Oscars red carpet goes green with sustainable fashion

The red carpet remains a part of the Oscars this year, but with attendance limited by coronavirus pandemic protocols, there will be fewer stars and fewer garments.

But there is still going to be room for "green" garments made out of recycled or repurposed clothes.

Oscar is going green to play a part in saving our planet, and the story is all about sustainability -- using materials that don't harm our environment and reusing all sorts of stuff.

You might call it "couture with a conscience."

RELATED | An Oscars like no other: How this year's show will be different

The Academy Awards ceremony has been more of the same for half a century now: the faces and their films may change, but not the format -- until now.

Naomie Harris was a vision in a Vivienne Westwood gown on the red carpet at the 2013 Academy Awards, and she told PopSugar her gold dress was made from organic silk. But you may be astonished to learn the accents at the top were made of candy wrappers.

"She crumpled gold chocolate wrappers up into the bodice of the gown, and suddenly, they looked like molten lava, and the gown came to life," said Samata Pattinson, CEO of the Academy-supported initiative Red Carpet Green Dress. "It's this conversation that waste is only waste if you waste it, and if we can just start imagining the things we think have no more use as something beautiful, amazing things can happen."

It all began when Suzy Amis Cameron got the idea to wear an eco-friendly dress to the 2010 Oscar ceremony, when her husband James Cameron's movie "Avatar" was nominated for Best Picture.

"The (eco-friendly dresses) that were brought to me, I, uh, no," she said. "They weren't anything that I was going to be putting on and walking down a red carpet."

As a result, she staged a design contest to challenge young people to use materials in a stylish way.

Red Carpet Green Dress was born, and what a difference a decade makes. Today, there are so many way to promote sustainability in Oscar style.

"We're trying our very best to show people sustainability is so many different things," Pattinson said. "It's vintage. It's recycling. It's organic. It's natural dyes."

RELATED | Hairstylists for 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' make history with Oscar nomination

The Oscar-nominated film "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" is the story of a pioneering blues singer during a recording session in the 1920s.

Speaking of vintage, actress Emma Roberts showed off simple way to get with the program when she wore a vintage Giorgio Armani gown the first time she went to the Oscars.

All this is not just for women. One of this year's nominees, Lakeith Stanfield from "Judas and the Black Messiah," has gone green in a sustainable Zegna tuxedo on the Oscar red carpet -- which is, after all, the most-watched fashion runway in the world.

"It really offers an opportunity to inspire people to make positive change," Amis Cameron said.