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On The Oscars Red Carpet, The Clothes Tell The Stories

Darrell Britt-Gibson
Kevork Djansezian
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Getty Images
Darrell Britt-Gibson

The red carpet of an award show is historically a sublime display of grace, style and dazzling celebrity personality. It's an opportune time for our favorite stars to share themselves, their projects, their thoughts with us, while we watch with rapt attention. In a majestic display, the stars descend upon the venue, a sea of crimson underfoot.

But the red carpet at the 90th Academy Awards at Dolby Theatre is conspicuously different. With social issues more visible than ever, politics are pushed to the forefront of the conversation. It's the first Oscars ceremony since the rise of the #MeToo movement in October 2017, when women began to demand accountability from alleged sexual harassers and assaulters. We can still hear the echoes of January's Golden Globes, where celebrities wore all black in a show of protest.

This Oscars ceremony is notably protest-free; the showrunners behind the event engineered it to be that way, making this the first awards show in a while where fashion might be the primary topic of conversation on the red carpet.

And the clothes tell stories. The gussied-up actors and the actresses with plunging necklines and dramatic skirts are a reminder of the reasons we all tune in to the Academy Awards in the first place: for them.

Here is a look, in photos, at the Oscars red carpet.

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Jennifer Lawrence
Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images
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AFP/Getty Images
Jennifer Lawrence
Ashley Judd (left) and Mira Sorvino
Mario Anzuoni / Reuters
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Reuters
Ashley Judd (left) and Mira Sorvino
Jennifer Garner
Angela Weiss / AFP/Getty Images
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AFP/Getty Images
Jennifer Garner
Rita Moreno, actress, singer and dancer, walked the red carpet wearing the same dress she wore to accept her Oscar in 1962 for <em>West Side Story</em>.
/ AP
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AP
Rita Moreno, actress, singer and dancer, walked the red carpet wearing the same dress she wore to accept her Oscar in 1962 for West Side Story.
Allison Janney
Valerie Macon / AFP/Getty Images
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AFP/Getty Images
Allison Janney
Salma Hayek
Frazer Harrison / Getty Images
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Getty Images
Salma Hayek
Meryl Streep
Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic
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FilmMagic
Meryl Streep
Janet Mock
Frazer Harrison / Getty Images
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Getty Images
Janet Mock
Andra Day
Frazer Harrison / Getty Images
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Getty Images
Andra Day
Betty Gabriel
Valerie Macon / AFP/Getty Images
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AFP/Getty Images
Betty Gabriel
St. Vincent
Valerie Macon / AFP/Getty Images
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AFP/Getty Images
St. Vincent
Mary J. Blige (from left), Dee Rees, Jason Clarke, Rob Morgan and Garrett Hedlund
Frazer Harrison / Getty Images
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Getty Images
Mary J. Blige (from left), Dee Rees, Jason Clarke, Rob Morgan and Garrett Hedlund
Jane Fonda
Valerie Macon / AFP/Getty Images
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AFP/Getty Images
Jane Fonda
Actor Danny Glover kisses TV host Guillermo on the head.
Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images
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AFP/Getty Images
Actor Danny Glover kisses TV host Guillermo on the head.
Zoey Deutch
Angela Weiss / AFP/Getty Images
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AFP/Getty Images
Zoey Deutch

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