When faced with a virtual award season, which began with the 2020 Emmys in September and concluded with the Critics’ Choice Awards in March, fashion stylists pivoted, adjusting their methods for the new pandemic-friendly format, and broadcasting their hard work on social media. As a result of their strategic modifications, this award season’s red carpet was as glamorous as it was memorable. The 2021 Oscars, the first major award show to take place in person in a year, marked the return to IRL red carpets. But the stylists that made this season a success believe the move to virtual changed red carpets for the better.
Micah McDonald and Wayman Bannerman, the styling partnership behind Regina King’s red carpet looks this season, say that they actually preferred digital red carpets. The duo — who just landed third on Hollywood Reporter’s 2021 Most Powerful Stylists list, after Zendaya’s Image Architect Law Roach and Beyoncé’s stylist Zerina Akers — used the switch to virtual red carpets to make statement after statement.
