SCREEN ACTOR'S GUILD AWARDS 2012



THE WORST DRESSED...

Now to get down to the nitty-gritty - who should have done much better with their red carpet choices than they did ? Who should really have employed a good stylist ? Who shouldn't have bothered setting out to this event without looking in the mirror first ?






THEY REALLY SHOULD HAVE DONE BETTER !!
These are all the dresses which could have been so much better if the designers had just tweaked the design a little, or the stars wearing them had chosen better accessories or a better hairstyle maybe...they are the ones who narrowly missed being in my Best Dressed list.

AHNA O'REILLY
Ahna chose this beautiful red figure-hugging column dress - and yes, she's another redhead wearing bright red successfully - but I really didn't much like the back view of this dress at all....

 

Backless dresses work so much better when the side edge of the bodice can be seen from the back, coming down into a point in the centre or coming into a deep curve - this straight across line at the waist looks like someone has taken a pair of scissors to the bodice and unpicked it from the waist seam...it just looks weird !!
How much better would this dress have looked if it had a beautiful low draped cowl at the back, or went down into a deep V around her waist-level ?
In every other respect, she looks lovely...

AMBER RILEY
I liked Amber's dress, I really did - I even chose it for red carpet stardom when it appeared in peach on the Badgley Mischka runway - however, I just don't like it on her...

 

It doesn't look terrible actually, which is why she isn't in my Worst Dressed list, and everything else is lovely - however, the fact remains that  if you happen to be in possession of a generously proportioned bosom, then perhaps a giant bow across your chest isn't the best choice !!

 

JENNA USHKOWITZ
Jenna's dress was designed by Rebecca Minkoff, from her Spring 2012 Collection, and is rather pretty actually - the fabric has a really interesting texture in a multi-pastel-coloured design which from a distance looks like a tiny floral print,  

 

The thing that put me off this dress big-time is the cut-outs at the sides - from the front they look fine actually, however my main gripe with this kind of dress isn't the front - it's what happens round the back...

 

This looks like a large-scale bikini fastening at the back - not a pretty design at all, and the huge expanse of bare skin between top and skirt just looks a teensy bit tarty...I've said this before about this kind of shape, but in fairness, I also have to point out that some are better than others, and this is one of the better ones, which is why she didn't end up on my Worst Dressed list.
I also loved her gorgeous little box clutch, which is very worthy of a mention - isn't it beautiful ?!!

JESSICA CHASTAIN
Jessica has been doing great at the red carpet events so far, but this dress was a little disappointing really - the colour is fabulous for her of course, with her red hair and blue eyes, and I love her sapphire-blue earrings too, but the dress itself is a bit basic in its shape, and I hate the bra-cups style bodice...

 

The dress is also, unfortunately ruckling a teensy bit just around her waist, which indicates that it's either too tight or too long and is riding up...

KRISTEN WIIG
Kristen Wiig's dress was designed by Nicolas Ghesquière at Balenciaga, and is essentially a lovely shape indeed - slinky and elegant, it has a gathered halter-neck and a bloused-over bodice at the front...

 

However, either Kristen is a tad too tall for it, or it wasn't bloused enough, but the front bodice looks like it should be fuller than it is...basically, we shouldn't see anything of the waist seam on a dress like this.
Also, her choker really isn't the best choice for this neckline - it's very deep and very black, and for a cream halter-neck dress like this, maybe she should have stuck to just dangly earrings instead !!

LEA MICHELE
Lea Michele wore a Versace dress designed by Donnatella, of course, which is fine, but did she have to ham it up so much on the red carpet - the dress was split up to there, and we certainly weren't allowed to not notice that fact !! She strode around, kicking her leg out through the split and made sure that every press photographer there got a good view of - well, everything !!

 

The dress itself is lovely, but from an older collection I think, as Donnatella doesn't do quite so many of these split-to-the-thigh designs as she once did - this dress looks like it could have been from around 2008/9 perhaps, but I can't find it on any of the runway shows - similar ones aplenty, but not this exact dress.
Here she is strutting her stuff, and holding back the edge of the skirt, which is not the thing to do when posing on the red carpet !! Dresses with this high a split actually look a tad dated now - most evening dresses tend to be a bit more demure nowadays...'tis the sign of a recession, I've been told !!
The other thing is - when will she finally wear shoes that fit properly ? They always seem to be at least one size too big !! These ones are nice though...



MERYL STREEP
Let's just say Meryl doesn't always get to be in my Best Dressed list - she actually usually ends up in my Worst Dressed list so the fact that she has graduated to the 'Could Do Better' list is certainly an improvement...

 

I rather like this Vivienne Westwood design to tell you the truth - the dress itself is rather plain, but then there is this huge length of grey tulle swathed over the top and cinched in with a huge brown leather belt - and that's the sticking point for me - that belt should have been gunmetal or platinum leather and perhaps not quite so utterly chunky and masculine...the grey tulle softens the whole look of the dress anyway, even though its managed to get rather ruckled on the way there - creases notwithstanding, the belt rather undoes all the good work that the tulle has done !! I haven't seen the back of this dress because I can't find any back view photos - does that tulle just go round the back of her neck, or is there more of it heading down her back as well ?

SOFIA VERGARA
I suspect that a lot of you expected me to really like this magenta satin dress that Sofia chose - well, this was designed by the girls at Marchesa especially for Sofia, but I have to say that, visually, the cantilevered bosom of this dress outweighs everything else...

 

I mean, the shape from the side looks most bizarre...I'd have preferred this dress to have two points at the front which match, rather than this asymmetric shape which seems to be everything and nothing - what I mean is that it's neither one thing nor the other, neither wholly even nor wholly and definitely uneven, if you know what I mean...a sort of in between shape which just looks badly made. The fact that it juts out at the front like a shelf is simply madness !!
Also, if you are wearing a custom-designed Marchesa gown in such a brilliant colour, then shouldn't you do something a bit more adventurous with your hair maybe ?



TILDA SWINTON
I can't help being a tad disappointed with Tilda's custom-made Lanvin dress after her amazing outfit from Haider Ackerman she wore to the Golden Globes a couple of weeks ago - but I am very glad to see that she is still embracing the red lipstick for the red carpet !!

 
I think that essentially, what's wrong with this dress is that it needs something to cover up the elastic at the waist - maybe a belt like the one Meryl should have been wearing...imagine how good this would have looked if she had a wide obi-style tie-belt in fine matt-gold leather - because her bracelet is gold, this would be the best option, I think...

THE WORST DRESSED OF ALL...

ALEKSA PALLADINO
Aleksa is of course, one of the stars of 'Boardwalk Empire' and chose this dress from Tadashi Shoji's Autumn 2011 Collection for her red carpet walk...

 

I liked this dress when I saw it at Tadashi's website, mainly because it was done with a black lining - there were several short versions done with this cream lining in the same collection, which looked better than this, but for the longer version, I think perhaps she should have gone for the all-black version !! The whole shoulder area looks like she can't raise her arms up - very constricting !!
It doesn't suit her figure fantastically well, making her look a bit shapeless actually, and I also think the shoulders should have been lying a little further up as they look a little ruckled where the sleeve meets the bodice. Compare this lace dress with the one that Stacey Kiebler wore in my Best Dressed post, and you will see what I think this dress should have looked like...
Also, she should wear a really good strapless bra with a dress like this - it's no good having your strap falling down at every opportunity !!

AMBER HEARD
Oh my God - what a fantastically awkward looking dress !! All those silly little slits, peepholes and cut-outs really don't do it for me at all - they look fussy and the whole dress looks rather constraining around the shoulders, like Aleksa's dress above...and the shoulder seams themselves seem to be very strangely shaped, as if they were made for someone with much narrower shoulders than Amber !!

 

This was designed by Zac Posen from his Pre-Fall 2012 Collection, although it certainly wasn't one I picked !! Certainly not one of his best, he does have a tendency to come out with a duff dress like this now and again - doesn't mean anyone has to choose it though !!

CICELY TYSON
Oh my - here's Cicely Tyson, looking fabulously eccentric as usual !! She is very good at this - choosing something that looks stiff and awkward like this white dress, and then completing the outfit with something as outdated and possibly as un-PC as possible, as this chinchilla fur stole...

   

Someone should let her know that possibly around 20 chinchillas were killed to make that - but it probably wouldn't make any difference because people who wear fur like this love it for the feel of it, and are convinced that because the chinchillas are raised on a farm, somehow that makes it OK. It's clearly real...
This isn't appropriate for any red carpet really - I'd like to say it isn't appropriate anywhere, full stop, but that's just my own opinion - for a red carpet event though, it's a little weird !!

EMILIA CLARKE
Emilia chose a Chanel dress from the Autumn 2011 RTW Collection, and it wasn't one that I picked out either - the main reason I didn't choose this was because it looks to be a very strange design - what are those raggedy bits of black chiffon peeping out from under the sculpted sleeves for ? Not putting too fine a point on it, this reminds me of someone who hasn't remembered to shave before going into the swimming pool - if you know what I mean !!

 

I actually hate the whole bodice on this rather out-there dress - it looks stiff, uncomfortable and an unflattering shape altogether - the waist looks to be too high and the skirt makes her look fat - blimey, anything else ?
Oh yes - and the sleeves look like they have her in their iron grip, preventing her from moving her arms - come to think of it, that has been a recurring complaint for three dresses so far in this post !!

JANE KRAKOWSKI
This dress is just weird !! I like the shape of the dress itself, but that large opening on the front, combined with the black embroidered  cream fabric underneath, makes it look like the dress has split open across her chest to reveal her undies !! Moreover, it looks like her undies are of a somewhat showgirl nature too...


 
What an utterly strange collection of bad dresses we have in here today...

ROSE BYRNE
Rose took notice of my desire to see more trousers and jumpsuits of a dressy eveningwear nature on the red carpet, but I am pretty sure that I didn't mean like this...

 

This Elie Saab jumpsuit is a really strange texture - it looks just like curly lambswool, is it beading or sequins - I can't tell... this was designed for his Autumn 2009 Couture Coillection, so it cost a pretty penny, but it's actually hideous !! I would have much preferred this to be just a textured top half with plain well-tailored white trousers - now that would have been a winner...

That's it for the SAG Awards for this year !!
Next up will be the two remaining Couture shows - Elie Saab and Valentino of course, and then it's New York Fashion Week starting on 9th February. I will be collecting great red carpet predictions over the course of the week and then I'll be posting the first part when all the shows are done. Right in the middle of New York Fashion Week, it will be the Grammies turn to give out loads of music awards...

Later on, right in the middle of Milan Fashion Week, on the 28th January, it will be the grandest red carpet of all - the 2012 Academy Awards - hurrah for the Oscars !!

What a busy schedule - stay tuned...