Oscars carpet will be champagne-coloured, not red for the first time since 1961

For the first time since 1961, the Oscars' carpet will not be red. The award show will instead feature a champagne-coloured carpet.

Many things about the Academy Awards have changed over the years, but for the past six decades there has been at least one constant: The red carpet. The hues have varied over the years, but it has always been some shade of red. Until this year.

On Wednesday outside the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, workers unspooled a champagne-colored carpet as Jimmy Kimmel, who is hosting the 95th Oscars on Sunday, presided over the occasion.

"I think the decision to go with a champagne carpet over a red carpet shows how confident we are that no blood will be shed," Kimmel said.

The decision to change the color came from creative consultants Lisa Love, a longtime Vogue contributor, and Raul Avila, the creative director for the glamourous Met Gala in New York.

This year the carpet will be covered, in part to protect the stars and cameras from the weather, but also to help turn the arrivals into an evening event. For Love, there has always been a disconnect between the elegant black tie dress code and the fact that it's mid-afternoon when people arrive to be photographed in the daylight. With a covered carpet, they could change that.

"We turned a day event into night," Love told The Associated Press. "It's evening, even though it's still 3:00."

The Oscars red carpet dates back to 1961, the 33rd Academy Awards held at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, when Billy Wilder's "The Apartment" won best picture, Burt Lancaster and Elizabeth Taylor won the lead acting prizes, and there was still a "juvenile award," which went to Hayley Mills for "Pollyanna." It was the first televised ceremony, broadcast on ABC and hosted by Bob Hope. The general public wouldn't see the red carpet in all its glory on television until 1966, when the Oscars were first broadcast in color.