Olivier Awards 2014 Best Dressed

I've fallen off the radar blogging-wise recently as the final few months of third year have become almost unbearable and university has completely taken over my life. If I'm not in the archives I'm in the British Library, and when I'm not hidden scrolling through microfilms at the BFI I'm frantically writing my dissertation. I've barely had the time to surface to do a #100happydays post on schedule let alone anything else, but I decided to take a weekend off before I ran out of steam and couldn't have planned it better as yesterday afternoon saw the 2014 Olivier Awards take over the Royal Opera House and Covent Garden.

The Oliviers are one of the stagiest nights in the year, as they celebrate the very best of British theatre. I've become a lot more involved with theatre over the last twelve months and have been really lucky to see quite a few of the productions nominated tonight. My highlight from the winners has to be Rory Kinnear's Best Actor award for his portrayal of Iago in Othello at the National. It's my favourite Shakespeare play, and the production totally blew me away from the phenomenal set to the powerhouse acting from the entire cast. Kinnear's performance was utterly sinister, chilling and one of the most convincing Iagos I've ever seen. It was a fully well deserved win for him in a Shakespeare-dominated and highly competitive category.

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Once and The Book of Mormon remain firmly at the top of my list of shows to see, and I'm gutted I never got round to seeing Chimerica. Once exams are finished I'm looking forward to spending a lot more time in the theatre to make sure I don't miss out again! A full list of winners can be found here.

As ever, the red carpet was an utter delight. There were a number of excellent looks, so I've narrowed it down as best I can, even though it was hard!

My Best Dressed goes to the resplendent Hayley Atwell. Wearing an elegant Dsquared2 white gown with a cowl neckline, she looked sensational and proved that she really struggles to get it wrong on the red carpet! I loved the accessories - green peridot stone earrings from Asprey and a gold clutch - and the slick of red lipstick gave her look a sultry yet classy edge. Not only is she an incredible actress (nominated yesterday evening for Best Actress, for The Pride at the Trafalgar Studios) but she's also the Queen of the red carpet. 10/10 from me, Hayley!

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LUKE TREADAWAY

Burberry

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SAMANTHA BARKS

Burberry Prorsum Spring 2014 gown 

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TOM HIDDLESTON
Alexander McQueen

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GEMMA ARTERTON

Prada gown with Faraone Mennella jewellery

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MARTIN FREEMAN

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ZRINKA CVITESIC

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JAMES McAVOY

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I loved all the subtle pastel colours on the red carpet this year: very summery and the perfect compliment to this brilliantly sunny weather at the moment!

Huge congratulations to all the winners! As ever British theatre continues to go from strength to strength and really shows that it's an industry clearly at the top of its game. Now, I'm off to book tickets to more shows when I really should be finishing my dissertation and revising...