A little after 5 p.m. on Thursday afternoon, Beth Malone stood in the Manhattan offices of the fashion public relations company KCD trying not to appear out of place. It was a losing battle.
Ms. Malone — who stars in “Fun Home” and is nominated for best actress in a musical — wasn’t sure whether the diamond-studded earrings from Jemma Wynne were supposed to angle upward or downward. Also, she was less than confident she had figured out how to stand in her black-and-white sleeveless J. Mendel dress with the slit down the middle.
“Leg out,” said Nate Hinton, a publicity director at the agency, which represents designer brands like Marc Jacobs and Givenchy, and who was helping to outfit her. “The leg is everything.”
“No way,” said Ms. Malone, not so much defiant as she was amazed at the suggestion. “Who’s that celebrity who did that?”
“Angelina Jolie,” someone nearby offered.
“Yes,” Ms. Malone said. “She looked like an idiot.”
“No, she didn’t,” said Ms. Malone’s publicist, Molly Barnett.
Ms. Malone remained unconvinced. For one thing, she’s a self-described cargo-pant-wearing lesbian, the sort who can barely remember the last time she had on heels. For another, she’s an actress working in a field in which borrowed clothes (and playing dress up) remain unusual.
Last year, Audra McDonald won her sixth Tony Award — a feat no other actor had accomplished — starring in the play “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill” — but she accepted the award wearing Escada, a brand not exactly known as fashion trendsetter. Jessie Mueller, who won for her role in the musical “Beautiful,” was outfitted by a little-known bridal designer named Randi Rahm.
At the Oscars, the most memorable fashion moments have generally involved entertainers like Cher and Björk going as over the top as possible. At the Tonys, no outfit in recent memory was more commented upon than Frances McDormand’s; in 2011, she accepted the award for best actress in a play wearing a Levi’s jean jacket.
But this year, change appears to be afoot.
