The 2023 Oscars Champagne Carpet Sparks Conversation
White, Champagne, Whatever — This Year's Oscars Carpet Was New, But Not Necessarily Improved
Practical, the Oscars are not. This year, however, the creative team behind the award show really outdid themselves: on March 12, viewers bore witness to a brand new white carpet. Except, it wasn't white at all. (Our mistake. How embarrassing.) The new carpet was champagne, as described by Lisa Love, the event's first-ever red carpet creative consultant.
Why not take it a step further? "We chose this beautiful sienna, saffron colour that evokes the sunset, because this is the sunset before the golden hour," Love told The Associated Press prior to the Oscars. Love later elaborated in The New York Times: "The sienna-colour tent and champagne-coloured carpet was inspired by watching the sunset on a white-sand beach at the 'golden hour' with a glass of champagne in hand, evoking calm and peacefulness."
Gone are the days of that garish red carpet, marked by decades of tradition. Enter instead, a beige substitute — and don't mind the growing layer of grey footprints. (Yes, even Louboutins can track dirt.) Now, the floor is also guaranteed to match the many ivory dresses conveniently worn by Hollywood's brightest stars.
For you eco-conscious viewers, however, rest assured that the polyester-based carpet is made up of recycled materials, so the stained rug can always be recycled afterwards. Plus, as Oscar host Jimmy Kimmel aptly pointed out, "I think the decision to go with a champagne carpet rather than a red carpet shows how confident we are that no blood will be shed." It's not white! It's the dawn of a new era!
The criticism was inevitable and anticipated, Love said, but it seems the Oscars are also open to change again in the future. "Somebody's always got a way to find something wrong with something," she said. "This is just a lightness and hopefully people like it. It doesn't mean that it's always going to be a champagne coloured carpet."
