Oscars ‘Daily Bite’: Nominated ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ costume designer may need fashion advice

Costume designer Jenny Beavan may want to step up her game at this year’s Oscars.

If you’ve never heard of her, she’s the British film-industry veteran nominated for her work on “Mad Max: Fury Road.” She recently won England’s BAFTA award for that movie and showed up looking slightly rumpled in a black jacket and gray scarf with fringe. The irony was enough for Stephen Fry, one of the U.K.’s best-known comedians, to post on Twitter: “Only one of the great cinematic costume designers would come to an awards ceremony dressed as a bag lady.”

Though Fry and Beavan are friends, his comment went viral and earned so many hate-tweets that he deactivated his Twitter account. Beavan tried to come to his defense, telling the Telegraph, “Yes we are friends, and I am absolutely not upset.”

Beavan’s personal fashion sense aside, her BAFTA award gives her a bit of an edge at the Oscars. Statistically, Sandy Powell might seem to be the leader with two nominations for her vibrant fairy-tale dresses in “Cinderella” and her more muted work in “Carol.” The other nominees — Jacqueline West, who gave “The Revenant” its palpable furs-and-filth look, and Paco Delgado, whose elegant work informed “The Danish Girl” — seem to have taken a back seat among Oscar-guessers. Oddsmakers and pundits generally have Beavan in the lead.

At any rate, Beavan may want to retire that fringe scarf before stepping on the Oscar red carpet.