Harry Potter premiere : New York

Fashion Police Files

Wed, 13th Jul 2011

"HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS 2"

ROUND 2 : NEW YORK PREMIÈRE
Last night, the Harry Potter entourage appeared in New York for the New York Première screened at the Avery Fisher Hall, in the Lincoln Center - and the three main stars of the films were out again, posing on the red carpet for the press, and signing autographs and photos for the screaming fans...not as many people here as the London première - no J K Rowling, Helena Bonham Carter or Bonnie Wright, but the three main stars were here along with Tom Felton who plays Draco Malfoy, of course....

BEST DRESSED : THE HARRY POTTER STARS

DANIEL RADCLIFFE

The star of the show was of course Daniel Radcliffe, who wore a Prada suit for the New York première...not quite as dapper as his beautifully cut three-piece that he wore in London last Tuesday, but still very smart all the same...

I like his two-tone shirt and the folded floral hankie in his top pocket - the unexpected details always work well with menswear !!

EMMA WATSON

Emma really took us all by surprise, after the gorgeous Oscar de la Renta gown she wore to the London Première last Tuesday, by choosing this coppery-gold Bottega Veneta gown from their Autumn 21011 Collection...

Emma is really starting to clinch her true fashion-maven status with this première tour - now, you either love this or hate it, and I must admit that I absolutely hated this at first sight, and it hasn't grown on me with subsequent examination either...

However, I will admit to having a certain amount of admiration for any 21 year old who manages to pull a look like this off - and it has to be said that more fashion website posts and press column inches are being given over to praising this than slagging it off...so let's have another look :

It's daring and out there, risky and controversial - but that's a good thing, because fashion doesn't ever stand still - and it's the likes of Emma who will be taking trends forward by running risks like this !! I love the rich coppery yellow colour of the bloused up skirt - this hitched up look is one that I am familiar with from dressing up in medieval costume every June in the Czech Republic...and I also like the pleated and pinned up effect round the top of the skirt...

( You can all sense the 'buts' coming...)

BUT - I hated this dress because the bodice looks like heavy beige denim, and is unfinished with fraying seam edges and is also cut like a corset with defined cups and boned seams...not my favourite look as you all know..also the bronzey colour of the skirt is lovely but how I wish that it had all been one tone, rather than making it look like it was patchily dyed - it just makes it look dirty...
In fact, this dress has been designed to look like it is half-way through the process of being designed on a dressmaker's stand - the bodice looks just like a tailor's dummy and the fabric of the skirt looks like it is being pinned experimentally into place...

I hated her hair all plastered down flat - most unflattering for anyone, even a pretty young star like Emma - but I loved her amazing black and gold eye make-up...this was stunning !!

For the first time in the life-span of this blog, I am able to award two stars here - she gets the gold star for taking a risk with something that most people will hate, but the fashion press will love, and her amazing eye make-up - and she also gets a black star for wearing something that is actually really ugly, and getting away with it...

Explaining her daring fashion choice to reporters, Emma said:

"New York is such a fashion capital, I felt I could push the envelope a bit. With London I went a bit more classic but for today I wanted to do something edgier."

Well - she certainly did that...and when you are the star of the movie, and therefore the centre of the press attention - yes, that's the time to take a risk...

RUPERT GRINT

Here's Rupert wearing a different suit to the crocodile-textured one he wore in London - I only say that because several websites have commented on the fact that he looks like he's wearing the same one - which he isn't !!

Look - it's clearly a very different fabric !!
He is wearing a tie in the same fabric as his London suit though possibly from the same source then...he has looked great on both occasions and therefore he gets a gold star here too...

TOM FELTON & JADE GORDON

Jade Gordon has apparently changed her name to Jade Olivia, but to avoid confusion, I will list her here as Jade Gordon like the last post...here she looks lovely in a raspberry red dress with up and down frills around the hem - very pretty indeed...Tom looks a bit more casual in his DJ with an open-collared shirt, which doesn't really work that well - it's such a formal style suit that a tie is de rigeur ...

BEST DRESSED : OTHER GUESTS

AMERICA FERRERA

Ugly Betty star has recently got herself hitched and looked happy and at ease on this red carpet - I liked her cream lace dress with its fringed hem and cap sleeves...I even don't mind the black lining !!

ARIANA GRANDE

Ariana Grande plays the role of Cat Valentine in 'Victorious' if you don't know who she is...here she is on the Harry Potter red carpet looking pretty as a picture in her beautiful shell pink satin dress...

I love that little triangle detail of cream sequins in the front - very pretty indeed. Her hair is a striking henna colour, so I wish that she hadn't gone for that red lip and nail colour - this whole outfit would have suited a more plummy berry-coloured lipstick and nail varnish rather than the bright red...

SARAH HYLAND

Actress Sarah Hyland made an appearance too - she went for a little cocktail dress designed by Paule Ka in black with a navy draped panel across the front...

She did look nice in this with her sky-high satin platforms and pewter bag - I do wonder why designers team black with navy though - I find it very irritating, I mean - what's the point ? The two colours are so close together without actually matching, that it's like teaming white with cream - one makes the other look dirty. In this case, the black makes the navy look faded. However, she does look really good, so it's only a minor quibble really...

SARAH JESSICA PARKER

If you read most other fashion blogs, you would think that the only two women on this red carpet were Emma Watson and Sarah Jessica Parker...here she is in her Oscar de la Renta Resort 2012 dress and navy jacket. She looks really great in this - summery and smart at the same time...the print is very striking and her tan drawstring bag is really nice too !!

This isn't a collection I have looked at yet, being as it was only shown a few weeks ago - the Resort Collections will be my next stop along with the Couture Collections too.

Here's SJP en famille...

There was a big party after the screening, as you can imagine, and I found a few shots of the party room prior to all the guests arriving - the party took place in the American Museum of Natural History - hence the huge whale hanging from the ceiling !!

Please, please tell me this is a Hogwarts cake !!...

I love the stone owl - very fitting !!

I'm guessing that there may be a Los Angeles première coming up too, so watch out for that later this week - meanwhile, I'll be looking at the collections of course, in here at the weekend, and also my little trip to Hampton Court Palace Flower Show last Saturday, over on my other journal...so watch out for all that !!

Tags:film premieres & festivals

Comments

Wed, 13th Jul 2011 (UTC)

babybeluga2003

I love Emma's dress, but her hair is so severe...

Wed, 13th Jul 2011 (UTC)

wendylady2

It certainly is, isn't it ?!! Hmmm, not a fan, myself..

Wed, 13th Jul 2011 (UTC)

cionaudha

Okay, I have a question that's been simmering for some time.

British menswear. You lot seem to prefer more of a break in the trousers than we Americans do. Daniel's trousers look more on an American scale, but Rupert's have that super-deep break I keep seeing on British guys. Is that a "thing"?

Love Emma's eyes! I love how much fun she has and never veers into Stupid or Crazy. The skirt on that gown is amazing: I wish the bodice were different. I don't know what, but different. Here is a secret: to make me drool, just give a skirt cartridge pleats. It's just that easy. I LOVE 'EM. Are those even cartridge pleats? They're like Cartridge Pleats Nouveau. What are they called?

Not loving SJP's blazer. It just looks too long and schlumpy with a dress that's floaty and more than floor length. And because I'm nearby, I know for a fact it's in no way sleeve weather there. Like, I'm sweating just sitting here in the middle of the night, so it's making me uncomfy to see it. I feel sorry for the lads!

Wed, 13th Jul 2011 (UTC)

wendylady2

Cion,
I think the size of the break in men's trousers depends on who is doing the tailoring and therefore giving advice...a very short break, which is what Daniel is favouring in both suits, is pretty high fashion at the moment - very 60s style actually - and suits the slimmer guy with a 32" waist and a slender torso perfectly, which is possibly why Daniel wears it so well...
Rupert's trousers on the other hand, have a much deeper break, giving his suit a much more classic look - more elegant, and certainly more British, in the tradition of Saville Row...

So, yes, it's a classic styling versus high fashion thing !!

With regards to the pleating around Emma's dress - yes they are super-size cartridge pleats...but done in a random haphazard way to resemble a rather experimental dress in the process of creation !!

Wed, 13th Jul 2011 (UTC)

a_blackpanther

I agree with you on Emma's dress. I hated the dress - it looks like curtains, but the hair and make up and her confidence and elegance pulled it off.

She should write books on how to wear fancy poufy dresses and get away with it...

Wed, 13th Jul 2011 (UTC)

wendylady2

Yes, agreed - she should include a big chapter on how to make rubbish designs look like a gazillion dollars, as she is getting to be quite good at it !! It's a strange thing, but I ummed and aaahed over Emma dress because it looked hideous, but couldn't bring myself to drop it in the reject pile...

Wed, 13th Jul 2011 (UTC)

ms_banazira

I usually miss the subtleties of makeup. Having said that, I'd like Emma's eye makeup a lot more if she'd wore some sort of lip gloss. Obviously she wouldn't have wanted to go all eighties with dark red lipstick. It might have been cool if she'd gone a bit sixties with a white-ish lip color. But at the least a nude-ish gloss would have gone a long way to the better. Heavy eye makeup w/o benefit of any attention to the lip seems very trailer trash to me.

Wed, 13th Jul 2011 (UTC)

wendylady2

Yes - her lip-gloss was a teensy bit insipid wasn't it..but at the same time, I am glad that she didn't wear anything too heavy - that would have been disaster !!

Wed, 13th Jul 2011 (UTC)

janejanejane

Thanks as always. I do agree with you about Emma Watson's dress, but the girl's got nerve to wear something like that...

Must admit I'm not knocked out by any of the dresses :-/

Wed, 13th Jul 2011 (UTC)

wendylady2

Jane,
Emma's dress was definitely the most noteworthy at this event...the rest were all a tad boring in comparison !!

Wed, 13th Jul 2011 (UTC)

bitchie_poo

i completely agree about that dress. it's startling and hideous yet strangely lovely. the color is unbelievable.

Thu, 14th Jul 2011 (UTC)

wendylady2

Yes - it's got mein a quandary, not liking it at all, and yet admiring her enormously for daring to push the fashion envelope...it's also growing on me but that maybe just familiarity kicking in !!

Thu, 14th Jul 2011 (UTC)

ghyste

I rather like Emma's dress but wish she'd kept a better eye on her posture while wearing it. Your pictures aren't too bad but it really stood out in some of the others that I've seen. IMHOP one of the problems with these very strapless dresses is the way that a pair of round shoulders can destroy the whole effect.

Thu, 14th Jul 2011 (UTC)

wendylady2

Ghyste
That's very true of any dress really - bad posture has got many a star into my bad dressed list rather than their bad fashion choices...

I try and pick the best pictures I can find of any actress, no matter how badly dressed, and as you can imagine, there were hundreds to choose from of Emma in both locations - I didn't notice her bad posture actually, but if you do notice something like that, you often can't see anything else afterwards !!

Thu, 14th Jul 2011 (UTC)

bandykullan

I'm split 50/50 on Emma. I love the eyes and sthe skirt, hate the bodice and the hair. And I don't understand why SJP wore that jacket to the dress, would have much preferred it without.

Overall the dresses looked a bit more boring than what was on show in London, so I'll say that my favorite was actually Rupert.

Thu, 14th Jul 2011 (UTC)

wendylady2

Bandykullen,
I must admit, I didn't notice the overly long length of SJP's jacket until Cionaudha mentioned it above...now I see that it is much too long for the dress - it would have been ten times better if it had been cropped up to upper-hip level - about three inches below the waist. As it is, it looks like she has borrowed one of her husbands suit jackets...

Sun, 17th Jul 2011 (UTC)

kimmykinz

I think I actually really loved Emma's dress - I think mostly because I am in love with the color and know I could never wear it because it would look ghastly on me, and also I happen to be partial to the corset bodice and medieval skirt look :P And I certainly agree with you about her eye makeup; it's absolutely breathtaking! How wonderful!

As for the guys, they all looked good, but I agree with you about Tom needing a tie with his suit, and I just didn't like Dan's outfit here as much as I did the one that he wore in London. He could wear a potato sack and still look so handsome, but I do like the dapper look better :)

Tue, 19th Jul 2011 (UTC)

wendylady2

Alacrity,
Emma's dress certainly divided opinion everywhere in fashionista-land, I must say...I kind of like it but I hate it at the same time - how confusing !! She provoked comment and got people talking though, and that's important...

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