For many, the highlight of the yearly Academy Awards is the pre-show fashion parade of celebrities on the red carpet. Dijanna Mulhearn's Red Carpet Oscars will delight both film buffs and fashionistas, as it provides brief capsule summaries of what went on at each year's celebration along with photos of Hollywood's biggest and most glamorous stars as they approached the awards ceremony. At nearly 500 pages, this hefty photography book covers a wide array of attendees at the Academy Awards from 1929 to 2022.
There's "tulle wrapped" Marilyn Monroe in 1951 at her only appearance at an Oscar ceremony (wearing a borrowed gown from All About Eve); Eva Marie Saint, two days before giving birth, collecting her 1955 Oscar for On the Waterfront; and the achingly beautiful final Oscar appearance from Audrey Hepburn, 10 months before her death in 1993. The book is filled with iconic images, including Billy Porter's gender-bending velvet tuxedo gown in 2019; Björk's 2001 swan dress; Barbra Streisand's transparent "party pajamas" in 1969; Lee Grant's 1976 attire, which she referred to as "an old wedding dress"; Celine Dion's reversed suit jacket in 1999; Lupita Nyong'o's blue chiffon dress in 2014; and Prince's black lace shirt and lace gloves under a purple beaded hooded top and matching pants in 1985.
The handy index allows fans to track their preferred stars (Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Fonda and Audrey Hepburn are photographed in five different decades) or find favorite designers like Givenchy, Armani, Dior and, of course, eight-time Oscar-winner Edith Head. The crisp (often full-page) photos highlight not only the glamourous styles but often the eyebrow-raising pairings: Madonna and Michael Jackson; Joe Namath and Raquel Welch; Rock Hudson and Yvonne De Carlo. --Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant