Haddish and Moreno Broke a Fashion Taboo at The Oscars, and We Love It

Last night, the 90th annual Academy Awards took place in Los Angeles, California.

And whether you’re a die-hard movie fan or one of those people who watches only for the fashion, there’s no denying these people know how to put on a show.

But after 90 years of movie stars and the crews who make them look good on the silver screen waltzing down the red carpet dressed to the nines, it’s sort of starting to feel like we’ve seen every version of every dress imaginable. I mean, with so many stars attending so many awards shows for so many years, we’re bound to see some similarities once in a while.

Last night, however, two Hollywood stars stepped out in dresses we actually had seen before — and we are here for it.

Red Carpet Style, Recycled

As the red carpet rolled out and guests started arriving, the dresses, tuxes, glitz and glam were, as always, pretty much all people could talk about.

But then Tiffany Haddish and Rita Moreno arrived, and a new wave of buzz arose.

You see, fans quickly realized that they had seen the dresses these two actors were wearing before, which isn’t something we usually encounter among the Hollywood elite, where having the latest, greatest outfit is not only normal, but expected.

Moreno, who was hosting a red-carpet broadcast for E!, wore the same dress she had worn to the awards show 56 years earlier when she won an Oscar for her role as Anita in “West Side Story.” She had her dress slightly altered, making the switch from a high neckline to strapless, but wore the same gloves she had accessorized the gown with way back in 1962.

Unlike Moreno, though, Haddish wore her dress three times in the span of eight months. The actor arrived in a hooded dress traditionally worn by women in Eritrea, where her father is from, before changing into a dress she had previously worn to two different events — first to the premier of her movie “Girls Trip” last summer and then, in November, to host “Saturday Night Live.”

When she hosted SNL, Haddish made a point of mentioning the dress’ second appearance.

“I wore it on the red carpet for ‘Girls Trip’ and my whole team, they told me, ‘Tiffany, you cannot wear that dress on ‘SNL.’ You already wore it. It’s taboo to wear it twice,’” she explained in her opening monologue. “And I said, ‘I don’t give a dang about no taboo.’”

Haddish went on to make a joke about how she was planning to wear the $4,000 dress multiple times, saying she’d even wear it if she ever had another wedding.
Well, she’s following through on her promise to get plenty of use out of the (gorgeous) white dress, and we’re hoping to see it a few more times as Haddish works to break the “taboo” of repeating outfits in Hollywood — and saving money in the process.

Get Your Money’s Worth

For so long, it’s been an unspoken rule that women shouldn’t repeat outfits — often or even at all — which has made the women’s fashion industry a nonstop cycle of overconsumption.

Haddish and Moreno, by rewearing outfits they had worn before at one of the biggest events (for their line of work) of the year, sent a message to women everywhere, saying it’s OK to reuse and recycle fashion until you get your money’s worth.

“I feel like I should be able to wear what I want, when I want, however many times I want,” Haddish said that night on “SNL” — and we agree! No one, (movie star or not), should ever feel obligated to follow a fashion rule — and an expensive one at that — just to fulfill expectations.

(Plus, as if Haddish’s outfit choice didn’t make her relatable enough, she paired the dress with comfy slippers — skyrocketing herself to the top of my list of fashion idols.)

Grace Schweizer is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder.