Tag Archives: Charlize Theron

Atelier Versace Exhibition, Pacific Place: Gonna dress you up in my love!

Posted on September 7, 2011 | Leave a comment

I love beautiful dresses. I love seeing them, buying them, wearing them and, as this blog proves, writing about them too! Sadly, with the most beautiful designer dresses worn by the most beautiful celebrities, that’s about as close as I get – seeing them on a computer screen and then detailing my lust in writing afterwards. But not anymore…

Kawai Wong, the lovely Shopping & Style Editor of Time Out Hong Kong, tipped off her followers on Twitter that there would be a mini Atelier Versace exhibition in Pacific Place shopping mall. I made a mental note and promptly forgot all about it but as chance would have it, I just happened to be in Pacific Place that weekend – and thank God I was. Because I got to see some of those beautiful dresses that I had previously only written about IN PERSON. And they were BREATH-TAKING.

Apologies for all the caps but as you can see from the photos, upper-case in this case is totally deserved!

I squealed with delight when I saw this stunning gown that I adored on Charlize Theron at the Vanity Fair Oscars Party standing there in all its glory right in front of my eyes! This was my favourite gown of the lot simply because I remembered writing how much I loved it – and there it was!

Even on the mannequins, everything draped just so and looked utterly beautiful. This gown was worn by Eva Mendes at the Rome Film Festival last year. I didn’t really like the dress in photos but up-close, all the detailing was just exquisite. What was missing was the gorgeous sense of movement that Eva managed to create but I think this proves just how much a million flash bulbs wash out a dress, as it was much more of a vibrant tan colour in person.

This cobalt beauty was worn by Jessica Alba at this year’s Baftas and was another one I wrote about! She worn it sans feathers but this was every bit as vividly gorgeous in person. I love how effortlessly flowing it is.

This cascading grey ombre dress hasn’t been worn by anyone famous – yet! Love the cut-out detail on the back too. Stunning. By now, I was nearly going into seizure at being close enough to touch these gowns. Waaaah… just one stroke!

Fan Bing Bing’s ruffled purple gown (as worn at the Cannes Film Festival, which marked the beginning of many of our style crushes on The Bingster) was probably the true show-stopper of the collection. It was just so big, pouffy and spectacular in real-life. Again, the detail of all those flounces was just amazingly lush up-close. It was so delicate yet dramatic and that skirt looked like it was made up of crush flower petals. Divine.

There was lots of ‘oh my God’-ing and longing sighing that my boyfriend didn’t totally understand but ugh, I need more of these exhibitions in my life! Just five dresses isn’t enough! Hurry up and get that Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty show on the road to Hong Kong please!

Atelier Versace Exhibition, Pacific Place mall, Admiralty

Red Carpet Rundown: 2011 Oscar Parties, Part II

Posted on March 17, 2011 | Leave a comment

Having reamed you in with some shameless titillation via the black lace brigade at the Oscars 2011 Parties, here’s some more outfits, from the bizarre to the beautiful with just about everything in-between. Since I’m still feeling grubby from seeing Madonna’s butt cheeks, do you mind if we start with the beautiful?

Anne Hathaway in Versace – So the pattern is a cross between a Celtic knot and the etchings on Xena The Warrior Princess’ breastplates but I still love it. The darker shade of red is gorgeous, it flows beautifully and it’s not a typical Anne Hathaway princess dress. Although she did deserve one for propping up a stoned James Franco for four hours.

Juliette Lewis in Georges Hobeika Couture – Calling Juliette Lewis… you know, ker-azy Juliette Lewis who shows up at events with Native American head-dresses, dodgy home dye jobs and does a ‘rock on’ gesture whilst sticking her tongue out for photos? I’m not sure that that Juliette Lewis would recognise this dignified creature but hey, sophistication suits her well. Ever since Kate Middleton wore that royal blue Issa engagement dress, I’ve been all over this shade like the royal couple over commemorative tableware. It’s a simple timeless shape that flatters and let’s the colour do the work. Which it does. Gorgeous.

Charlize Theron in Atelier Versace – There are times when Charlize Theron’s aura of perfection grates and there are times when all you can do is sigh pathetically and let her get on with being too perfect for the likes of us mere mortals. Had she attended the Oscars themselves, she would have been easily amongst the best dressed with this effortlessly gorgeous gown. It’s clean enough to be classically beautiful but with just the right amount of embellishment to stop it being boring and actually improve on simplicity. Flawless hair, flawless make-up… what else is there to say? She could probably wear this inside out and still look just as good (Arrested Development reference ahoy!).

Anna Paquin in Monique Lhullier – Initially, I thought this dress was boring and wasn’t going to write about it. Since then, I’ve decided I love it, want it and won’t rest until I’ve claimed a cheap high street knock-off of it. I love the romantic ruffles of the flamenco-esque skirt, I love the criss-cross and thus super-flattering bodice with its wide shoulder straps and I love Anna’s mini-quiff. It’s not quite as daring as her outfits last awards season but it’s subtly crept up and become one of my favourite looks from the event. Sneaky work, Sooki.

Naomi Watts in Zac Posen – Heading now for the bizarre, thanks to this dress, which makes Naomi look like she has a vagina somewhere around her midriff. This has distracted both us and her from the fact that a Muppet has attached itself to her backside. I normally love Naomi’s classy style but this is odd.

Anika Noni Rose – What was this, ‘Bring Your Muppet To Work Day’? Another bizarre ensemble, and I’m not sure whether I’m more fascinated by the Fraggle Rock puppet clinging to her side or the strange distortion in the dress that makes it look like Anika has a strangely high, material-sucking belly button. Is that better or worse than a strangely high vagina? I’ll leave you to decide.

Bryce Dallas Howard – Whenever I see this dress I want to sing. Songs like I Can Hear The Bells from Hairspray. Or ‘I’m getting married in the morning… DING DONG! The bells are going to chime!’ (from My Fair Lady and yes, I watch too many musicals). Or even ‘Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St Clements’. Are you getting the common theme yet? In short, it’s not singing through happiness but because Bryce looks like a giant blue bell. And that warrants not a Leslie Phillips ‘ding doooong’ but a sad trombone instead.

Rashida Jones in Valentino – ‘Oh Mr Rochester, I’m sorry to awaken you from your slumber but your batshit crazy wife has just set fire to my bedroom, thus my greeting you in my nightgown.’

Elizabeth Banks in Versace – Elizabeth Banks normally belongs to my holy parallelogram of red carpet bores (alongside Kate Bosworth, Jessica Alba and Jessica Biel) but this dress is just shimmery cuteness in a peroxide blonde bottle. The mesh overlay, creating long sleeves and more restrained neckline, keeps things a little more modern and edgy on what is essentially a bog-standard school disco spangly mini (admittedly one covered in Swarovski crystals).

Rosario Dawson in Diane Von Furstenberg – If you ever wondered what Donna Summer wears to slouch around the house, here’s Rosario Dawson with what everyone hopes is the answer – a disco bathrobe. And despite the fact that it’s electric blue, glitters and seems to be two very different lengths either side, Dawson still reduces it to meh. Let’s make that a holy pentagon of boring, shall we?

Jessica Biel in Atelier Versace – Another member from the clan of yawn makes an appearance, although I actually quite like this dress. I love the intricate criss-crossing of the shoulder straps and the geometric art-deco feel of the pattern itself, but there must be some irony to the fact that an actress who personifies beige looks her best in a dress that’s various shades of the colour?

Claire Danes in Calvin Klein – These are clearly monastic robes for a community who make their own tofu, knock out the lotus position before they can crawl and hand-rear goats whose wool they can then use for scratchy knitwear. Claire would have protested against wearing it but they all take vows of silences too. So she’ll just have to put up with looking like a sanctimonious cult member instead.

Red Carpet Rundown: Oscars 2010, Part II

Posted on March 10, 2010 | Leave a comment

And onto Part II, cunningly-named ‘The Rest’ category; this is what I was referring to when I said the Oscars 2010 red carpet was one of the most interesting and adventurous in years. Thought I’d hook you in with the uglies to start off…

Diane Kruger in Chanel – Kruger is usually one of the most impeccably-dressed women around (see what she’s been wearing the rest of this awards season here) but this is a dress only a mother could love. In fact, make that grandmother, as surely (cool hip grandmas apart) they’re the only ones constituting any sort of buoyant lace doilie market there may be and lace doilies appears to be what this dress is fashioned from. Screwed-up lace doilies occasionally throttled with screwed-up black lace doilies that is. Find the most unflattering parts of a figure to tie things around and in a quite remarkable feat, that’s where the black lace appears on this gown. The middle section reminds me of curdled cottage cheese, which in turn reminds me of thrush. No dress that reminds me of an infection whereby your urine looks like cottage cheese can be a good thing.

Vera Farmiga in Marchesa – I’m usually a big fan of Marchesa’s structural gowns but try as I might to love this one, rather like that Topshop dress that rocked on Alexa Chung/Kate Moss/Sienna Miller but just looks weird on you, I can’t. I love the cerise colour, I love the shade of lipstick and I love that the neutral-wearing Farmiga has taken a real fashion risk, but I just see pencil shavings… or pleated napkins… or cupcake cases, which are stiff, slightly grotesque and give Farmiga no shape at all. I think in isolated doses, just on the bodice with a sleek skirt or vice versa, it might have worked yet in its current state, it just looks like an infection running rampage over the entire dress.

Zoe Saldana in Givenchy – Some critics are going loop the loop for this dress, which just highlights the selective couture blindess that seems to go on. Saldana is stunning and sells this gown with all her Na’vi might but it was weird on the catwalk and it’s still weird now. Let’s go through this step by step. Glittering bodice: gorgeous. Origami-pleated waistline – delectable. Lavender colour – delicious. The bottom: *Red alert, fire alarms, sirens, screams of horror * What is it?! The remains of a Muppet? A crowd of purple Chuzzles? Some tie-dyed shag-pile rugs from the 70s? No idea, but DO NOT LIKE.

Charlize Theron in Christian Dior – In homage to her Arrested Development character, perhaps this gown would look better on inside out? Only a Mr F could have thought this would look good. Charlize really can’t have a go at us if we’re all staring at her tits because the two Danish pastries attached to her boobs make it kinda hard not to. I preferred them when held up to the ears to make you look like Princess Leia (you can have that style tip for free). In all fairness, the rest of the gown is fine and Theron is her usual immaculately-groomed but if the designer really had to “add interest” to this simple dress, couldn’t he have found a less patently ridiculous place to do so?

Carey Mulligan in Prada – I hoped it would be Kristen Stewart bringing a rock edge to the Oscars but step forward English rose, Mulligan, to do red carpet dressing with a punky twist. Rather than embellishing the bodice with mere girlie glitter, Prada have instead scattered it with miniature knives, forks, scissors, keys and watch gears, a really cute and quirky design detail that totally works and makes the top half of this dress rock. Bottom half however and things start to get a bit tipsy; I don’t like the shorter length at the front, the border is unnecessary and the shoes seem heavy. I think a shorter version of this would look great at some music awards show – get onto it Prada!

Sarah Jessica Parker in Chanel – Of course, SJP fans would have you believe this dress is amazing/beautiful/stunning and that she was one of the best dressed of the night. But those SJP fans tend to think she would look fantastic in a bin bag (and let’s face it, she probably has worn one at some stage) and the reality is that this dress is a bit of a let-down. It does have a classic sort of elegance to it, but the musty yellow colour makes it look like it was discovered amongst the mothballs at the back of the closet and you’ll have more chance of finding a real-life Big than any sort of shape in this saggy sheath. Nevertheless, the beautifully intricate neckline is fascinating, in a Derren Brown sort of way. Is sheer will power alone holding it up? A spell from the fashion gods granted for so many years of sterling service? Who knows but it, and those sparkling bracelets, are the best thing about this outfit.