Oscars 2018 Countdown: Allison Janney-Ology

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Continuing our red carpet tea-leaf-reading exercise, let’s take a look at Miss Allison’s awards season style choices and see if we can suss out a prediction as to how she’ll look when she hits the Oscars red carpet on Sunday night. We did the same thing for her co-star Margot Robbie, which you can check out here.

Miss Allison’s style is generally sleek, with a little bit of sparkle, in either black, red or blue. We’ve long referred to it as a “gets the job done” sort of approach, although that description doesn’t take into account the times she throws caution to the wind and steps out in something truly wild or fit for a drag queen.

At the Hollywood Film Awards  in L’agence (Top) and Rani Zakhem (Skirt)
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We would have considered this to be the quintessential Janney look going into awards season. And it was, for the longest time. But as we’ll see, she loosened up considerably as the buzz and the praise for her work started piling up.

At the Governor’s Awards in Monique L’huillier
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More of the same. This is not an actress expecting to be in the front car on the awards track very soon. You can look at Margot’s red carpetry and see how she and her team had her positioned right from the get-go, but we sense that Allison naturally took a more cautious approach in promoting herself.

At the LA Premiere of “I, Tonya” in Rani Zakhem
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BAM. She essentially just set herself aflame. This must have been the moment when the buzz really started registering for her. Not that she needed any excuse to come out in this head turning look. She has these moments in her style rotation where she suddenly BREAKS OUT and does something unexpected.

Granted, this is somewhat mild, made even more so when you consider her next entry.

At the Golden Globes in Mario Dice
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That’s a lady who came here to pick up her trophy. That’s a dress that says “Victory Lap.” And it’s even more notable in the context of the Globes’ “Time’s Up” dress blackout. She picked a dress that fulfilled the request of the organizers while making sure she looked stunning for the cameras. Well done.

The funny thing is, we’d consider this gown fairly tacky on a lot of other wearers. But because she wisely tends to lean into the long angularity of her body for her style choices, this one really paid off for her.

At the Critics’ Choice Awards in Michael Cinco
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As you can see, she’s starting to loosen up a bit as the season rolled around. Although that’s probably not the best way to describe it, since her “loosening up” involves some of the tightest body-con dresses you’ll see on any red carpet. Women of larger sizes tend to get a lot of praise when their dress fits impeccably, but we’d bet she has to stay on top of the fit issue quite a bit, even though she’s largely model-shaped and sized. Bottom line: it’s never not impeccable with her and we don’t think that’s a coincidence.

This may be one of our favorite Janney looks of the season, although we don’t like how noticeable it is when the lining ends.

At the SAG Awards in Yanina Couture
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As you can see, she keeps getting a bit more adventurous with each awards show. We can’t say we’re totally in love with this design, but as a statement, it can’t be beat. At this point, she’s dressing to win the big prize.

At the Directors Guild Awards in J. Mendel
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This feels like a bit of a step backwards into her usual red carpet ways. It’s fine, but unremarkable. The DGAs are a night where the actors take a back seat, so it’s not surprising to us that she didn’t use this moment to produce some high-drama, look-at-me red carpetry.

At the U.K. Premiere of “I, Tonya” in Jenny Packham
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But by the time the film opened in the U.K., she was back to feeling glamorous and bold, with another instance of her stepping outside her normal silhouette preferences. She ditched the body-con for the night, opting for drape, color and sparkle to see her way through.

At the BAFTA Awards in Bibhu Mohapatra
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And finally, for her last major stop before Prom Night, Miss Lady decided to say “Fuck it” and unleash her wild side. Even so, this is right in line with most of what she chooses to wear. Sleek and body con, with some shine and weight to it, and an emphasis on the shoulders. That’s her thang. It’s just that this time, she took the shoulder-accentuating to somewhat absurd proportions.

Predictions for Sunday night? Well, we doubt she’ll step far outside her color and silhouette preferences. No pink or yellow ballgowns in this gal’s future. We’re figuring it’ll be sleek and either red, silver or black. There will be heavy beading or sequinry. The neckline will probably be low and the shoulders squared off. It’s possible she could pick something totally unexpected, but that doesn’t strike us as her way at all. She’s been in this business way too long to treat such a rare opportunity cavalierly. Expect the kind of Hollywood Glam that suits her best.

[Photo Credit: INSTARImages]

• Allison Janney
• Ologies
• Oscars
• Oscars 2018
• Red Carpet
• Red Carpet Rundown