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Monica Barbaro earned her first Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award and Academy Award nominations this year for seamlessly embodying 1960s folk music icon Joan Baez in A Complete Unknown. Dressing to celebrate at the 2025 SAG Awards red carpet, and all awards season long, however, has had a two-word directive firmly grounded in the present: “consistently Monica.”
Everything the 34-year-old actress wears, from the L’Oréal mascara curling her lashes to the carats of serpentine Bulgari diamonds winding around her fingers, is meant to be a natural extension of her and her alone. This star doesn’t engage in trendy one-upmanship via archival fashion or, heaven forbid, method dressing. “It’s been about embracing my own looks and showing up as the same person each time, as opposed to like, ‘Let’s pull a U-turn and play someone else today,'” she tells me.
(Image credit: Cibelle Levi)
Barbaro’s brand of red carpet candor comes through in what she wears and how she describes wearing it. When we check in right before she poses for hundreds of cameras, she’s honest about the effort it takes to keep her precisely tailored dress looking pristine. “I’m like supine right now,” she tells me from the back of the car, whisking her to the red carpet. “I’m, like, laid back so that the dress”—custom Dior, cut from chili pepper-red fabric into a sculpted gown with a dramatic plunge neckline—”doesn’t wrinkle. It’s a pretty funny image.”
So is the one she paints of her getting-ready process. She makes the day before she hits the best-dressed list sound like an extremely opulent tornado worlds away from the low-lit clubs and unfussy apartments her portrayal of Baez inhabits. Different sets of hands pull her hair in one direction for a blow-out, others yank her fingers for a fresh coat of polish in another (sometimes, simultaneously), all while she tries to stay “as zen as possible” with calm music and deep breaths.
She makes it through with the right team in the room, and the North Star promises that she’ll leave in a recognizable (albeit glamorous) state. “My lovely team is so generous, allowing me to look as much like myself as possible. We’re not doing big hair looks. We’re not, you know, overpainting my face.”
(Image credit: Cibelle Levi)
(Image credit: Cibelle Levi)
The trio of stylists who’ve worked most closely with Barbaro throughout her first major awards season meet her halfway: understanding she wants to rise to the occasion without losing herself in the dress code. Barbaro saw sketches of gown options from Dior options and liked hers in white—but she loved the idea of it being red. (After a season where sequins and neutrals were in heavy supply, “I think every award show series deserves one red moment.”) So wardrobe stylist Jeanann Williams supported her inclination to request a swatch in Barbaro’s preferred color.
(Image credit: Cibelle Levi)
(Image credit: Cibelle Levi)
I’ve been really craving showing up as authentically myself as possible.
Makeup artist Samantha Lau has primed Barbaro for every appearance of her whirlwind red carpet season with “timeless and cohesive” looks grounded in a single statement—sometimes a bold eye, other times a bright lip. It’s an approach that can meet the grandeur of the moment without losing sight of the star’s natural beauty.
A nomination night didn’t change their beauty strategy, either. “When it comes to a night where she’s nominated, the approach becomes even more intentional,” Lau says. “When Monica showed me her SAG Awards dress, I envisioned a soft, defined eye to complement its sleek, sophisticated silhouette.” The “subtle yet refined” result involved a few swipes of L’Oreal Paris Big Deal Mascara , an accompanying glow courtesy of Lumi Le Glass Highlighter Stick, and a finishing spritz of Infallible 3-Second Setting Mist to lock it all in.
(Image credit: Cibelle Levi)
(Image credit: Cibelle Levi)
Similarly, hair stylist Owen Gould’s approach was less rigid and precise, more “effortless and touchable.” Between prep with an Everpure Glossing Lamination Mask and a blow-out set with Elnett hairspray, Barbaro walked the carpet with commercial-worthy volume and shine that didn’t feel far off from her everyday.
Movement that could complement a couture dress without going over-the-top is another fine balance to strike. “I wouldn’t say the direction necessarily changes because she’s nominated, but the pressure was on to execute a flawless look,” Gould says. “I think as a team, including stylist and makeup, we absolutely nailed [it].”
(Image credit: Cibelle Levi)
(Image credit: Cibelle Levi)
Before A Complete Unknown, red carpets were just about ticking the fun, if superficial boxes for Barbaro: dressing up, arriving at the event, networking. After the nominations and all-around bigger role, the calculus has shifted.
“I’ve been really craving just showing up as authentically myself as possible,” she says. Her taste in beauty products and color palettes hasn’t necessarily changed—but her conviction in her style has gotten stronger. With more eyes on her than ever before, “It’s nice to feel a sort of sense of ownership and a connection to how I’m presenting, as opposed to characters out of a hat.”
(Image credit: Cibelle Levi)
Back when her SAG Awards dress was still a work in progress, before she knew exactly how her hair would fall over her shoulders or which heels she’d step into, Barbaro went to fittings as the most undone version of herself. “You stand there with your tousled hair and glasses and no makeup, and you start to try and read between the lines and see what the rest of the look could come out as,” she recalls.
Barbaro ultimately didn’t take home the trophy she was nominated for at the SAGs. She did, however, secure another personal style win. Looking at photos of the full look the morning after the ceremony, I’m sure Barbaro agrees the final result was consistently—and brilliantly–—Monica.
Photographer Cibelle Levi | Stylist Jeanann Williams| Hair Stylist Owen Gould | Makeup Artist Samantha Lau
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