Despite covering a few movies (and their menswear) on this blog, I don’t consider myself a true film bro.  I definitely enjoy movies, both pop and art, but I struggle with being a part of “kino culture. Most of this is just due to time commitment; so much of my free time is spent hanging with friends or writing pretentious stuff on this blog. As a result, there have been years where I’ve only seen two or three movies on the main Oscars list– almost all of them were the biggest movies of the year anyway. But this time was different.

By a sheer stroke of luck, I seemed to have watched all but one of the films nominated for Best Picture. I’ve had an AMC A-list membership for years and tend to watch movies by myself almost every week, but I’ve never had it like this before. Perhaps 2023 was just different. It was a year of maturity and doubling down (even more) on the person I’ve wanted to be. And as a result, I’ve just expanded my taste in film and pushed myself to watch movies I probably wouldn’t have seen when I was in my early twenties.

 All that to say, this was the most invested I’ve ever been in an Oscars race. 

Since this was an Occasion of sorts, I decided to host a little watch party at my mom’s house, which at this point, has now been canonized as the go-to party site after two birthday parties and one soft-black tie NYE shindig. It’s definitely a more casual party, meant to bring people together, have some drinks, and talk about movies…as well as see if anyone was correct for their win predictions. 

And just like my previous events, this get together also had a soft dress code: I encouraged everyone to dress up like a film from 2023. Even though you didn’t have to pick solely from the nominee list, it would’ve been rather easy to do so, considering just how many stylish films were released in 2023. Hell, I covered a few of them from the blog: Barbie/Oppeneimer, Maestro, and The Holdovers. Asteroid City was definitely snubbed.

I was delighted to see that quite a few people actually came on-theme and had a fit inspired by one of the movies. MJ and a few others went preppy with blazers, khakis, and knitwear to send up The Holdovers. Spencer, Michael, and Jay wore brown 1940’s tailoring with a few nods to western wear to do Oppenheimer (which was honestly the easiest menswear one to do). Jay in particular was actually spot on with his outfit, as he wore my old taupe cotton suit, blue shirt, and solid black wool tie, which was basically Oppie’s uniform in the film (just sans fedora). 

However, the real winners were the ladies. A few did delightful variations of pink for Barbie, but Grace actually did the “Evil” Ken look, from the fur jacket down to the belt. I also loved that Maddie did Gwen from Across The Spider-Verse, albeit with one of her casual looks that was only seen once in the film. The fact that she picked such a specific look from the film to replicate was quite SaD of her! 

For my outfit, I decided to do one of Cooper-Lenny’s looks from Maestro. Because even though I didn’t think the movie was all too great, I loved the costuming. Not only is the clothing well done, but Cooper did a great job in capturing the natural chic that Bernstein was known for. His nonchalance and charisma makes it a pretty great menswear movie! 

In the Thanksgiving scene where he rescues Snoopy from the vestibule, Cooper-Lenny wears a brown houndstooth DB suit and a burgundy turtleneck. I only had one of those things, so I improvised by wearing a brown plaid Polo RL suit– one of my luckiest thrift finds of all time. Slightly oversized wayfarer sunglasses and side zip boots definitely help the look, but I think bringing a vintage Snoopy plush (bought at the flea a few years ago) and making my hair grey through the use of baby powder and hairspray was the extra push I needed to fully send up Lenny. It does put this into the realm of cosplay, but even without the hair and plush, it’s a great look! At least I have confirmation that I’ll still look good when I get older. 😉

I think everyone had a great time despite the fact that we started a bit late and missed the red carpet stuff (no fit reviews from us). Based on the positive reception, I think I’m going to have to do this themed party every year. You guys should do it too! 

I can only pray that we get at least one or two good menswear films a year, so that the boys and I can still look good. Now enjoy some snapshots!

@ethanmwong

What a snub #bradleycooper #maestro #leonardbernstein #snoopy #cosplay #theoscars #oscars

♬ original sound – Ethan M. Wong

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Ethan M. Wong (follow me on IG)

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