Filed under: party girls
Yawn. Yet another Hollywood Fashion Naptime. I don’t get it. Most of these ladies are beautiful and have the figures to wear anything. They also have access to the world’s greatest sartorial artists and jewelers. And yet? Solid-color strapless. Solid-color one-shoulder. Detail-free black. STILL with the goddamned nude platforms. White diamonds. There was a lot of ho-hum, a few high points, and maybe one or two great looks – - but nothing spectacular. I like the yellows and the greens. Kinda over the purples for now. Here’s hoping they’re saving up the spectacular for the Oscars.
Amanda Peet, this dress is not right for you. This could’ve worked on, say, Saldana. Very tall, very willowy, and a ballerina bun rather than a ponytail.
Claire Danes, proving that it does not have to have color to have impact.
I love how she expertly said, “This is an over-the-shoulder dress.” Truth, Claire.
Angelina Jolie. I can’t believe she wore something interesting! SHOCKED. This is a win, although if it were up to me, she’d have had on red shoes, a silver and red patterned sparkle clutch, less eye makeup and about 20 more pounds.
Bill Nighy. Just because he’s Bill Nighy.
Brooke Anderson. No idea who she is, but damn she needs a sandwich.
Busy Phillips. Why is her name Busy? Is that really her name? Weird. I don’t dislike this; I don’t like this either. She’s just kinda there.
Charlize, wearing Dior, naturellement. Because, she (*breathless voice*): adores Dior. Me too, except I miss Galliano designs so, so, so much. This is a lovely dress. It’s interesting, it’s pretty, it suits its wearer. Headband, good. The only issue here is the makeup. She needed some slightly punched up makeup because the face is washing out. Just a little extra pinking up of the cheeks and lips. I quite like the shoe choice. Note that she is going with a neutral ensemble and NOT wearing Those Goddamned Nude Platforms. YES.
Sigh, Debra Messing. I honestly, truthfully don’t understand an actress’s desire to wear one of these gowns that is basically a bunch of twisty satin. It’s not terribly artfully twisted satin, it’s eating her alive a bit, and it’s detail-free black. She can do so much better.
Diana Agron. This is a Glee chick, right? This girl needs to work on developing a signature style because I can never distinguish her as Oh, That’s Diana Agron. She’s got a great dress here. Really interesting and pretty and it works well on her. I love the sort of swan-ish cutouts at the shoulders. This is an example of a tiered skirt working for its wearer, Amanda Peet.
Emma Stone. Hate it. Love her, hate this. Hate the random Jetson shoulders, hate the colors, HATE the belt that looks like it’s clasped by a Nazi eagle.
Evan Rachel Wood, I’m not sure about this dress for you. It’s certainly a cool dress, what with the feather and scales and greens and such. But, it feels kind of beyond ERW. It feels like a dress for Penelope Cruz. Evan, you have great style; give Penny her dress back!
Glenn Close. Meh. I don’t think velvet – - or heavy brocade (Catherine Zeta-Jones in that giant dark green gown a while back) – - or any “winter” fabrics work very well at these events because they’re so very California.
Heidi Klum, phoning it in.
Helen Mirren, Meh. Navy rarely does anything for me and this dress just looks like more Designer Twisted Up Satin.
Jessica Alba. Pretty, a little bit Mother of The Bride, not bad, not great.
Jessica Biel, I have no idea. I’m sure it’s a lovely dress. Why she is wearing it to this event with all the lace and long sleeves and hair down and I don’t know, it just doesn’t make any sense.
Jessica Chastain looks like she got First Lady-ified by some campaign manager. And not in a good, stylist First Lady, Michelle Obama kind of way. I think it’s mostly the news anchor hair and Barbara Bush’s giant pearl stud earrings. It’s a pretty dress, but needs to be balanced out. Remove all pearly accessories, give her a ponytail and a hot pink lip.
Jodie Foster is such an attractive woman; and she does not age. It’s not the most spectacular dress in the world, but she’s not a fashion person, so it would be weird if she showed up in some giant Marchesa. Pretty dress, great color, suits her, like the bob. Win.
Julianna Margulies in a So Close. Props for the color-pop via the turquoise earrings, but it needs a little more. Add a turquoise ring and a few small but colorful bangles: violet, turquoise, fuschia.
Julie Bowen is clearly going for a very particular look here. Modern Grace Kelly. And I like it and it’s working, *almost*. That dress is just too nude, so we’ve got another wash out. If the dress was a smidge more peach or pink or mauve or grey, it would’ve worked better.
Kate Winslet, looking pissed off in a rather boring dress.
Katharine McPhee. Washed out + Those Goddamned Nude Platforms = fail.
Even Mila Kunis looks unhappy about this dress. It’s a massive wasted opportunity. “Hey, I’m one of the hottest young ladies in Hollywood right now, I’m beautiful, and I have the coloring and figure to wear anything. I know! I’ll wear a detail-free solid-black one-shoulder dress and be sure to stay away from any interesting jewelry, makeup or hairstyles.” I mean, it’s a pretty dress in itself, sure. But, come on!
A lot of people crack on Lea Michelle for her Pose-Hard and her Try-Hard and Diva-Tude. Look, I’ll take a Try-Hard over a Borefest any day. I don’t love this dress and I think it’s too beyond Lea. This is a dress for Halle Berry. BUT, Lea gets props for at least showing up in something that doesn’t immediately put me to sleep.
Madonna and Andrea Riseborough. The dresses are a study in contrasts. But let’s talk about Madge. I love this look from Madge. Sparkles, cap sleeves to hide her terrifyingly strong shoulders, *artfully* twisted satin skirt with some edge. I also love that she still wears a giant crucifix. And I’m going to just assume/imagine/pretend that the single glove – which adds another great touch of edge and Madonna-ness – is a silent tribute to Michael Jackson. BECAUSE IT SHOULD BE.
Thank God for Maria Menounos. Another great take on the yellow mini-craze, this time Miami-styles. Love it.
This is a travesty. Melissa McCarthy’s people should be shot, execution-style, for letting this happen. The woman is overweight, ok, fine, she’s not going to be wearing Versace cut to her belly button. However, a completely shapeless dark green sack? No real bling? Pompadour hair? Really? We’ve seen plenty of heavier women look smashing in red carpet glamwear. Somebody did Melissa wrong.
Michelle Williams. I can’t.
Another So Close. Mireille Enos here showing another iteration of the yellow mini-craze. A beautiful dress. And yet, she’s managing to wash out a bit – - even with a red lip! The dress is great, the styling sucks. Remove all accessories. Take the hair down and let it flow wild and free a la Nichole Kidman in the 90′s. Pull a Reese and add red open-toe shoes. And a carnelian/ruby long-length lariat necklace. Would’ve been pretty great. Based on what I see peeking out from the hem of her dress, I shudder to think what kind of hideous platform nonsense is happening on her feet.
I like this color. I don’t like the big hip flower. I think there is too much of the diaphanous gold overlay on the skirt. Get rid of the hip flower, add a thin black ribbon belt, and move/remove the gold overlay so that is exists only as a sort of side panel, some of those badass black and gold Gucci heels.
Here we have detail-laden black – how lovely! I also appreciate the green clutch and short, un-”done”-looking hair.
Smugface Portman. Pink and red, AGAIN? Too reminiscent of her pink/red rose dress. You know who should have worn this dress? Michelle Williams.
Nicole Kidman, bringing it. Fabulous Versace dress.
Nichole Richie is another So Close. Love the dress, hate the styling. Keep the dress, remove all accessories and hair. Now: blunt bang-ed bob, heavily kohl-ed eyes, black/onyx/marcasite jewels, shoes, bag, for a slightly flapper, slightly Goth vibe.
Paula Patton. I hate this dress cut. Standard issue mermaid with twisted up satin. But the color saves her. However, Maria did it better.
Piper Perabo, channeling her inner Little Girl. I love this. One of my favorites of the evening. The dress is princess-y but also Judy Jetson-esque. And I love the fun Piper is having with it.
Reese surprises me here. She usually has good style. This is not hideous or anything, but it’s VERY standard issue. Standard issue satin mermaid. Standard issue H-wood blonde waves. Reese, you are better than this.
Rooney Mara, with her snotty interviews and her insistence on always wearing minimalist black with cut-outs……I just want to slap her.
Buffy, wearing a beautiful, ARTFUL dress, goddammit. Yay!
Shailene Woodley, washed out as all hell. Pretty dress though, IF WE COULD SEE IT.
Sofia Vergara can wear whatever the hell she wants.
Dear Tina Fey: Meh. And your dress is eating you alive.
Viola Davis gets a pass for doing the solid-color/one-shoulder/Grecian thing because she’s a newcomer, the color is great is on her and she’s making damn sure we see her leg and her shoes. Which are NOT Goddamned Nude Platforms.
Some Deschanels. I like this green Prada. It’s suitably quirky for Zooey here. And it’s interesting. And a nice take on the green mini-craze. It looks like the bodice and bag might be made of Haute Astro Turf, which would be awesome.
And now, I give you, the eeeeeeeeeaaasssyy Best Dressed of the night: Tilda Swinton. Granted, she is probably an alien and given her stature and features, can make a sack look interesting and striking. But, even for Tilda, this was awesome. It’s a mermaid, but WAY restrained mermaid. The color is GORGEOUS. And the icy shade combined with her features and that FANTASTIC hair? The swish around the waist of the jacket and James Dean-ed treatment of the lapels? The interesting/beautiful/non-white diamond jewelry? Please. She OWNED this event.
SO, my top picks, AFTER Swinton, in no particular order:
Piper Perabo
Maria Menounos
Buffy
Angelina Jolie
Nicole Kidman
So, I mean, the whole *point* of the damn Met Ball is to get crazy. Exspecially when it’s a tribute to Alexander Freaking McQueen and titled Savage Freaking Beauty.
AND YET…. (depressed monotone)…
nude column
nude column
black column
black column
snore.
……
………
………..
Annnnnnnnnnnd now for some YAY! INTERESTING! FABULOUS! CRAZY! FUN! looks:
my easy pick for best non-McQueen:
YES. KAROLINA, YES!!
(karolina kurkova, jean paul gaultier)
YELLOW.
(liv tyler, givenchy)
AWESOME COLOR SCHEME/SHOE/MAKEUP/JEWELRY COMBO.
(ginnifer goodwin, custom topshop)
MCQUEEN LADYTUX.
(hilary rhoda, alexander mcqueen)
HEY LOOK, SHE’S WEARIN’ A *GOWN*…..WITH A *TIE*.
(freida pinto, chanel)
J.LO HOT PINK DOING J.LO FACE. (NATURALLY.)
(jennifer lopez, gucci)
NUCLEAR WINTOUR THAW! ANNA! WITH A FUN DRESS! AND SMILING!
(anna wintour, chanel)
GIANT RED GOWN EXPLOSION.
(doutzen kroes, giambattista valli)
BEAUTIFUL ORNAMENTS.
(isabel lucas, louis vuitton)
And, so, my wish for next year’s Met Ball is a moratorium on:
(1) nude columns (suck it, Michael Kors);
(2) black columns (Penelope Cruz, we are fighting);
(3) nude platforms (GODDAMMIT already);
(4) simple one-shoulder gowns (there’s a time and a place, people, and the Met Ball is not it);
(5) fishtail hems, BEYONCE;
(6)StellaGoddamnMcCartneyIDon’tCare*Who*YourFatherIs; and
(7) the plague upon humanity that is Sarah Jessica Parker.
Filed under: party girls
I love orange. Am obsessed with orange. AND she’s wearing purple shoes. This might be my favorite. Maybe. And I’m not going to say anything about her “new body” because, barf, way too much emphasis on that kind of crap. I’d rather focus on ORANGE. Yay! And I love the look on her face, which seems to say “Yeah, I got this. Soak it in, people.”
Random: Has anyone, in the course of their acceptance speech, told their kids that it’s time to go to bed? Would be nice to get through an awards show without one of those. Just for the hell of it.
Also, ORANGE:
Filed under: party girls
I can’t get into either of these two. Not sure why. Totally bored with ‘em both and, again, not sure why. Lots of shades of purple this evening. Lilac, particularly. A trend, I guess. Hasn’t purple already been The Hot Fashion Color recently? I dunno, whatevs.
I feel like if I ever had the opportunity to go to the Oscars, or similar, I would wear a vintage Valentino red. So, yay Anne Hathaway! I’m not sure a dress that’s about 10 years old really counts as “vintage”, but who cares. SO beautiful. Also, she has HUGE features (eyes and mouth). I mean that in a nice way. And I like the “air” with which she wears dresses – - kind of a comfortable, casual vibe.
1. Floofy, interesting Marchesa gowns. Like, mebbe some of these.
2. Giant, colorful John Galliano dressbombs.
3. NO GODDAMN NUDE PLATFORM PUMPS. I MEAN IT.
Celeb/Stylist: Howzabout these?
No.
Celeb/Stylist: Well then, what about these?
NO.
Celeb/Stylist: …..These??
NOOOO!!!!!
Celeb/Stylist: Ooooh, I know…these!
(Celeb/Stylist meets with unfortunate accident involving being thrown into the East River whilst wearing nude platform pumps *encased in concrete*.)
3. More jewelry that is not standard issue Neil Lane white diamond stuff. Also, hair jewelry. Also, hair flowers.
4. No one-shoulder gowns. I don’t hate them; I actually like them. But, it’s been one-shoulder overkill. So, take a break. Well, ok, if you REALLY want to wear a one-shoulder, make it a super-interesting or super-beautiful one, ok? Like this one.
5. NO SARAH JESSICA PARKER. EVER. ANYWHERE.
“Balls are to men what purses are to women.” – - SJP, Idiot.
6. A female-type person wearing a pants outfit that is not a tux. Perhaps some sort of edited version of this.
7. Some grilled cheese sandwiches for all those hungry actresses. Here, have a sandwich, lady. Mmmmmmm.
8. Prince. Why not? Also, his style rules. And, um, he’s PRINCE. Bow DOWN, bitches.
9. No EEKK! makeup. (EEva Longoria/Kim Kardashian Makeup)
You know, the “oh looky, i have on fourty thousand pounds of primer (to, uh, prime?), concealer (to conceal), foundation (to spackle) and powder (to set); topped with cheek stain (to glow), cream blush (to contour) and powder blush (to set); plus eyes topped with at least two sets of false lashes (to attract spider friends) with each genuine minkhair lash encased in four thousand coats of Dior mascara and curled into spikes with the ol’ Shu Uemura, and circles of black liquid eyeliner (for DRAMA); all completed by lips painted with balm (to smooth), primer (to, uh, prime???), a custom-blend of 2-5 lipstick shades mixed to create the perfect skin-tone match, gloss (to gloss) and lip plumper (to enhance the effects of that filler, baby)” look. It consists of wearing an incredible amount of makeup, all applied in neutral and nude shades, giving the delusional wearer the idea that she is sporting a ”natural look”. However, piling on a load of nude-colored makeup does not make you look nude. Or natural. OBVIOUSLY.
9. An appearance by Maru the Cat. I seriously think Maru should get an Oscar for Best Short Film/Documentary or something.
10. GLOVES! YAY!
Damn. That Georgina Chapman knows what she’s doing.
Since awards show season is coming up, I shall play stylist and put a few names with each of these. So pretty.
Ok, this is a LOT of dress, so the volume of it would probably be scaled back a bit for a red carpet. And then it would still be a lot of dress. I can see Drew Barrymore giving this a pretty good shot. Or Charlize Theron, although she seems pretty loyal to Dior these days. This one would need a sleek updo, earrings and a few rings – black diamonds – that marcasite effect – and a red or dark berry lip.
Again, a lot of dress which would probably get edited for a carpet. I think Natalie Portman could pull it off. And the color would work well on her. This one would also require a sleek updo. I think silver would be interesting with this. Very spare silver sandals, a touch of silvery eye makeup.
OK, this one is less volume, but more drama. Has a lingerie quality to it. Diane Kreuger. Keira Knightley. BUT, if Keira wears it, she needs to eat a sandwich first because I’m tired of seeing her ribcage. Light everything on this one. Light makeup, light jewels. A little bling on the ears and fingers, maybe some dark plum nail polish.
Princess-styles in full effect. Zoe Saldana. Amanda Seyfried. I’d say Hathaway, but I think the princess thing is on overkill for that one. (I could also see SJP’s dumb ass trying to wear this. Blurg.) This is so over-the-top princess, you gotta go big or go home. Drop diamond earrings, diamond cuff bracelets, blinged-out clutch, red lip. Full on.
This one is a bit deceiving on the model because she has no curves. On someone with a shapely figure, I think this would be really sexy and create a much more vavavoom effect than it does in this shot. This would be amazing on Christina Hendricks. On Christina, orangey-red lip, sapphire earrings, ornate blue velvet clutch, bling shoes.
This one kills me. So beautiful. The draping and shaping looks painterly. And very, um, Suggestive. In a Georgia O’Keefe kind of way. Gwen Stefani. With the red lip and platinum pompadour. YES. This one’s for my Gwennie.
So, guess who was front and center at the Fashion’s Night Out Show at Lincoln Center? Grazia, naturellement. A little review and lots of blissful sighings on that to come.
In the meanwhile, I leave you with an orgy of satin, powdered wigs, hot ballet men in booty shorts and attitude - in honor of FNO’s main sponsor.
So, about Gaga.
I don’t care for most of Gaga’s sartorialisms and it bugs me to see them discussed as “fashion” when they’re really more accurately described as costume – - or performance art. She is an Excellent Dress Wearer. An excellent anything-wearer, actually. She has confidence and attitude, which allow her to pull off the nuttiness she wears and are key ingredients in the recipe for Excellent Dress Wearer. But what she wears is less style than it is statement. Which is fine, except that you people keep saying she’s a style icon. She is not a style icon. She actually appears to have little personal style of her own. It’s All Costume, All The Time. Not that I have anything against Costume. Please. ….But it’s not the same as style.
So, about the gown. THE GOWN. I cry hungry tears of want…..for…..this……gown.
The autumnal colors, the painterly Renaissance riffs, the explosion of the skirt, the regality, the mossy tulle, the breast platery at the neck. The Sistine Chapel must have closed its eyes and sighed, shedding chiffoned layers of its ceiling-ed self floating down into mortal hands to make this gown. That it is part of the late Alexander McQueen’s last collection only adds to the presence of the divine in its folds.
This gown has such stature and Gaga, happily, is doing it justice. Enormously high shoes essentially put her standing on a box. She is not tall enough for this gown on her own, so standing on a box allows her to carry the full gown. The headdress is golden and regal, but not quite a crown. It is made of feather arrows. Crowns are for the entitled and protected. Arrows are for warriors – - golden feather arrows for warrior queens. Even the sky-lavender-gray wig works. I mean, this is not a woman at an awards show. This is an otherworldly warrior queen greeting her subjects. Did you really expect her to have human-hued locks neatly tied into a chignon?
–
Armani has been killing it on the Oscars carpet. To mine eyes, they had the top spot last year (Anne Hathaway’s dress) and again this year (Amanda Seyfried’s dress). The loveliness and some of my pet peeves, in no particular order (except for Amanda, who gets #1):
Firstly, it was abundantly clear that both J.Lo and Seyfried were wearing the same designer, same collection – I thought that there are people who get paid well to make sure such a thing does not happen? Is a stylist out of work? These ladies gave us two pieces from Armani’s iridescent bubblewrap collection. And I’m calling it bubblewrap in the best possible way. What cool fabric! J.Lo’s was pink, Amanda’s pale green. They were both lovely, but in the Battle of the Bubblewraps, Amanda wins on silhouette. The super-sleek and structured swoop-up bodice combined with the full skirt – and of course, that amazing fabric – made her look like Space Princess. And with her giant eyes, she does Space Princess well.
I am madly in love with this fabric. Have I mentioned that? I like this iteration well enough, and J.Lo is doing a valiant job of trying to pull it off, but this much “look” really appears to be for the tall and straight only. That is a lot of look. The dress is, as they say, wearing her. Charlize could have pulled it off. Or Nicole. Or Joy Bryant. Very tall. Very straight.
Speaking of Ms. Theron, anybody who is sort of John Galliano’s muse is someone I shall envy – - and someone who will not be showing up in boring dresses. Get over it. Her rose-boobs dress was actually pretty restrained for John. That’s what he’d have her wear to the grocery store. Some folks are throwing tantrums over the fact that the design of the dress highlighted Charlize’s breasts. Um, really? This is the first time in history a dress has highlighted a woman’s breasts? I find the image of satin folds abstractly evocative of beautiful roses decorating a woman’s breasts to be quite lovely. It’s certainly one of the more elegant ways it’s been done. Charlize’s neckline was straight across, hardly any cleavage. The colors were beautiful. The red lip and very simple everything else? The perfect foil. Elegant, feminine, graceful.
On first glance at Carey Mulligan, I was disappointed. A black strapless? Really? Snooze. But then I realized that the bodice of her dress was decorated with forks. And scissors. And watch gears. So random. So cute. All quirky-adorable-whimsical. Totally Carey.
SJP really pissed me off. She always really pisses me off. Because I despise Sex and The City and Carrie Bradshaw and it is impossible for me to separate her from that. She doesn’t really want me to. I liked that neato Chanel dress she had on though. It was pretty and interesting and unexpected. If only it had gotten a cooler wearer. One without an *enormous* hairpiece. That dress deserved better.
Well played, Demi. The color is spot on. Love the superfrilly skirt. She just needed a touch more in the chest area because she was looking a little got-too-skinny-and-lost-the-boobs.
Penelope Cruz is too hot for all these boring dresses she wears. Who is her stylist? Penny, call me.
Zoe Saldana’s Givenchy. It was pretty. Yes it was. It could have used a bit more “editing” to make it more carpet-friendly. But it was pretty. And she can wear anything. And it was *interesting*, dammit.
Generally, what was with all the gold? Again, I thought there are people who get paid to make sure this does not happen?



































































































































