We stopped caring about Lindsay Lohan’s career (professional criminal now, isn’t she?) and criminal activities at around about the same time she started spending more time in court than most lawyers do. Since then, we’ve left it up to the REAL police to deal with LiLo, and they’re welcome to her.
We would, however, just like to note that we thought she did a fairly respectable job of dressing herself for her most recent court appearance. We’re not sure Chanel (handbag) or Giuseppe Zanotti (shoes) would agree with that – it must be the kiss of death to have LiLo spotted in your clothes these days – but this is a thousand times better than the strange “black blush” episode of last week, so credit where credit’s due. The real police may be preparing to welcome her back into their cells, where we’re sure she’s starting to feel right at home, but we’d give Lindsay a Get of Jail Free card for the outfit, at least.
Last night, celebrities wore clothes to the 2011 Avon Foundation Awards Gala. It’s your job to judge the clothes they wore. Well, SOMEONE has to keep them on the straight and narrow, it may as well be you. Now, get to it!
Oh, dear. It seems that First Lady Michelle Obama, always elegant, is coming in for some criticism for appearing at the White House Halloween party this Saturday wearing a £40 ASOS dress, which just-so-happens to bear a striking similarity to a $498 dress by Diane Von Furstenberg. And this is bad, of course, because, well, copying people’s designs is bad, and not something that should be supported, least of all by someone as influential as the First Lady. Or so the argument goes, anyway.
BUT.
It’s complicated, this one. We kind of feel like Michelle can’t really win here. If she’d bought the DVF dress, that would’ve been wrong in the eyes of many, because spending $498 on ONE DRESS, especially in the current financial climate, isn’t exactly a great example for the first lady to be setting either, is it?
Then there’s the issue of the dress itself. While the ASOS dress has very obviously been inspired by the designer one, it’s not an exact copy, and it’s not claiming to be DVF: in other words, ASOS are doing what the high street has always done – taking inspiration from designers, and producing their own, much cheaper, versions of the runway styles. This kind of thing goes on all the time: it’s how the fashion world has always worked, and, given the sheer amount of clothing available these days, unless you’re a dedicated runway-watcher, and really know your Prada from your Primark, it can be pretty hard to know whether that dress you love is an original design or simply a COPY of an original design. It can also be hard to care, sometimes, too. We know that’s probably a controversial thing to say, but let’s face it: if you love fashion, but you can’t afford to drop $500 on a dress, you’re probably going to be fairly happy to find something similar for a fraction of the price, no?
Would Michelle Obama even have realised this dress was a “copy”? Possibly, possibly not. Taking into account her known love of bargain-hunting, we think it’s more likely that she saw it, liked it, and wore it, than that she saw the DVF dress and set out to find a copy. We also think that if someone were to go through our own closets, they’d probably be able to find items we’d bought without even realising they were “copies” of something else.
What do you think? Is Michelle Obama committing a crime of fashion here by wearing a dress that’s a reasonably close copy of a designer piece, or is she just doing what most of the rest of us do, by choosing the budget version of a particular style? Does the fact that she would presumably be able to afford the DVF dress (unlike those of us who buy “designer inspired” pieces because we can’t afford the originals) make a difference here, or is that outweighed by her responsibility to be seen to be fiscally responsible?
We’re already three days into November, but before we get on with hunting down new fashion criminals and wanted items, we thought we’d take a quick look back at the items of clothing which filled our jail in October.
Last winter, River Island released a selection of knitted hats with animal ears, and everyone went gaga for them. Yes, even you, our trusted fashion force. Suddenly the streets were full of people walking around wearing the type of headgear previously reserved for toddlers only, and talking about how “fun!” and “quirky!” they were being. The word “quirky” was used a lot that winter: those were dark days, indeed… (Question: is it still “quirky” if everyone’s doing it, or is it only quirky when it’s unique?)
Now, it’s happening again. Buoyed by last year’s success (seriously, people were still wearing those hats during the summer), River Island have just released Animal Hats 2.0, and here they are:
This year’s hats offer a level of realism which was missing from the knitted version, and come in a faux fur, designed to look like you’ve actually just scalped the poor animal and are wearing it as a trophy. We know you’ll all love these, so feel free to gush over them in the comments box: just know that you will never tempt us over to the dark side of the Dress Like a Toddler Trend…
We’re officially ready for Halloween to be over now. What do you mean, Halloween IS over? It can’t be! Not when people are still buying $2,020 witch sweaters from Net-a-Porter, anyway. Or even £28 “scary skeleton” sweaters from Topshop:
These two items only appeared on their respective retailers’ websites after Halloween had been and gone, so either the spooky season is being dragged out for longer than usual this year, or witches, skeletons, and other such ghouls are suddenly the very height of fashion. We’re really not sure which is worse: Halloween lasting until Christmas, or people spending $2,000 on a holiday sweater.
You tell us, then: is it a crime of fashion to keep on wearing Halloween-themed clothing after Halloween, or are witches and skeletons, like, so chic, all year round?
We’d just like to take a moment to virtually high-five Dorothy Perkins for their excellent work recently. We’ve been loving a lot of their clothes – a LOT of their clothes – but we’re particularly keen on the vaguely 60s-influenced, Mad Men style dresses they’ve been releasing over the past few weeks. And sure, everyone’s been doing 60s style, and everyone AND their dog has been jumping on the Mad Men train, but the fact that Dotty Ps dresses typically retail for around the £40 mark, and won’t make you look like you’re in costume (or not unless you go the whole hog with the 60s-style hair and makeup, too. We won’t judge you. Much.), we’ve been particularly appreciating it.
Here are some of our current favourites: they’re not ALL Mad Men themed, but they ARE all gorgeous…
