This Week, Stars Went for Modern Elegance and Runway Standouts

After a month spent watching everything exhilarating and eccentric that fashion has to offer—the eye-popping dazzle of the catwalk shows—anyone would want a moment to rest and reconsider the classics. Anyone. So it is little surprise that this week, the world’s most stylish took a break from the offbeat and instead embraced the fundamentals of red carpet dressing. Romantic gowns in luscious pastels, often with intricate embellishments, were worn day and night from Doha to Los Angeles for a global consensus on glamour. At the grand opening of Qatar’s National Museum, Naomi Campbell explored the new Jean Nouvel building in crisp white Philippe Perisse. The serene mood was carried into the evening by fellow supermodel Natalia Vodianova, whose rose-embellished Valentino look for the Fashion Trust Arabia Prize dinner was equally elegant.

Amidst all the classicism was an influx of creativity from fashion’s innovators. At the NAACP Awards, Laura Harrier in dashing yellow brought Kerby Jean-Raymond’s vision of black excellence to an event dedicated to the concept. Tracee Ellis Ross wore her second feathered Marc Jacobs look of the week, single-handedly making the case for ’60s-style frippery in the process. Even Lupita Nyong’o got in on the fun, trading the colored contacts and horror theme of her latest promotional tour for a stunning plum Giambattista Valli gown with a sultry slit.