Last night, I switched our tube to the Oscars--only to be met by the comment by my dear J..."arts and entertainment award shows blow--why are you watching this??" He soon got his answer when I began rapid-fire texting with M about our opinions on what people were wearing. J's final comment... "Oh. I see. It's the clothes. I should have known." :)
Yes, award shows are good for one thing. To see what people decided were worthy to wear while stepping out on to the red carpet. The most infuriating thing about being an observer to red carpet style?? It is how
often the stars get it all wrong. Sometimes it's just one weird thing that they've done incorrectly, or a ghastly decision as to what dress they end up wearing--either way, good LORD. Don't these people have gajillions of dollars?? Whyyyy can't they just put together a nice ensemble for the red carpet?? Whyyyyy?? ***Sigh*** Okay, now that my whining bit is complete, here's the dealio...
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| Cate Blanchett in Givenchy, Gwyneth Paltrow in Calvin Klein, Maria Menounos in Johanna Johnson, and Mila Kunis is Elie Saab |
The above four dresses were my favorites of what I observed while watching the event and looking around at photos online. The complete picture that each lady presents is wonderfully appealing--well--except for Maria Menounos' hair. I just don't like it. The lack of sophistication in that hairstyle kind of takes away from the clean lines of her dress... which is a shame... cuz her body is rockin'.
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| Livia Giuggioli in Gary Harvey and husband Colin Firth |
I was going to go back and google what line Colin Firth was wearing for his tuxedo, but I decided I just didn't care, because, bottom line--he looks good. What's more impressive is his wife
Livia's completely recycled vintage dress by Gary Harvey. Livia owns the green boutique Eco Age in London, and came up with the
Green Carpet Challenge for the award show. The dress was amazing, and it was eleven dresses in one--all vintage/thrift/charity shop buys from the era of
The King's Speech. Her jewelry was stunning. Firth’s jewelry comes courtesy of
Annaloucah. The pieces featured the world’s first fair-trade, fair-mined, and ecologically certified gold from
Oro Verde in Colombia, as well as fair-trade aquamarine gemstones from Zambia and diamonds from a women’s-owned cooperative mine in Lesotho. All of it was breathtaking!
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| Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber, both in Dolce & Gabbana |
Representing the teenybopper crowd were Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber. While I can bounce around to music by the Beebs as good as the rest of 'em, his rumpled "tuxedo" left a bit to be desired. I have always thought Selena was adorable, and she looks wonderful in red. I love the dress, and I think I would definitely wear this grecian-inspired piece myself!! Overall, both younguns are dressed appropriately for their age...the Beebs probably more so with his "look world, I don't give a s***" attitude he tries to convey through his disheveled appearance.
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| Amy Adams in L'Wren Scott, Sandra Bullock in Vera Wang, Scarlett Johansson in Elie Saab, Hilary Swank in Gucci, and Emma Roberts in Jenny Packham |
The above five dresses were "okay," or something went wrong in the outfit that rubbed me the wrong way. I thought the color of Amy Adams' dress was nice, and I also didn't mind the pop of green from her necklace-bracelet combo. Several ladies chose to don high necklines in their dresses at the Oscars, but no one else made the mistake of ruining the drama of her high neckline with a necklace. Sandra, on the other hand, looks a little naked with no necklace at all to highlight the beauty of her collarbone and shoulders. I agreed with M when she told me she liked ScarJo's dress, because it looked a lot less weird on my HD-TV than it does in this photo. The photo makes the lining of the dress look a bit off. Hilary Swank is almost always a complete yawn, but I do like the graduated colors of the dress from top to bottom, and the feather detail. But again, like Sandra, she was missing any bling to bring out the true shine of her dress. I think that a pair of sparkly earrings to set off the sparkle in her dress, at least, was in order. Emma Roberts' Jenny Packham dress in that amazing gunmetal shade and to-die-for beading was just HOT. However, she looks a bit gaunt to me... and her makeup might have been a bit too heavy for my taste.
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| Hugh Jackman in Ferragamo with wife Debora-Lee Furness, Nicole Kidman in Dior, Natalie Portman in Rodarte, and Mandy Moore in Monique Lhuillier |
W. T. F. is Hugh Jackman's wife WEARING??? Did Ms. Furness skin an fluffy white rabbit to make her purse and trim her dress... or... tunic... or whatever that is. I don't know who made her outfit, and I don't care to know. Nicole Kidman continues her streak of being horribly dressed on the red carpet with her granny embroidered apron/tablecloth/space starburst outfit. Natalie Portman is so unbelievably adorable in her glowing preggers state, but she also keeps falling short of loveliness. Here, she literally does fall short with her too-short hemline that showcases her cheap dye-to-match prom footwear. Mandy Moore is not terrible, but her inability to look stunning in, what is, an absolutely gorgeous and ethereal Monique Lhuillier gown. Her alabaster complexion is pretty most of the time, but imho, she looks washed out. Other dresses I didn't care for--Michelle Williams in an utterly blah white number with short sleeves and a crewneck up top, Jennifer Hudson in an orange-y red Atelier Versace in an undesirable amount of the already undesirable-looking taffeta (with weird, sagging boobage to boot), Melissa Leo in a weird slit doilie with a mandarin collar neckline, Marisa Tomei's gown is horribly constructed and makes her look fat, Florence Welch looked like she was on her way to a barn dance, Sharon Stone in a "I have no f'ing clue" moment with something floofy resting on her right shoulder, and Penelope Cruz looking abnormally un-chic with a weird unclassy Vegas dress equipped with an equally unclassy amount of cleavage. (Okay haters--I
know she's a new mom, but c'mon.)
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| Anne Hathaway in many glorious moments |
Last but not least, I would never forget the best fashion feature of the show--Anne Hathaway. She truly was the best part. Anne looked crazy gorgeous in every moment of her MC role. I think the only dress I wasn't completely 100% on board with was the puffy red dress she wore while on the red carpet and the fringe-y gold number... but everything else was so wonderful that I didn't care. While I didn't love her red dress much, I adored her simple hairstyle and chic matte red lipstick. I thought her hair was also a great match for the modern and sleek royal blue satin column Giorgio Armani Prive sheath. M's favorite was the Vivienne Westwood ensemble. I love the necklace Anne paired with that Westwood gown. I didn't even post the
cute tuxedo outfit and absolutely lovely custom Brian Atwood platform pumps in all of their glittery wondefulness. **Sigh** I love her.
Overall, I'm just left with this feeling that... I could have done much better. Stay tuned for our take on Oscars-worthy wear.
First off - just want to point out how much I enjoy your breakdown of this year's Oscar fashion. I could not agree more with your sentiments toward Colin Firth - that man is lovely beyond measure. At the other end of the spectrum, Hugh Jackman's wife? WTF? I never thought I would say this but she actually looks worse than Helena Bonham Carter ever dreamed of looking. At least Helena's look is eccentric whereas Ms. Furna just looked ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I was kind of disappointed with the fashion at this year's Oscars, too. While there were some stand-out ensembles, like Anne's, they were few and far between. And like you pointed out, even Anne had a few missteps (referring to her red carpet vintage Valentino gown). I guess my expectations may have been too high? I dunno, I just found the whole event to be lackluster. And I think the problem may be because of the lack of A-list star power who attended. Where were Brad and Angelina? And love him or hate him, there's no denying Tom Cruise is a star. Where was he? and his wife, who is a fashionista in her own right. Other absent notables include Ben Affleck & wife Jennifer Garner, along with reliable showstoppers Catherine Zeta-Jones, Julia Roberts, Charlize & Selma Hayek. I could go on and on, but you get my point. I'm sure the producers could have come up with some reason to include them in the program - my god it's long enough! But alas, they did not, and the entire event suffered because of it. Oh well, there's always next year!
During his acceptance speach, Collin Firth mentioned his freindship with Tom Ford. Now that sounds like a common enough name that it might not be THE Tom Ford, but that Tux is very Tom Ford-esque.
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