In my short life as a nineteen year old I have a few certainties, (not many, but I do): the sun will come up every day and go down every night, there’s no “mean red” that can’t be fixed with a bunch of good old comfort food and there can’t be an Oscar red carpet without at least one princess gown. Apparently, certainties are not what they used to be because during Sunday’s March the 2^nd red carpet not a single princess gown was to be seen. Maybe it’s because of the recession and four extra yards of fabric were just too expensive, maybe nobody wanted to risk a repeat of last year Jennifer Lawrence’s fall or maybe they finally realized that sitting on those small seats for four hours with a ball gown it’s not the smartest choice in the world. Regardless, all the women on the year’s most prestigious red carpet wore fitted, plain dresses that struck for their disarming simplicity. From Amy Adam’s sexy, blue, navy gown to Anne Hathaway’s dazzling Gucci dress, all the way through Kate Hudson’s statuesque Atelier Versace and Jennifer Lawrence’s ever-present red Christian Dior gown stars opted for more rigid, simpler, safer but not any less elegant and lovely gowns than previous years. The person who got closer to fulfill my certainties was Lupita Nyong’o, the “12 Years a Slave” actress who took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, in a baby blue (or, as Lupita would call it, Nairobi blue) custom made Prada gown that was something in between Cinderella’s ball gown and a Greek goddess peplos dress. Then there were those who, like Cate Blanchett in her fairy-tale Armani Privé, went as far as opting for an A-line skirt, but nothing more: monochrome, straight and fitted seemed to be the unspoken rule for this unexpected yet fascinating red carpet. Here are the stars who proved to possess not only talent but even style.