I'm admitting it: I just watched E!'s Fashion Police dish about the red carpet fashions at the SAG Awards last night. I was curious to see what they thought. Evan Rachel Wood, Kate Winslet, and Freida Pinto were my favorites. Also really liked Laura Linney, Penelope Cruz, Anne Hathaway, January Jones, Emily Blunt, Claire Danes, and Taraji P. Henson's choices. Most of the "Desperate Housewives" looked truly awful, and Angelina Jolie looked like she was wearing a blue sheet. The Fashion Police chose Penelope Cruz and Josh Brolin as the best dressed, Nicollette Sheridan and Judah Friedlander as the worst, and Monique Lhuillier as the best designer--Teri Hatcher can be forgiven for Evan Rachel Wood's get up, in my mind.
I'm not big on fashion. I occasionally read my sister's Teen Vogues. I like watching the stars arrive on the red carpet at award shows. That's about it. Marc Jacobs in Interview did make me accept it more. So did, haha, this:
Miranda Priestly: [Miranda and some assistants are deciding between two similar belts for an outfit. Andy sniggers because she thinks they look exactly the same] Something funny?I think it's interesting though--the concept of using a person as a living, breathing work of art. Everything matters: skin, eyes, bone structure, hair, color, fabric, accessories, shoes. And what makes the red carpet more interesting is that the people wearing the clothes aren't just models--there's more intimacy because these are public figures with whom we associate with particular images, particular expression of their personalities. It's not just about how they look but how comfortable they appear--how they wear the clothes. I mean, Susan Sarandon presented last night. She does a lot of older-women-pants/blouse numbers, but she was wearing a fitted black dress, and she looked so uncomfortable--she was moving so awkwardly, that she didn't look good. It would have been better if she wore something she could feel like herself in.
Andy Sachs: No, no, nothing. Y'know, it's just that both those belts look exactly the same to me. Y'know, I'm still learning about all this stuff.
Miranda Priestly: This... 'stuff'? Oh... ok. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don't know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean. You're also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar De La Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn't it, who showed cerulean military jackets? I think we need a jacket here. And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of 8 different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you're wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of stuff.
I was a little surprised that the E! report kept discussing the dresses as works of art. I suppose I shouldn't have been--Christian Siriano was giving his two cents--and I have to say, I kind of enjoyed listening. I disagreed with them on a few counts--I didn't think Penelope Cruz's neckline made her worthy of "best dressed," thought it was definitely something different and classy, and I didn't think that Angelina Jolie should be able to get away with wearing a blue sheet just because she's Angelina Jolie. I also wasn't a fan of Amy Adams's dress. The Fashion Police literally fawned over her. I liked her hair and makeup, loved the color--but that pouf on the waist was a little much, and it drew the attention away from her face and hair, which were her strong points. It fit her well, though, the color and style were suitable, and she took a risk--and that's really what matters.
They kept saying it, over and over: "The color is great, but it just doesn't fit." "The color makes her look completely washed out, but it fits her perfectly." "She took a risk, it didn't work, but she did try." "It's a little too young for her." These really basic ideas kept popping up, especially in terms of fit and color. They panned Marisa Tomei for wearing a yellow dress that didn't suit her skintone at all and for not choosing the proper makeup--look at the bags under her eyes. And they loved how age-appropriate Kyra Sedgwick's dress was, while still being classy and sexy. Marcia Cross, they claimed, wore an inappropriate dress that was a work of art but not right for the SAG Awards, but one woman argued that she did take a risk when a lot of others were playing it safe.
That's one thing I find interesting about fashion as a medium of art. Blockbuster movies and popular music have trends that move kind of slowly, it feels. Someone finds a formula and everyone copies it, and it makes a lot of money and steals center stage for a long time. Fashion, to me, feels like it's constantly in motion. Every season there will be fashion weeks in Milan, Paris, New York. There'll be new designers, new models, new trends, new color combinations and patterns. What was "in" last season will almost certainly be out next season. It opens the door for a lot of creativity and a lot of invention. There's always something different coming. It may be hideous and stupidly impractical, and it'll probably be silly, but it'll still be there. For instance, Christian said that liquidy, metallic dresses like Emily Blunt's last night are an upcoming trend. I can't remember the last time I saw someone pull off a completely metallic dress on the red carpet. But I bet in a few years, no one will be doing it again. Dresses with pockets were big a few years ago, around 2005, the same year Hillary Swank, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Sandra Bullock all had lovely navy blue dresses and Keira Knightley and Reese Witherspoon wore dramatic gowns at the Oscars. Navy's out again, for now. But that'll probably change again soon.
On a separate note, I didn't like Brad Pitt's facial hair choices, but E! pointed out--he kind of had a fairer Clark Gable look going on. Hahaha.
Okay. Back to work.
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