InStyle magazine returned to the Getty Center on Monday night for its fourth celebration of Hollywood’s trendsetters, tastemakers, and stylish movers-and-shakers, which this year included Julia Roberts (recipient of the Icon of Style Award), Givenchy’s artistic director Clare Waight Keller (Designer of the Year) and Constance Wu, who was presented the Reebok-sponsored Badass Woman of the Year Award by Crazy Rich Asians costar Awkwafina.
Roberts was the first to be honoured at the hilltop dinner and awards ceremony, called to the stage by Notting Hill screenplay writer Richard Curtis, who half-complimented/half-roasted the actress but ended his remarks by focusing on two acts of kindness in particular. One was a charity effort in Kenya (“She raised a million dollars with Bear Grylls,” Curtis said), and the other was the time Roberts took off a pair of Jimmy Choos and gave them to Curtis to give to his sick daughter.
Following Roberts to the stage was actress Laura Harrier, who presented the Makeup Artist of the Year Award to James Kaliardos whose list of clients has included Barbra Streisand, Miley Cyrus, Rihanna and Hillary Clinton. After that, actress Rebel Wilson presented the Stylist of the Year Award to Elizabeth Stewart, making hay with the fact that Stewart was full-on twinning it at the event with her client and honouree Roberts. The pair wore coordinated Givenchy spring and summer 2019 lavender wool and mohair suits and silk shirts designed by Waight Keller.
“That’s a faux pas,” Wilson said.
Wu, who received the inaugural Badass Woman of the Year Award (actually a re-branded Advocate of the Year Award — past winners include Demi Lovato and Shailene Woodley), made what was perhaps the evening’s most memorable acceptance speech.
“I’m accepting this award even though I’m small — both in my physical size and in my ability to affect change,” Wu said, “but we are all pretty small when we stand alone. But when we stand with other women, with people with different religions, abilities, gender identities... people who come from different socioeconomic statuses, people who have had different educational opportunities, when we stand with people from any marginalised group who has been made to feel small their entire lives, when we stand together we become enormous. We become huge. It makes us one big, collective badass — just one beautiful, big, bad butt! ... And as a famous lyricist once said: ‘I like big butts and I cannot lie / You other brothers can’t deny...’ “
After that, Jennifer Aniston presented the Hairstylist of the Year Award to her longtime friend Chris McMillan, whom she described as not just a cutter of hair but an “undercover healer” as well.
After a break for dinner, singer Haley Reinhart (clad in a strapless, form-fitting Roberto Cavalli gown) took to the stage to present the Man of Style Award to Jeff Goldblum. Reinhart, who sings a couple of tunes on Goldblum’s soon-to-drop debut jazz album, surprised the actor by first singing him Happy Birthday — joined by the by-now boisterous guests.
Goldblum accepted his award by giving the lion’s share of the credit to two others — partly to his stylist Andrew Vottero for giving his closet a complete makeover (for starters), but especially to his wife, Emilie Goldblum. “We’re often photographed together — as we were tonight,” he said. “And a lot of what I’m credited with has to do with [the] reflected elegance and grace that comes from being in any way associated with — or near — her.”
After the dessert course was served, Busy Philipps took to the stage to introduce the penultimate honouree of the evening — stylist Karla Welch, who received the newly created Voice of Style Award. Welch, who has used her status as an A-list stylist to the stars (her clients include Philipps, Tracee Ellis Ross, Sarah Paulson, Elisabeth Moss and Justin Bieber) to leverage support for various causes dear to her (including a Levi’s collaboration that had the denim company donating to Everytown for Gun Safety and an EBay sale that benefited the Trevor Project), urged the rest of the famous folks gathered at the Getty to use their own voices.
“Right before the election, I had an agent say to me, ‘You should really be careful what you say because people might not want to work with you,’” she said. “Let me tell you something. There isn’t a single person in this room whose careers would be compromised if you stood up for what was right on your platform. People are still going to work with you. You aren’t going to go broke. People are going to go to your movies. It’s not that hard. Speaking up has widened my world more than it has narrowed it.”
After Welch left the stage to thundering applause, a Givenchy-clad Lily Collins took to the lectern to present the evening’s last honour — the Designer of the Year Award — to Givenchy’s artistic director, whom Collins described as “a real superwoman,” pointing out that, in the last year, the working mother of three managed to helm a major French fashion house and design one of the most talked-about wedding dresses of all time (the one Meghan Markle wore to wed Prince Harry back in May).
