It's Oscar night!

Oh, how I love the Oscars! I love the dresses, the shoes, the jewelry, the red carpet, the silly questions from the interviewers, and the show.

The show has been pretty good so far; they've changed the way that the different awards are presented to make use of previous winners instead of the announcer guy (who I haven't heard yet this year). The stage is very sparkly with Swarovski crystals in an arch above it and the audience is closer to the stage this year because there's no orchestra pit. This means that the presenter, Hugh Jackman, can easily talk to the members of the audience... and involve them in his skits. I must say that Hugh Jackman is doing a marvelous job as presenter! I'd had no idea that he could sing and dance but he can do those *and* he's pretty funny. Both the presenter and comedy portions of the show have actually been quite funny which is a nice change over preceding years.

The women wore mainly heavily-beaded strapless or "Wilma" (one shoulder) flowy gowns. There's lots of layering and folded fabric going on as well. Penelope Cruz wore a very vintage dress that looked perfect - lots of beading, ruching, and flowy fabrics.

One thing I noticed and thought was sort of odd was that many of the dresses seemed to puddle on the ground, even in the front. Of course a gown should be floor-length, and a train might puddle on the floor, but the front of the gown should just clear the floor. Ian thought the reason for the long dresses was that the stars were all wearing running shoes instead of their gorgeous shoes on the red carpet. I could believe this to be true in the the theatre, but not on the red carpet.

The fact that the dresses were so embellished meant that the jewelry was minimal and understated. There were lots of small dangly diamond earrings (not so many chandelier earrings this year) and diamond cuffs. There were couple of "statement" necklaces but not so many this year; most of them appeared to be choker-style.

I have to say..... I wish the strapless dress trend would end again (; it's been around before). It's very, very difficult for a woman to wear a strapless dress well, even if that woman is in perfect shape. If women aren't bulging out the sides or top, the dress is so sculptured that it's standing alone and either the woman can't breathe or the dress only properly fits when she breathes in. I don't love the Wilma style, where a strap of some kind goes over the shoulder, but it is a little better than the strapless dress.