What do Big Bird and Steve Bannon have to do with Hollywood's style standouts? More than you might think

Senior Features Writer

Oct. 24, 2017 1:10 PM PT

Big Bird got a thank you and Steve Bannon got compared to a bag of trash at the third annual InStyle Awards held Monday night on the Getty Center’s garden terrace, where the guest list proved to be as hot as the sweltering Southern California heat.

“Sesame Street’s” colorful canary was name-checked by the evening’s first honoree, actress Elle Fanning, who after being presented the Breakthrough Style Star Award by her longtime stylist Samantha McMillen, recounted an outfit she’d chosen for a junior high-school, “free-dress Friday.” “I bought this Opening Ceremony top that was light pink and had little Big Birds all over it,” Fanning said from the stage. “And I wore it with these bell-bottom jeans and platform shoes … and I went to school and was brutally made fun of. … So the next Friday, I wore these skinny jeans and a V-neck top and tennis shoes because that’s what all the girls wear, and I just didn’t feel like myself.”

She ended by thanking those high-school kids, her mother, InStyle magazine, Big Bird and McMillen who, she noted, had briefly expressed incredulity at Fanning’s outfit choice of a fresh-from-the-runway Versace gown covered in colorful Andy-Warhol-Marilyn-Monroe portraits.

Three other top-of-the-heap tastemakers were honored early in the intimate dinner, hosted by InStyle magazine’s editor in chief Laura Brown. Following Fanning to the stage was Hung Vanngo, who was presented the Makeup Artist of the Year award by Selena Gomez; Style Star of the Year Zendaya (in a gorgeous ombre layered tulle Schiaparelli Couture gown) introduced by stylist Law Roach; and Harry Josh, who was handed the Hairstylist of the Year Award by friend and client Kate Bosworth.

Four more style standouts were honored during the second half of the dinner including Stylist of the Year Petra Flannery, who was called to the stage by singer Faith Hill (who described Flannery as “one of the greatest human beings I’ve ever met”); singer Demi Lovato, who was honored as Advocate of the Year for taking her battles with addiction and bipolar disorder public (she was presented her award by singer Kelly Rowland); and Valentino designer Pierpaolo Piccioli, who was presented the Designer of the Year award by 2016 Academy Award winner Brie Larson (wearing a dress from the spring 2018 Valentino collection), who described the designer as “a magician … standing between worlds [as] a messenger, [a] channeler, [a] raven going from the Dark Ages [through] the Renaissance to Justin Bieber and somehow it makes sense.”

The evening’s final honor, Style Icon of the Year, was presented by New Zealand comedian and “Thor: Ragnarok” director Taika Waititi to two-time Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett. She took to the stage wearing a black-and-red striped crepe de chine dress from the spring and summer 2018 Givenchy collection designed by Clare Waight Keller, one of the many people — including designers Bruno Frisoni, Pierpaolo Piccioli, John Galliano and Nicolas Ghesquière — whom she thanked before singling out Giorgio Armani in particular. “I think more than anyone, I really have to thank Mr. Armani,” Blanchett said, “[he’s] a style icon in and of himself and has been such a profound mentor to me.

“I think the true icons of style — and there’s a bit of a theme emerging here tonight — for me it’s always those women who’ve been utterly themselves without apology, whose physical presence and their aesthetic is really integrated in a non-self-conscious way into part of who they are; how they look is not all of who they are but an extension of that,” Blanchett continued. “And it’s about women who feel free to wear what they want when they want and how they want to wear it. I mean, you know, we all like looking sexy, but it doesn’t mean we want to ... you. No one says to Steve Bannon, ‘You look like a bag of trash. Do you want me to throw you out?’”

Having lobbed the sole heated comment on one of the warmest L.A. evening’s on record, Queen Cate drew the awards ceremony to a close with a call to arms: “To every single style icon, I say, ‘Bring it on, ladies!’”

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For more musings on all things fashion and style, follow me at @ARTschorn.

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