Red carpet season is in full swing! Last night we had the SAG Awards, otherwise known as the Costume B-Roll, where the only goal is to look half-decent, burn off whatever lingering obligations you have to a designer your client has promised to wear, and quietly begin marketing yourself for a very different role a […]
Last night the Miss Universe pageant, which is technically Miss Universe 2014 but dithered until it became simply the 63rd Annual, began with the National Costume Contest. About six weeks from now, my latest novel, PERSONA, hits shelves. Persona is a political thriller (diplomats, assassinations, the usual), but of course one of the most fascinating […]
The red carpet is always an alien planet. The gravity field is different there, objects held in orbit by twenty-thousand dollar dresses, jewelry that comes with its own bodyguards, and clutch purses studded with adamantium – or no purse, if designer contracts couldn’t be arranged: it’s dangerous to your image to go with a purse you bought yourself unless you’re under 14. Your goal is to stand out, unless you risk being put on a worst-dressed list if you do, in which case you play it safe. (Or, sometimes, you wear a fashion-forward thing you know will get you on the Worst Dressed because you’re demonstrating edge. It’s the Victorian language of clothing writ small; you wear hothouse flowers in the city because they’re more expensive, and take the priciest silk flowers you can buy into the country with you.)
Last night, the murky power plays of the fashion world and the transparent power plays of the film and television world came together for the Met’s Costume Institute Gala, a single gloriously awkward night of designer patronage in every sense of the word. This year’s honoree was Charles James, perhaps the master of midcentury American […]
Red-carpet season continues across the pond, as London hosted the BAFTAs on Sunday! They’re always interesting, with a mixture of UK actors and Hollywood celebs and such a wide range of outfits that I feel as if the Stylists’ Guild classifies BAFTA as a free-for-all and just does whatever. We’ll be making quick work of […]
Ah, the SAG Awards, where people momentarily stop pretending they’re here for anyone but the actors! Hilariously, that takes less acting than normal for them. Life is complicated. This year’s SAGs also got the memo about No Necklaces, which saved it from an awkward social situation in which the SAGs show up at a garden […]