Miranda Kerr
Miranda looks really, really charming in this beauty of a gown. It went down the runway in February, so clearly it wasn't borne of the theme, and I don't even know how to argue that it applies except for MAYBE that it has a large skirt. There is nothing avant-garde about it; this is sweetness in dress form.
Now, if the optical illusion had been REAL and it came with a giant white puffball oozing from the back, then we could talk. But that's just Janelle Monae exiting the scene.
Zoe Kravitz
This doesn't really scream Oscar to me. Not that it HAS to... but, it's a dramatic eruption for sure, and given the theme (and the fact that I THINK this was custom?), I understand where they were going with it. But the fabric is unforgiving of imprecise work, and I think we're seeing the effects of that in the way it creases on her body. I don't know. I look at it and think, "I'm probably supposed to love this, but I can't commit."
Zoe Kravitz
Maybe it's because from the back, it looks like she's a Disney princess slowly getting undressed.
Daisy Ridley
This is custom, but using a pattern that appeared in their runway show. It's quite tantalizing when it's laid out just-so on the stairs, but the poof in the front feels a bit like the lazy person's attempt at volume.
And from the front, the high-low and all the seaming don't play that well together. It looks almost childish, with the empire waist and tank bodice. If you're going CUSTOM for this event, I think it needs to have more imagination, or immaculate work, and this has neither. WAY HARSH, TAI, perhaps, but that's how I feel.