alive and well on the Red Carpet, and Hailey Bieber continued the theme, wearing 1987 YSL. Kendall Jenner wore a gothic S/S 1992 Mugler, originally modelled by Eva Herzigova on the runway; the look was completely sheer, yet high-necked, covered in black florals that are actually made of rubber?! Dani Mitchell — who recently styled Hailey Bieber in the vintage Mugler pinstripe suit (I loved!) — pulled this look for Jenner, straight from the Mugler archives.

And Kaia Gerber wore a vintage S/S 1997 Valentino ruffled gown, paired with a cape and a matching oversized flower corsage at her throat. The effect was very 60s-inspired, particularly given the way her hair is styled in a teased crown.

I, personally, will never forget when she and ex-boyfriend Jacob Elordi dressed as Elvis and Priscilla Presley for Halloween… she’s got the look!

Thank you for reading! PS: Let me know which looks you loved this season — are you spotting any vintage trends on the rise?

Drop me a line in the Pre-Loved subscribers chat! 💋 And find me across the internet as @emilymstochl on Instagram, TikTok, and Threads! 💛 - Emily