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I went to the Cloisters yesterday for a little unicorn research (best kind of research). Though they are not big on anyone taking pictures and therefore I only have one of a flower waving merrily from atop a sign reading POISON PLANT, I ran across a couple of very interesting costumes. Their Search for the Unicorn exhibit featured this Florentine panel in tempera, which was truly stunning in person, and dates between 1450-60, possibly the zenith of headgear that looked like prototypes of alien spacecraft.… Read more »

Red Carpet Rundown: Met Costume Institute Gala 2013

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So, in a hilarious prank the Costume Institute decided to play on the red-carpet industry this year, it made the tentpole exhibit for 2013 “Punk: From Chaos to Couture,” and then told all the fashion and media luminaries who were attending that the dress code would be Punk. Oh, what a laugh it must have been in the Museum offices, listening as the screams of the Look Pretty Industry filled the air!… Read more »

Red Carpet Rundown: The MTV Movie Awards

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So, as we discuss often on this blog, there are many things at play on red carpets for grownups. Some celebrities have spokesperson relationships; some are making bids to set trends; some are quietly promoting the image of their latest work (see: Rooney Mara surrounding Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), and some are surreptitiously trying out for parts down the road (see: the half-dozen blonde actresses who walked red carpets this year dressed like Veronica Lake). And it’s important: nail or bomb the Golden Globes or the Emmys or, above all, the Oscars, and that outfit will have a long tail that you may or may not want. Occasional red carpet walkers are genuinely stylish, and you can see that, too. But then there are red carpets like the MTV Movie Awards, where attendees’ outfits are separated less by the success of the fashion than by how seriously their images need to be leveraged for a demographic whose awards categories include Best Kiss and Best Fight (or as the Oscars usually call them, Best Production… Read more »

Red Carpet Rundown: the Oscars 2013

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Well, the Oscars HAPPENED this year, didn’t they? (They happened to be dreadful.) There is, of course, a world of nonsense involved when the richest and most elevated echelons of a subculture come together to congratulate themselves; that’s par for the course with most celeb culture. However, even for an event which shut a woman director out of nominations even while nominating the movie for Best Picture (for a picture with some seriously problematic elements – Hollywood, you’re a delight), last night’s show was pretty dismal. I ended up seeing the Hustler-cover-set-to-music intro song; it should be no surprise that I therefore missed the Anti-Semitic teddy bear, and apparently also missed the extremely questionable red carpet tactics of every interviewer who decided not to even pretend to want to begin to learn how to pronounce the name of one of the Best Actress nominees. Banner night, everyone! However, even when the rest of the night is a quagmire, the show goes on, and from the impassable sea of stylists, makeup artists, hair experts, and extremely… Read more »

Red Carpet Rundown: The Grammys

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Red carpet season is skidding to its conclusion soon! In the meantime (and until I get a replacement working Rome DVD from Netflix for Channel Flip, and write up my feelings on The Hour being cancelled using only pictures of me crying, and also that novel I should be working on nobody even talk about it), the show must go on! I don’t usually cover the Grammys. but after the best Standard and Practice email of all time, governing the coverage of the female form, I had to check in. And as it turns out, it was quick work, because there were pretty much only two divisions at the Grammys: those who looked at that memo and said, “Okay, sure, I’ll manage,” and those who looked at that memo and slowly lit it on fire as they laughed and laughed, and then called their stylists and said in Supervillain Voice, “They think they can tell me how much boob is too much? Well, I haven’t even BEGUN to boob.” Let’s break this down. Beyonce, who… Read more »

Red Carpet Rundown: The BAFTAs

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Last night, amidst weather that looked like a total slushstorm but that the Brits probably classified as “a bit of rain” and the makeup artists probably classified as a series of expletives requiring industrial anti-frizz pomade, the stars gathered to celebrate the BAFTAs. I enjoy the BAFTAs because of the red-carpet opportunity it provides for talented UK actors (except this year, when many of those who are So Hot Right Now are sitting in tents in Lincoln Center for Fashion Week instead). And though actually walking the red carpet is probably not super fun as a rule if you do it regularly, at least this one is full of talented people, many of them at least pretending to enjoy themselves, even if some of them have made some unfortunate fashion choices. As an opener, I love this shot of the press pit, both for the sense of how it must feel to be there, and because it starts the surprise trend of the night: amazing versions of silhouettes that tend to look odd!   Alicia Vikander,… Read more »
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