Who let Marchesa into the good stuff?

Award season has begun! We just had the People’s Choice Awards, which I don’t imagine anyone cares much about; and the Critics’ Choice Awards, which are perhaps slightly more important, at least in theory; then this past Sunday, the Golden Globes, which we all sit up and pay attention to as portenders of the Oscars. But the Globes this year were important not just for their subversiveness (my homegirl, the oft-overlooked Kate Winslet took home not one but two of the statuettes, and the decidedly unHollywood Slumdog Millionaire won in four categories), but for the gowns! It was as if everyone said “Listen, we get it. There’s a recession and we shouldn’t seem insensitive. But it’s a new year, we have some money, and we’re going to forego the barrels and feed sacks in favour of the big sparkly things that people watch us to see.” And how right they were. The hits were in overwhelming majority this year, even the misses were crazy and entertaining, and there was that one gown that got everyone whispering: Jennifer Lopez’s gold Marchesa dress.

Various people have pointed out fat and folds and puckers of different varieties that are of little interest to me. The woman just made two whole human beings and isn’t 20 anymore. She’s still gorgeous. But…the woman just made two whole human beings and isn’t 20 anymore. This is not the dress for her. Not because of her body, but because of her fashion history. She has already done that scandalous green Versace. Should she not have evolved a little by now? This dress is beneath her. The fabric looks cheap, the construction sloppy, and it begins to cast the term ‘Jenny from the block’ in a whole different light from the source-of-income perspective.

Marchesa is a young label, but hit the ground running dressing celebrities for the red carpet. Launched by British-born Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig in 2004, it won the Britain’s Best Business Award last year and reports annual sales above $30 million. The duo has dressed Reese Witherspoon and Thandie Newton; and has designed countless red carpet gowns for JLo in the past. They don't always hit it past the boundary, but this year something went horribly wrong. And while the wearer is sufficiently lovely to not make it a total disaster, the dress itself is a shocking wrong turn for the label. Below are some of its more successful efforts:


Hopefully, the Oscars will provide an opportunity for the well-dones to do well again, and for those who seem to have slipped into the good liquor cabinet before sketching to redeem themselves.
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Favourite televised clip from the Globes: Kate Winslet calls Angelina Jolie “the other one” in her acceptance speech. Not meant to be hateful but hilarious nonetheless.

Favourite dress that not everyone liked: Maggie Gyllenhaal's Lanvin was one of the many dresses that featured large, asymmetrical, statement pleating. (Two of the others’, Eva Mendes’s and Kate Beckinsale’s were also among my favourites.) The shoes looked a little orthopaedic on the red carpet, but the print and styling of the dress were perfection.

Favourite crazy, Tim Burton hair: I think Drew Barrymore has always secretly wanted to wear her hair like this, and now that a suitable role has apparently surfaced, her dream has come true. The blue, romantic-style chiffon is bold but subdued. And as much as I want to hate the hair, it is too wonderfully insane not to love. I can’t stop looking at it.

Renee Zellweger earns a close second for the hair, and gets extra wtf points for a poor choice of foundation garments.


The rest of the best:



The rest of the worst: Everyone loves Samantha Who, especially since the actor's struggle with breast cancer. But she's much too cute and interesting to look as if she stitched up her own dress to wear to graduation. And Cameron Diaz just looks bored and wrinkly.



Photo sources
Marchesa gowns: People.com/Beimages; ElleUK; Spreadit.org
Golden Globe coverage: fabsugar.com