What is glamour? In the collective unconscious, it is intimately linked to the movies, to actresses on the red carpet,” says a piece in Stars in Dior (Rizzoli, 2012), a coffee-table book about haute couture, movies and their joint magic.

At the 70th Golden Globe Awards on Sunday at The Beverly Hilton hotel, Los Angeles, US, it was clear that the red carpet “pose” is now as powerful as “performance” when it comes to celebrity glamour.

There were the usual splashes of colour, some blazing and beautiful, but black and white—the two perennially fashionable non-colours—dominated what the stars wore.

The excited cast and crew of Les Misérables, which took home awards for Hugh Jackman (best actor), Anne Hathaway (best supporting actress) and best motion picture, musical or comedy, rocked backstage, all in black and white outfits (coordinated or coincidental?).

Lovely little details scored high for Debra Messing’s appearance (full marks for the charcoal grey nail paint) as she paired her Donna Karan Resort (2013) strapless black silk, organza hand-ruched gown with shoes by Rupert Sanderson and bracelets by Samira 13 and Amrapali.

Clooney wore his standard, if classic (unnamed) tuxedo, and Keibler a floor-length Armani Privé gown with horizontal stripes.

The trend continued at the after-party where Jessica Alba slipped out of her coral Oscar de la Renta gown and into a sequinned Damier check dress from Louis Vuitton’s Spring/Summer 2013 collection.