Monday, February 25, 2013

Oscars 2013 - Best and Worst Dressed

Alright the biggest, most anticpated night of all-time-in-the-universe has come and gone, and what is the verdict?? Not impressed....for someone like me who dedicates 6 hours of my day to watching the pre-show to the pre-show to the pre-redcarpet before the actual show, I expect to be blown away by fashion and entertainment "moments". Last night was lacking in both departments; thank God for Charlize. Seth MacFarlane was good,  but he was no Ricky Gervais or TinaFey/AmyPhoeler.

Now I wish I would've spent that time finishing Season 3 of Downtown Abbey. (Obsessed with the Crawleys and their moments of crisis about missing silverware).

Anyway, the fashion was mostly safe, the days of major risk-taking are gone, the stars seem too closely handled and their image to carefully cultivated by a team of publicists, managers, agents who probably provide strict parameters to the stylists on what "look" they're going for. This lends itself to very minimal risk-taking when it comes to fashion choices. Where is the drama?? Can someone please bring the drama! The best part of red carpets are when stars create fashion "moments" - these go down in fashion history and remain in our collective memory for years! I still remember the days when Nicole Kidman was the queen of the red carpet, like her beautiful Chanel gown in 2004 or the gorgeous Balenciaga red from 2007 or the Gucci peacock she wore to the Golden Globes in 2005. Gwyneth Paltrow is another red carpet moment creator,as she showed us in her Tom Ford cape glory from last year. These are the types of fashion moments I look for. Last night, Charlize was the only one who brought her A-game but many say that she could wear a garbage bin and she'd look stunning, I may have to agree.

I actually contemplated naming the two lists "Charlize" and "Other". She has been a consistent favourite of mine, mostly because she can't be human. You can see my previous Charlize adulation here for example.

Alright so here we go; here are my favs and not-so-much picks from the 2013 Academy Awards.

BEST DRESSED: 

5) Kerry Washington has been appearing on this side of the list for much of the awards season and her contract with fashion house Miu Miu is serving her well. This dress was equal parts glamour and unique, the colour made her stand out with just the right amount of bling on the bodice. Now I just hope she starts eating again!


4) Halle Berry wanted to look like a Bond girl last night and the team at Versace custom made this gown with those instructions in mind. At first on TV I didn't love this dress but seeing it in pictures, it quickly became a Best-dressed contender. Bravo Halle! 


3) Naomi Watts wins for second runner-up. She's in Armani Prive and this is a great example of how the right cut and structure done well can really be stunning. And she's a mom as well, Jenn Garner!



2) Michelle Obama surprised everyone by appearing in this gorgeous Naeem Khan gown, with her meticulously styled bangs (props!) to announce the most important award of the night; Best Picture. She Skyped in (or whatever) and really blew most of the fashion competition away! I love her classic yet glamorous style, definitely a fashion icon who we'll be talking about for years to come, what a treat. (take that Laura Bush!).


1) And the best-dressed award goes to....Charlize! (#obvi) What I love most about this look is her amazing hair, with the statement the hair made, she didn't need to do much with this Dior Couture gown and accessories. Too many competing elements is a sign of bad styling - so this really is a perfect example of restrain and edited styling. Absolutely flawless.



WORST DRESSED:

5) Many fashion people on my twitter feed (as I was insane enought to live-tweet the Oscars last night) loved this look on Zoe Saldana. I think it was because she chose a lesser known French designer Alexis Mabille. The fit, cut and colour are great but I personally didn't like the competing elements of the Dollar Store fake flowers with the belt...and then the 50 shades of grey below (see what I did there ;) ;) too many things going on.



4) Ok with Jennifer Garner (aka soccer mom extrordinaire), this dress was mostly boring. I feel like I've seen her in this colour and silhouette too many times, she just looks safe and boring. Nothing more to say. *yawnn*


3) Alright Kristen Stewart, we know you're over it, we know you don't care to brush your hair, we know you broke a leg jumping off a rooftop at a hipster house party at 5am (just guessing) - we get it. You're SO OVER IT. So let me ask then, why wear Reem Acra?? Why put on a lacey, beady pale-beigey dress by a mostly bridal designer? And then why add unwashed hair and smudged eye-liner? If you truly don't care, then whats with all the frills? Just go all badass in Tom Ford or something truly rebellious...oh kids these days, they don't really get the existential angst thing do they? 


2) Catherine Zeta Jones in Zuhair Murad. #nuffsaid



1) And the worst-dressed title goes to: Anne Hathaway. She actually gets the title for worst acceptance speech as well. Did you watch it? She mentioned something about how her role as Fantine in Les Mis and ending world poverty are connected....really Miss Teen USA 1998? She is an amazing actress but for one of the most highly anticpated celebrities on the red carpet, she let us down. I actually really liked the Prada dress, I like the colour, cut and I like the back, this dress at the SAG awards would've been perfect but not at the Oscars. And there are two very "distracting elements" that ruin it; making it a poorly fitted dress.


Honourable Mentions:

Jennifer Lawrence in Dior, almost made it to Best-Dressed if it wasn't so wedding like

It wasn't until she fell that I saw how truly magnificent the dress was (also cutest fall and speech)

Jessica Chastain in Armani Prive - played it safe I think but beautiful nonetheless




7 comments:

  1. Totally agree with you on playing it safe, the awards season this year has been a BORE... and it's so disappointing because we spend so many hours just waiting to critique all the dresses, hehe.

    I also agree with this list! I think my fav has to be Naomi Watts, it was so different and the colour looked brilliant on her.

    Also, WTF was up with Catherine Zeta Jones? I don't know if you noticed but she kept getting snubbed by all the interviewers and was trying to get so much camera attention! Ugh... her time is over I think?

    Also love love Jennifer Lawrence, even her fall made her so much more cuter. Loved how Bradley Cooper and Hugh Jackman ran to help her... adorbs.

    The biggest disappointment for me was Anne Hathaway. She will always be remembered for winning that Oscar... in an ill-fitting gown.

    Haha, hope you enjoyed my rant!

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    1. LoL @ the Catherine Zeta Jones comment! I saw how she asked Ryan Seacrest to do the mani-cam? Who asks to do the mani-cam? Aww and totally cute and sweet how Hugh Jackman and Bradley Cooper got up to help JLaw, loved that - it has def been her year eh?

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  3. Great round-up Saima.

    Overall, it was a bore. They need to start inviting Cher and Bjork to these things again. It’s sad that these people, who are artists, cannot express themselves better through fashion.

    I really did love Halle and Naomi’s dresses. Charlize looked gorgeous, but I do have to go with the garbage bag theory on this one. I don’t actually like the dress, and didn’t Anne Hathaway and Keri Washington already do white/stiff/long/peplum/two-pieces earlier in the awards season? Yawn.

    Jennifer Garner makes me long for J-lo, this kind of boring frothy soccer mom crap would not happen is Ben stayed with Ms Lo....However, he probably wouldn't be winning Oscars, instead he’d be demoted to J-Lo’s pool boy, never to be seen again....sorry, off track.

    Anne Hathaway’s dress picks, including the ill fitting blue one she wore to the after party, were terrible. I don’t even know how that happens: she is Hollywood’s sweetheart and could get access to any dress in the world and this is what she wears? A bridesmaids dress (and a lame one at that).

    I read somewhere that Michelle Obama wore that dress to another event earlier this year, and to that I say “thank you!”. It’s a relief to know that even the FLOTUS re-wears favorite frocks.

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    1. LOL @ JLo's pool boy!! And foot masseause...right? I love how Ben totally screwed himself over with the "marriage is work" comment :/

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  4. Ahh I finally got to finish this as I was reading bits and pieces ALL.DAY.LONG. Well worth it though. I totally agree with your thoughts - its eerie! I think Anne Hathaway's speech about her husband was sort of annoying too - but overall there is something about the look that wasn't working - it may have been the haircut but it just was a little off to me. I loved Mrs. O's look and Charlize can do no wrong in my eyes either!

    Zahra

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    1. I know its lengthy, thanks for sticking it thru! I just can't help myself sometimes, and Anne in all the press she was doing kept mentioning that she hasn't worked since she got married, and shes been in the kitchen the whole time cooking for her man etc etc... 'puke' way to set us back!

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