Fashion Watch

T-shirt lust

Here I take a break from regularly (ok, irregularly - I’m working too hard at my actual job recently) scheduled programming to say Topher Grace: cute verging on hot, especially here at the Siena Store Opening in LA. But more importantly, and the reason for this post, I totally, really, truly want his t-shirt.

At the same event Ginnifer Goodwin looked cute in black and white while Lindsay Lohan did not in a white and paisley shirt-tent.

Pleats and Beehives

It really seems like Christina Ricci has finally evened out her weight and style issues - not too skinny, not ballooning, and, at the launch of Frank Gehry's collection for Tiffany, totally put together in a blazer, jeans and cute shoes.

Not nearly so together was Samaire Armstrong in the incongruous combination of a purple parachute material shirt-dress and a black beret.

Jennifer Love Hewitt really, really needs to stop with the heavy fringed beehive and dark eyes. The outfit itself isn't too bad, but that hair is just awful.

Laura Leighton's gunmetal layers were all wrong. I have a pleated skirt very much like that one, without the unnecessary black under-skirt, but I don't wear it with matching and yet not matching horizontal layered tops. Nice colour though.

Diamonds draw the ladies

Now, on to the myriad of pre-ceremony Golden Globes events.

The Diamond Fashion event brought out a large range of starlets in various degrees of casual and luncheon dress. And various lengths of pant leg.

Molly Sims went with just above the ankle, which works with flat shoes, but something about this outfit is off. Perhaps the plait.

Though it worked a lot better than Rachel Bilson's culottes with a night-dress top, boots and smeary make-up.

The knee-length version on Jessica Alba was much more successful, especially paired with an interesting but not crazy blue, tie-waisted top.

Amanda Righetti went with attractive brown pants that were spoiled by being miles too long and paired with a t-shirt that may, or may not, feature a flying My Little Pony.

Despite the strobing problem, Sara Rue's greeny-cream suit was cute, and the pants were a good length.

Moving away from the pants, the skirts and dresses were also a mixed bag.

Lisa Edelstein was pretty in dusty pink, while Garcelle Beauvais elected to cut off her legs, and wear an un-supportive top.

Kelly Rutherford was a bit baggy in black but not unattractive.

Andrea Bowen continues to do well dressing her age, this time in embroidered bluey-green.

Alison Janney was classy if exceedingly conservative in a black suit. Straight from the desk of the Chief of Staff?

Elizabeth Banks's tonal pleated skirt and two top combination was very odd.

I know it's winter over there, but it is LA. You wouldn't know it from Melissa George's fluffy white suit. She looked like a socialite on her way too lunch in New York. A forty or fifty-something socialite.

Finally, I quite like Maria Bello's yellow dress, even with the flesh toned straps and belt. But the white shoes and rosey clutch don't work at all.

Falling into Fall

The Fox Network Fall Casino party brought out all the young starlets and Scientologists, with mixed sartorial results.

Jamie King wore a jacket I really quite like, it's just a pity it didn't remotely go with her shortened wedding dress skirt, and neither went with the sandals.

Laura Prepon's casual jeans outfit was fine, but she must have been having a really bad hair day to resort to that particular hat.

Mischa Barton has caught the slouching disease, though the black and white print dress is a winner.

The same could not be said for Rachel Bilson's too shiny top, too gathered in the wrong place skirt and giant clod-hopper suede shoes.

Melinda Clarke was apparently aiming for the cocktail version of Glinda the Good Witch, while Bonnie Sommerville was aiming for Robert Palmer girl.

No, Alia, no!.

I am not familiar with Camille Winbush's work, but I suspect this outfit was selected solely for the purposes of debuting on Go Fug Yourself.

Lisa Edelstein looked more Spring on the Mediterranean than Fall at Fox, but that wasn't a bad thing. And I suspect she's also suffering unnecessarily from "backdrop clash".

Fashion Rocks - Periodically

At the Fashion Rocks event it was more fashion than rock, but it was far from being a good advertisement for sponsor Max Azria.

He sent Melissa George out in an ugly black and silver scaly dress and someone was responsible for that horrendous hair (which makes her Home and Away era braids look positively stylish).

While Alicia Keys flowing orange gown was an improvement, it still wasn't anything particularly stunning.

Shakira wore vintage Armani, black strapless with sparkling details.

Kim Cattrall kept it simple in a white dress by Temperley.

While she really needs to open her eyes, Joss Stone's white and blue Roberto Cavalli gown was a huge improvement on her VMAs giant denim skirt.

Ashanti's rose coloured and printed dress by Carlos Miele was pretty but the shoes were too over the top for it.

For someone known more for incomprehensible fashion choices, Lisa Marie Presley's simple white suit was a refreshing change.

Heather Graham wore flip flops and, of course, no bra, but her watermelon dress was actually a winner.

Poppy Montgomery's black and silver gown was far more attractive than that of her compatriot George, but she was still having some hair issues.

Iman is one of those women who never looks bad, and it was the case again here in sparkling one-shouldered beige.

Gwen Stefani was pretty in white L.A.M.B..

Rebecca Romijn wore a potentially unforgiving red strapless dress. Great colour.

Tyra Banks took an uninspired brown dress with an asymmetrical hem and made it look ugly by pairing it with unnecessary boots, while Petra Nemkova wore an ill-fitting baby-doll dress.

The Next Top of Nothing

Adrienne, Adrienne, Adrienne, we loved you when you were the pale, possibly stoned, glasses and beanie wearing winner of America’s Next Top Model. However, now that you are the over-tanned, scrunchy-faced, too short, too tight, too shiny, too cleavagey dress wearing girlfriend of Peter Brady and calling yourself an actress, well, we don’t love you nearly so much.

Lurid Sacking

At the opening of the DeBeers store, Lindsay Lohan shows further concerning signs. Who goes out thinking "I've lost all my baby fat and then a bit more so I'll show off my too skinny arms and legs, but I'll cover the rest of me up with a fluro pink sack"?

Reunited

This photo from the Absolut Apeach launch has me flashing straight back to my mis-spent soap opera watching youth. I don't think it's any coincidence that Nicollette Sheridan looks prettier here than she has at any time during this career revival. It might be the peachy dress and soft fringe, but more likely it's William Devane, who, despite his hoodie and jeans, could have chemistry with a rock and definitely has it with his one-time Knots Landing girlfriend.

Eat a Sandwich!

At the Cartier party in Beverly Hills I suspect that if they served food, not much of it would have been consumed, given the proliferation of painfully skinny girls attending the party.

Take, for example, Lindsay Lohan. Now, okay, the blonde hair I hate so much might be for a role, and when it's tied back it doesn't look nearly so bad. But when you add shiny shiny make-up and a white dress that would have looked so much better on her curvy figure of six months ago it's almost distressing.

Then there's Tori Spelling, in a perfectly lovely red sleeveless dress and great shoes. She's even got the hip-cocked pose down. Pity she's got no hips to cock and passers by need to beware of getting impaled on those elbows.

Nicole Richie. Great purple floor-length dress, but there she goes turning sideways and disappearing completely. I loved it when she cleaned up her act and got a decent stylist, but she didn't need to loose much if any weight, and now she's gone and ruined it.

Teri Hatcher, in a great red dress, just not on her, principally because her proportions are getting to be so skewed that it doesn't fit her properly. I am increasingly afraid that she will just snap in the middle.

Then there was Sheryl Crow's ribcage in a gaping white top/dress(?).

On a totally other scary-is-the-new-normal front, Jocelyn Wildenstein has almost completed her transformation into a cat.

I fear that Jocelyn is decades past help, but all the rest of those ladies should eat a damn sandwich!

Bad, bad boots!

Regular readers will be aware of my hatred of dresses over pants, so it'll come as no surprise that I don't find Ashlee Simpson's mini-dress-tunic with frayed edges over jeans ensemble at the X-Box launch party in any way appealing. The sad thing is that's not the worst of it. Then there's the can't help but looked over-stuffed over-the-knee boots. And finally, and worst of all, the hair. Sure her hair was awful before, but now she's got a blondish dye job plus bob that makes Lindsay Lohan's new hair colour look like she was born with it.

Alicia Milano's hair never suffers from any such problem, and she manages to look pretty here in a floral top and jeans while still showing off her most valuable purchase.

Rachel Bilson also did well in jeans and a not over-the-top display of the metallic trend, while Scarlett Johannsen ruined her great hair and make-up by showing why the only pants over which flat boots should be worn are jodhpurs.