Well, I have to say it wasn’t a waterfall of high fashion, but there were some lovely hits and some reliable misses; you can always count on Nicole Kidman right?
Starting with Cate Blanchett in Givenchy Couture and please understand that mere mortals could not pull this off, and I have no idea why this works but it does and she looks incredible! I love all the beading and the surprising flash of yellow at the back, the pale purple colour and pleated skirt just look amazingly good on her, so hail to the stylist who thought this would work and to Cate for making it stunning.
Hailee Steinfeld in Marchesa. After the austere black she wore at the Baftas it’s nice to see her back in something lovely. I think the hairband on her looks really pretty and the dress looks light and youthful but just princessy enough for a young girl going to the Oscars and with all Marchesa’s usual stunning sophisticated bead work.
Natalie Portman in Rodarte. She looked amazing and she needed to for collecting her Oscar. It made the most of her blossoming figure, the colour is absolutely stunning and I love the one-sided hair with the tassle earrings. I wish the dress went all the way down to the floor but I understand that you need to be safe. Love the beaded trim on the neckline and the just off the shoulders look.
Michelle Williams in Chanel. She looks beautiful, effortlessly chic. This dress is just the kind of thing she should be wearing: it’s flattering to her body, feminine and yet subtle and not too in your face. I love the white blond hair too.
Sandra Bullock in Vera Wang. Ignoring the facial expresion, I think she looks pretty good. It’s a lovely red and I like the two layers on the breasts, it cinches in her waist beautifully and thank god the awful bangs are nowhere to be seen. Maybe she could have worn just a little more jewellery and definitely not a matching red bag.
Amy Adams in L’Wren. I like this look, the blue looks great with her strawberry blonde hair, it sculpts her body beautifully and although the jewellery is a bit random I honestly don’t think it would have worked without it. It also helps that it’s not just a simple diamond necklace, the big stone at the bottom is great.
Gwyneth Paltrow in Calvin Klein. I just don’t know about this dress, it has potential but I don’t like the belt which looks like an afterthought nor that the clasp on it matches her earrings; when was that ever an accepted fashion practise? Also the hair is just a bit catalogue model.
Mila Kunis in Elie Saab. Again this is another one I’m not sure about. It’s just a little to0 nightie-esque. I like the bodice but then you lose me on the semi see-through vaguely shaggy bottom half. Lovely colour but a bit disappointing.
Scarlett Johansson in Dolce & Gabanna. I don’t like this, it’s far too matronly and the two tone raspberry colour mixed with flower pattern lace just doesn’t work. Is it me or has she lost her way with her look recently? Also it seems as if she is wearing dark underclothes, although this may just be the odd placing of the lace or the colouration. In the close-up pictures you can see that she’s wearing orangey eyeshadow which is very random.
Anne Hathaway in vintage Valentino. Some of the dresses she wore during the show were good but I don’t like this one for the red carpet; the whole thing is quite oddly proportioned, I think it needs to be pulled up or have the hair down or something, it’s so bottom heavy. I think for the Oscar host something a little more dramatic or sexy would have been good. I don’t see her stylist Rachel Zoe going ‘bananas’ over it, but maybe she did.
Reese Witherspoon in Armani Prive. The awful piece of hair on the back really doesn’t work and makes her look cheap and Princess Barbie like. The dress is ok but a bit mature I think for her. She can do old Hollywood so well and I don’t understand why she settled for this.
Jennifer Lawrence in Calvin Klein. Is it me or does she look like a blow up sex doll? Way too much hair and not enough jewellery. For someone so California pretty she could easily carry a more edgy, fashion forward dress. She looks like Donald Trump’s new wife not a hot young starlet.
Florence Welch from Florence and the Machine looking awful in who knows what (actually Valentino). It looks so much like your granny’s marriage bed attire. Why the high neck? Why the long sleeves? Why wear a colour the blends into you skin tone? I’ve seen her perform and she is incredible and she can carry off something much more radical than this. Her Givenchy Couture at the Grammys was so much more haute.
And finally Nicole Kidman in Dior. Now Dior could do with some good press right now but it’s not going to get it from this dress which is just odd. It looks heavy and bizarrely brocaded, like home embroidery or an altar cloth. Maybe she got up from the table too quickly and took the cloth with her. And I’m sorry but that piece of hair on her face is so not ok; why is her hair always so bad?
Source: Zimbio
THE Wedding
April 30, 2011I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you, but the royal wedding between Prince William and Catherine Middleton happened yesterday at London’s Westminster Abbey. The much anticipated wedding and of course the extra day off work was the cause of great celebrations in London. More than a million people turned out to watch the couple get married, filling The Mall, Hyde Park and St James Park and generally enjoying the chance to take part in something genuinely carefree and communal. A couple of highlights for me were the trees in the Abbey, a coup de theatre which looked beautiful, and somehow modern as well as pastoral and the Aston Martin moment. But on to the clothes, even though there has been an avanlanche of coverage already.
The dress was Jane Burton at Alexander McQueen and overall I liked it but I wasn’t blown away. Having seen so much press specualting that McQueen might get the nod for designing the dress, I had images of something incredible and yes, probably too fashiony for a Royal Wedding, or for this particular bride, but I did hope it would be more ‘extreme’, for want of a better word. The lace was was certainly very flattering to her figure and the trademark corsetting certainly accentuated her tiny waist. As there should be on a wedding dress, there appeared to be some great detailing in the bustle at the back, but I felt this was a bit lost under the veil. One negative, she had too much hard eye make up on for the occasion and although this is her signature look, if she had done without the heavy black line under her eye it would have been great.
The second dress Kate changed into for the dinner and dancing in the evening was for me a bit of a shocker. That horrible mohair cardigan I hope is not credited to McQueen because it looked totally wrong for an April wedding and the diamante beading at the waistline looked cheap, as frankly the white satin did as well. Why pick another full skirt? I would so have gone for something still bridal but more streamlined as a great contrast to the wedding dress, (like Pippa’s bridesmaid dress, more of that later), this one made her look bizarrely old and young at the same time. Also I think she should have stuck with her hair half up half down, or twisted into a soft rope on one side; she’s clearly obsessed with her hair, but it looked so everyday and incongruous against the dress.
As for the rest of the congregation it was a mixed bag. The Queen resplendent in yellow is beyond criticism and I loved her brooch. Camilla’s outfit I quite liked, the pleats in the coat looked interesting with the beadwork hung low on the hips giving it an almost flapperesque feel. Carole Middleton (Kate’s mother) looked perfect acceptable if a little underwhelming in a rather predicatble mother-of-the-bride shade and shape.
Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice were probably the most disappointing. These sisters regularly take interesting fashion choices and the night before they looked great at a celebratory pre-wedding dinner. But Beatrice’s nudey/beige Valentino was a little ageing and the hat is Isabella Blow but without the authority or the attitude to carry it off, but for sure Eugenie suffered more. When you have an ample bust the last thing you want to do with it is have a square neckline, bows and contrast piping so it looks like you have been upholstered in. The skirt is totally unflattering and looked messy and not as in normal Vivienne Westwood great messy, and her hat was too heavy. To think of all the amazing options these girls could have worn! It makes my fashion blood boil.
Samantha Cameron in Burberry. Now there has been alot of fuss about the fact she had no hat or fascinator, but I think she looks great. The teal looked lovely against her colouring and the statement necklace by Erdem was a strong fashion choice. I personally think hats are not expected at weddings any more and I salute her choice not to conform. Her figure looked amazing for a women who had a baby less than a year ago and the burnt orange shawl was a relaxed splash of colour, and I loved that David and she held hands walking down the Abbey to their seats.
Sophie Windsor, the Countess of Wessex, behind Princess Anne. Sophie first: I liked the gilt brocade sleeve and belt, although the matching purse was overkill. The hat had just enough height and was at a nice angle, but I think I would have gone for a coloured shoe, nothing too garish but just to lift the look a little. Princess Anne was one of the few in a pattern, but the material was far too much like a furnishing fabric .
David and Victoria Beckham. David Beckham in Ralph Lauren looked the usual stunning man that he is. Victoria, in her own design, looked a little tense and reserved but I liked that it was a sumptuous navy and not black and I really liked the hat and the simple hair. But, as always, I felt that just a hint of a smile would have made this outfit great.
David Milliband’s partner looked a bit of state. If you are on the shorter end of the scale then wrapping yourself in heavy fabric with a neckline that shortens your neck and then adding a flattening hat, is hardly guaranteed to increase your stature . It also looks wintery, the sleeves are too long for her and the court shoes are boring.
Nick Clegg’s wife fared no better. Yes she’s Spanish, yes she can therefore be a abit of exotic but this is Evita gone wrong. The grey satin didn’t look expensive or classy, specially not wrapped in netting, and then the odd wrapped turban/flower affair wasn’t quite right either. When you first saw her at the Abbey, you had to take a moment to figure out who the hell it was and what a totally odd outfit to have worn. And guess what, Nick Clegg did wear a morning suit, although by matching the jacket and trousers in grey he managed to make it look as much like a lounge suit as possible to please his doubters.
Pippa, Pippa, Pippa, so glad you’re not my little sister! (See what I did there?) Honestly, I thought she looked amazing and if I was Kate I would have been annoyed at how demurely sexy my baby sister looked on my wedding day. The dress was Alexander McQueen and recreation of a dress Cameron Diaz wore to the Oscars last year and it looked beautiful. It skimmed her body and had just enough hint of cleavage and the buttons all down the back were beautiful. She looked at ease in it and thoroughly classy, although I do think it was an odd choice to pick white for her and the little bridesmaids, but with the simple green and white flowers in the Abbey and the bouquets it all worked surprisingly well.
Now let’s hope for Happily Ever After……….
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