Janelle Monae in Elie Saab at the Oscars: flawless or exhausting?

Let me say some nice stuff about Janelle Monae before I get to the bad stuff. First of all, it’s an incredible achievement for Monae to be part of two Best Picture-nominated films, Moonlight and Hidden Figures. She was wonderful in both films. She’s beautiful, she’s talented, she has a rockin’ body and she seems very cool. Now for the bad stuff: her fashion choices exhaust me. As in, her black-and-white fashion-branding is tired. Maybe I wouldn’t mind it if she mixed it up and did monochromatic all-white or all-black every now and then. But she doesn’t – she insists on mixing black, white, grey, patterns, stripes, polka dots, beading, capes, etc. And it’s exhausting.

Twitter blew up with compliments for Janelle’s Elie Saab look but this, to me, did not feel like the right dress for the occasion. As I often feel with her looks, there’s no place to rest your eye. Sorry, peeps. I wasn’t feeling it.

Speaking of, Ava Duvernay wore Ashi and I thought she looked like a Disney princess in motion, but in photos this dress is not that cute. I like that Ava – who was an Oscar nominee – went for a big statement dress. But this looks like repurposed curtains, the skirt is too stiff and the waist on the gown isn’t the best.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.

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