fashion – award fashion

I did more posts on award fashion this time last year, but this year I decided to just focus on the eagerly anticipated Oscars. So, for my only post on celebrity fashion for this award season, here is my list of the 5 best-dressed celebrities at Oscars 2008:

1. Anna Hathaway (Marchesa)

(image via Yahoo! Movies)

It was not a very difficult decision this year. The romantic scarlet gown with drape and rosette details looks exceptionally elegant on the fresh and statuesque Anne Hathaway. The dress also has a subtle vibrancy, sense of drama, and playfulness that suit her image and youth. I think everything is spot-on, from the color of the dress against her skin-tone to her simple hair and makeup.

(image via Yahoo! Movies)

This Marchesa dress also reminds me of Kate Winslet’s Ben di Lisi dress in Oscars 2002. This is probably still my favorite Oscar look ever.

(image via Yahoo! Movies)

2. Hilary Swank (Versace)

(image from AP Photo via E!)

I think her Oscar look has been getting better and better. (I still remember her gently wavy hair and the floral hairpiece from last year.) Again, with floral details and the one-shoulder cut, this Versace number is delicate and feminine. The simple hair and makeup is definitely the right way to go.

3. Marion Cotillard (Jean Paul Gaultier)

(image from AP Photo via E!)

Marion Cotillard’s mermaid dress is stunning and full of impact. It certainly beats a lot of insipid choices.

Her Chanel dress at the BAFTA earlier this month is worth mentioning. I did surprise myself by liking it, but I think it is because she wore it so well with that almost quirky quality and a pleasing lack of self-consciousness that few Hollywood actresses had.

(image from Startraksphoto via Style.com)

Both looks have a fantasy-like flavor, with one sweet and innocent and the other sensual and quite sexy. I like both.

(If you are interested, there are some wonderful and touching images of her just after she won the Oscar (here and here). Absolutely beautiful.)

4. Katherine Heigl (Escada)

(image via Yahoo! Movies!)

Another one-shoulder dress here. (I do tend to favor them as long as they are generally kept simple but with interesting and well thought-out details.) The red is warmer than the shade on Anne Hathaway’s dress, and it suits her well. I like the slightly retro touch on the shoulder, which is very eye-catching and memorable. However, I do think her makeup and hair was a little bit overdone.

5. Renée Zellweger (Carolina Herrera)

(image via Oscar.com)

Renée Zellweger usually gets it right on the red carpet, and she did it again. This might not be one of my favorite Oscar looks for her, since, on some photos, she did look a bit washed-out. But this simple but glitzy dress did still make her stand out for many good reasons.

Related Post:

Flashback: Oscars 2007 Best-Dressed 5

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I was watching The Emmys 2007’s red carpet coverage and the award ceremony on Sunday (which was early Monday morning here in the UK). Fashion-wise, it was disappointing. I couldn’t even come up with a top-5 best-dressed list. There are only 2 (well…2.5) this time:

Katherine Heigl (in Zac Posen)

This is a perfect modernized retro look. Delicate and demure. I like the whole proportion of the dress, and the dress moves well with her. The hair and makeup complete the ensemble seamlessly. This is a great overall success.

Ana Ortiz (in Escada)

If I were a stylist, I would not dress an actress in black for an award ceremony. But I think Ana Ortiz shows us how to wear black and still stands out in the midst of all the black tuxedos (as you can see in the photo). The simple dress has a great shimmer (almost a dark purple shimmer, as I saw on the TV screen), and she looks sassy and vibrant. Everything else is kept simple, which is the right thing to do.

These are the only two looks that I like. Other than those, Marcia Cross‘ earrings deserve a mention. They are great statement pieces, in a gorgeous color. They go with the style and the color of her hair so well. (I am not so crazy about the dress though….)

There are many disappointments from my usual favorites. I usually like Helen Mirren, Debra Messing and Eva Longoria. They looked nice, but nice is almost not enough! (Maybe it is only because I do expect more from them…)

Helen Mirren‘s dress is a tad too fussy. Her hair doesn’t suit her this time, as it is too messy and relaxed. I do give her credits for trying to be versatile with shorter hair, which she has normally done superbly well.

Eva Longoria looked fresh and glamorous. But I am not a fan of shorter dresses at major award ceremonies…

Debra Messing‘s look is simple and classic but it is slightly too sterile for my personal liking. I always like to see her pull off something bold (and I don’t care what others say).

I am tempted to mention some badly dressed celebrities, but then this post could run very long…so I think I will stop here and bring you some related fashion reports:

Couture Patrol: Costume Institute Gala 2007
(There were some great gowns…)

Best-Dressed at Oscars 2007
(Let’s remind ourselves of how movie stars do award ceremonies…)

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Here we go:

1. Meryl Streep

She is a great actress, but…I don’t even know where to begin with this. Could she possibly think this looked good?? All the elements were wrong *AND* they clash with one another. The thing is, I can hardly recall any of her red carpet look that was anywhere near remotely good.

2. Queen Latifah (Carmen Marc Valvo)

I was disappointed. She usually looked great, so I expected her to do so much better. The cut of the dress doesn’t compliment her figure at all, and the horizontal stripes are doing all the wrong things.

3. Cameron Diaz (Valentino)

Another disappointment, especially after my positive comment on her Golden Globe look. High-fashion as this dress is, it is far from a red-carpet dress. She looked messy and lacked sophistication.

4. Kirsten Dunst (Chanel Couture)

This dress makes her look shorter and older. The cut of the upper half of the dress doesn’t suit her shape and makes her look like she has no shoulders. The bottom half is fussy and dragging her down.

5. Jennifer Hudson (Oscar de la Renta)

From no shoulder to too much of it. I like the dress itself. Fabulous color. It’s the metalic shoulder jacket that seems very redundant. It is bad enough to destroy the whole look. Too rock-star and not red-carpet enough for me.

This concludes my award season fashion coverage. The next post will be back to my top 10 makeup collections for this season.

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It was the BAFTA last Sunday in London, the most galmorous day on the British cinema calendar. But fashion-wise, it was just a bit beige…

Apart from Kylie Minogue (who was wearing a great color for her but was showing too much leg for this sort of occasion) and Eva Green (the lady in red), most of the other actresses were forming a perfect spectrum from beige to brown to black.

Despite this, there are still several stunners:

1. Helen Mirren

Dame Helen Mirren wins it for me this time. She is always so poised and elegant, and she has a true sense of style. This outfit is even better than the one for the Golden Globe, and I hope she saves the best for the coming Oscars!

2. Kate Winslet

She wears a lot of Ben de Lisi, whose designs are usually very simple but never boring, to say the least. There is always a quiet and sophisticated sense of drama in his creations. The belt detail and the whole shape of the dress really make Kate stand out. I also love her chic ponytail and fresh makeup.

3. Toni Collette

Very old-school Hollywood for her this time. The sexy shape of the dress flatters her, and the glitz of the dress provides a good contrast to her dark hair. Like the furry accessory (I hope it is fake). Very well put-together and glamorous.

Last but not least, I just love Jake Gyllenhaal.

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It is about the Golden Globe again. This time it is all about the bad looks. Well, not so much as the bad looks, but the disappointing looks.

Today I have added links to the individual photos so you can make up your mind more easily. (At the end of the post, I have also added links to the five great gowns from yesterday’s post.)

So, again, in no particular order:

1. Vanessa Williams

Wrong hair and wrong makeup. The dress is not so great either. The look is too over the top. It is neither glamorous nor sexy. I am disappointed because I am sure she could have done better.

2. Drew Barrymore

The only good thing about her gown is the color, and that’s it. The drapings look messy, lumpy and unflattering. It also seems that she managed to do up her hair at the last minute. The whole look is not as polished and refined as it could be.

3. Beyonce Knowles

Again, it is a bit over the top. The cut of the gown is great for her figure and I like her hair. But the fabric is too glittery. It would be nice to see her in something more understated.

4. Salma Hayek

I am disappointed. She was my favorite at last year’s Oscar. But this time, the whole look is wrong. At first I was thinking that maybe the first few shots I saw were not very flattering. Maybe the camera angle was a bit off. But later I had to be convinced that she made multiple wrong choices.

The hair isn’t particularly working for the shape of her face. The makeup (the blusher in particular) is too peachy for her. The worst is the dress. The structure of it is not doing anything for her petitie (yet voluptuous) figure. It made her look disproportionate.

She needs something that streamlines and elongates her figure as well as shows off her womanly curves. The gown she wore at the last Oscar and another of her Oscar gowns did just that. (See how those two gowns complimented her figure.)

5. Jennifer Lopez

Her gown reminds me of the pale green one she wore a couple of years ago. I was a bit on the fence with that one, but I don’t like this one at all. Even though I suspect that I might like it better when I am able to see the movement of the gown, I just think the whole look is just a bit bland (and predictable) for her.

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Overall, I like simple gowns with a bit of drama. But if the actresses choose to wear black or white gowns, I always want to see more drama. It is very disappointing to see an actress arriving at the Oscar wearing a black gown with no interesting details and fading into the background of all the gentlemen.

Black or white are great colors to go with for big occasions, but I think that with these two colors, there has to be more to make an impact (be it unique design features of the gown, jewelery, or other accessories). In these glitzy and glamorous occasions, apart from the recognition and accolade of the awards, isn’t it also about making an impact?

It is back to cosmetics for my next post. I will talk about Paula Begoun.

Links to yesterday’s gowns (my top five):
America Ferrera
Angelina Jolie
Eva Longoria
Felicity Huffman
Helen Mirren

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