This Golden Globes Red Carpet Was Not Harvey Weinstein’s Red Carpet

There’s really no getting away from the fact that the most powerful red carpet fashion statement at any Golden Globes occurred in 2018, when almost all of the women who attended showed up in black gowns and tuxedo suits in solidarity with Time’s Up and #MeToo. So the coincidence that this year the ceremony took place the night before the start of a criminal trial of Harvey Weinstein, the man whose transgressions in part gave rise to the movement, was bound to add a certain scrutiny to what everyone decided to wear.

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Would they continue what they had started, and try to make their clothes about more than just a pretty dress? Or would they return to the status quo, in part established by Mr. Weinstein, when fashion choices were driven more by brand marketing and money than by personal preference, and good taste and safety ruled? Would, in other words, the biggest trend of the night be an actual trend, or an idea?

When Jennifer Lopez, in a giant strapless Valentino ball gown with an even more giant Christmassy green and gold bow on the front, like an enormous gift-wrapped relic of the holiday (and red carpets) past, or an irresistible piece of meme bait, made her entrance, it appeared things were reverting to ye olde form — despite the fact the idea of women as presents just waiting to be uncovered supposedly went out with Victoria’s Secret.

But then things took a turn for the weirder. The men may have been playing it mostly safe this time around, Billy Porter in his version of the Bjork swan dress, a white tux swan train, detachable for sitting, excepted. (He just keeps raising the entrance stakes with every appearance, to the extent that it is hard to imagine what he will do next. The pressure!)