Oscars 2022

It Was All About What Timmy Chalamet Didn’t Wear (A Shirt!) on the 2022 Oscars Red Carpet

They say it couldn’t be done. 
Image may contain Timothe Chalamet Human Person Red Carpet Fashion Red Carpet Premiere Premiere and Footwear
US-French actor Timothee Chalamet attends the 94th Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on March 27, 2022.By VALERIE MACON/Getty Images.

Timothée Chalamet has done it. He’s done something surprising on the Oscars red carpet. They say it couldn’t be done! They say no one takes risks anymore! And yet there he was outside the Dolby Theatre on Sunday night in a cropped Louis Vuitton jacket with a lace overlay from the women’s spring 2022 collection; he wore a total of nine pieces of white gold from Cartier, including a panther necklace and several rings; he wore shoes and he wore pants. 

But did he wear a shirt? No, he did not!

Here he is doing a kind of Risky Business thing, but instead of no pants, it’s no shirt. It seems possible that this is the first time it’s been done on the Oscars red carpet—that is, the Olympics of the mermaid dress, the Super Bowl of staid tuxes. (We are currently deep in the archives checking.) One would think Brad Pitt would have gone for the look at some Oscars, right? And if not Brad, then Johnny Depp. And if not Johnny, then Mickey Rourke? One of these guys would have broken this new, shirtless ground, you’d think. But no! Chalamet is the guy who’s done it. We’ve had to wait until the 2020s. Seems both too soon and too late. Can’t explain that any more than I can explain time. But who needs an explanation, when you can have a look: 

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This is not the first time Chalamet has dared to test top-half dressing conventions. See, of course, the Louis Vuitton harness (or bib) of the 2019 Golden Globes. And count LaKeith Stanfield as a possible predecessor for the look, with his Saint Laurent jumpsuit with a deep, deep V-neck that showed off a little chest hair at the 2021 Oscars. Jason Momoa, too, took off his button-up shirt for Vanity Fair’s afterparty in 2019.

If Chalamet has been wanting to go full no shirt, it makes sense that he chose this particular Oscars to do it. He isn’t nominated for any acting categories this year, but Dune is nominated for 10 awards, including best picture, best adapted screenplay, best score, and best cinematography. Don’t Look Up, in which he has a smaller role, is nominated for four, including best original screenplay and best picture. So this might be the best moment for the guy to really go for it. He’s not going to be up there all alone accepting an award, all shirtless and vulnerable. 

The only thing more exciting and equally vulnerable to see on the red carpet than a missing shirt? Missing pants

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