For most people getting ready for an event takes a few hours at most. But when you’re a star on the magnitude of Gwyneth Paltrow, and the event is the Oscars, months of time, effort and politics can go into picking the right dress and ensuring the night goes off without a sartorial hitch. Today on Goop, Gwynnie gives us a glimpse at the months-long process that went into her looking fab in Tom Ford at the Oscars.

Of course, the journey to the Best Dressed List begins with a dress. For Gwyneth, the responsibility of finding the perfect Oscars gown falls squarely on the shoulders of her stylist Elizabeth Saltzman, who says the job is a “long process that begins the moment when the nominees are announced and doesn’t end until the moment she steps onto the red carpet.” Saltzman starts by calling certain designers (she usually works with two or three) and seeing if they have anything special in mind for the big event and making sure they aren’t dressing anyone else too similarly. The designer, in turn, will send over sketches of possible gown options and Saltzman will “gently try to make tweaks that [she knows] will work for [her] particular client,” keeping in mind her client’s body, coloring, and confidence level.

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