Congratulations are in order for Jennifer Aniston. Last night, she not only picked up a SAG Award for her role in The Morning Show but also triumphed as one of the best dressed at the event.
Departing from her usual red carpet safety zone (black, black, black) Jen did a 180 and opted instead for a brilliant white, vintage Christian Dior by John Galliano gown, masterminded by stylists Nina and Clare Hallworth. Despite the radical jump along the colour spectrum, in many ways the dress still rings true to her tried-and-tested, pared-back style (the Internet was quick to point out the parallels between Aniston's look and another glossy American minimalist’s wedding dress: the bias cut Narciso Rodriguez slip Carolyn Bessette Kennedy wore to her Cumberland Island wedding to JFK Jr in 1996). Aniston knows what works for her – clean design, bias-cuts, Dior (naturally) – and sticks to it.
It takes mega-watt star power and innate fashion confidence to pull off something so simple. I once saw Aniston in Sunset Tower in Los Angeles and, to invoke a tired cliché, she really does ‘light up the room’. This is a woman who doesn’t need gimmicks, attention grabbing cut outs, or gobstopper jewels to make an impact. It’s why she’s such a breath of fresh air on the red carpet.
But don’t mistake simple for safe. Aniston’s SAG look was a savvy, knowing choice. Head to toe white is one of the ultimate sartorial power moves. Not just the colour of female suffrage and of purity, but also the colour of the privately chauffeured who can, you know, actually keep it white. And it’s also the colour to wear this summer. The white dress is trending big for spring (Matches’ launches its new Bridal & Event Dressing edit this week, aimed not just at brides but the increasing customer demand to wear white for big nights) so in wearing this, Aniston is ahead of the game. Side note: if you want to do the white dress but are concerned people will think you’ve got lost on the way to the church, pare-back the silhouette as Aniston did here.
It was also a canny move on Aniston's part to wear vintage. Huge news on the red carpet at the moment (see: Kim Kardashian, Kate Moss, Amal Clooney), vintage isn’t just more sustainable but implies a certain fashion fluency. It implies being in the know and having the confidence to break free from the rigidity of traditional VIP dressing. Plus, you never need to worry about turning up in the same look as someone else. It’s clearly working for Aniston.