Best of the SAG Awards 2013

It is that time of year where it is one red carpet after another! I love it!!!! This time I am going to keep you in suspense of my favorite. The SAG Awards fall between the Golden Globes and the Oscars. Celebrities tend to bring out their fun and sometimes their best dresses to the GGs and then really bring out the WOW for Big O! This tends to lead to a lot of playing it safe at the others. This year at the SAGs there were some terrible choices, but I tend to lean towards those I like. 

Rarely, if ever do I pick three of my favorite looks and they are in black! Yet, here I do! Tina Fey in Oscar de la Renta was stunning! I loved the dress, the hair and the accessories. The only reason I did not pick her as best dressed is that her bust line sits a bit low on her! Kellie Osbourne in Jenny Packham is one of her top looks in a hot minute! She looks chic, but still with the "I am the daughter of Ozzy" look. I am still wishing for the purple hair to go away, though. Michelle Dockery was stunning once again, this time in Chado Ralph Rucci. The stylist she has hired of late is doing wonders for her! 

Kiernan Shipka looked so adorable and age apropro in this Oscar de la Renta number! I do not think it could have been more perfect. I love this shade of green on Alfre Woodard; Kevan Hall designs tend to flatter her! Nicole Kidman wore a stunning Vivienne Westwood creation. If she had chosen a different hair style, she would have moved way up in my rankings!

Viola Davis looked beautiful in this Monique Lhuillier gown. I loved the color and the shape looked great on her. Vitalieta Ttinger looked beautiful in this dress. It nears being too close to her skin tone, but the dress stands on its own. The

Monique Lhuillier dress that Teyonah Parris was wearing had a bit much going on, but the color and shape looked phenomenal on her!

Naya Rivera's Donna Karan Atelier gown received mixed reviews. I actually loved it. I like the kinda rough edge of the bodice and it fit her perfectly. Amy Poehler can thank Zuhair Murad for one of her best red carpet moments. She has def hired a new stylist and she should give them a raise! As for the star who took the most risks, the award goes to Julie Bowen in Johanna Johnson. She came in this leather stunner and it actually looks great on her. I rarely like what she wears and I commend her on this look!

So we can not leave out the guys! Of course the uber sexy Justin Timberlake led the pack in this awesome Tom Ford suit. Fit was great, style was great, he IS great! Cory Monteith looked better than his date this time around. This style of tux is not normally my favorite, but if it fits this great, well, it ranks! Eddie Redmayne was very close to being my number one guy in this chocolate velvet  Hugo Boss suit. If the sleeves and pants were just a skosh longer, he would have won!

Now, for my favorite look of the 2013 Sag Awards! Drumroll please.....

Yes, I choose Marion Cotillard in this beautiful Christian Dior Couture gown. It has a simple elegance to it and the shoes, necklace, hair and makeup all work. I could not find a more deserving star on the red carpet. I mentioned that this style of dress would be all over the red carpet after seeing it on the runways and here it is! I am sure there will be many who disagree with this choice, but for me this was the elegance I was looking for.

Until next time!

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Project Runway Season 11 has begun!

Another year, another season. Project Runway Season 11 has begun, folks! They have decided to do the dreaded "teams season" this time around. All this talk of "this is how it is in the real world" kinda wears me out. Of course, designers are not doing it all on their own in the real world. Yet, here, they are not privy to seamstress' and such. So, yeah, I prefer the individual challenges over the team ones. Especially when it comes to judging. This will not be apparent this early on, but will as it progresses.

My intro may have seemed initially like I am down on the season. Actually, it is quite the opposite. I am excited! I feel like there are some pretty solid designers on this season. I will not even pretend like I am not rooting for the southerners again this season. Especially since one of them calls Nashville home! Amanda Valentine is from Nebraska, but now lives in Nashville, Tenn. Her work has been on television and on many musicians and artists. Yours truly had the chance to catch her showing at Nashville Fashion Week. You can read my review at the time. She tends to make fabric choices that are not my taste, but that makes them nonetheless wonderful. I will be cheering her on! Matthew Arthur is from New Orleans and seems to be the sweet guy in the group. He calls his aesthetic "street style with a casual edge".

Now, let's dig into episode one! Let's start with the fact that Michael Kors is no longer on the show. We now have Zac Posen. Okay, okay, I do have a bit of a crush on lil Zac! Adorable! Now that we have that out of the way...

The Top 3 are:

Daniel Esquivel was the winner this week! He made an impressively made suit, especially in the amount of time he was given. There was actually nothing at all wrong with his design (other than I am not a peplum fan), except that it is nothing new. It was on nearly every designer's runway show a few months ago. Richard Hallmarq made a very cool, urban dress this week. I think for a NYC challenge I would have picked this one as my winner. It is effortless (which, as Christian S. pointed out, is not easy) and still has a sophistication to it. Patricia Michaels rounded out the top 3. She, by far, had the most creative look and I liked it. I loved the artistry of the hand-painted fabric and I like the peek-a-boo of cobalt blue. My only issue was with the shape, which is just kinda boring. None of these three looks were wrongly in the top 3! 

 Then the bottom 3:

James Martinez made a very simple not-so-bad outfit. The top was the real issue. If you are making a simple pencil skirt, the top has to WOW people. He fell short! Cindy Marlatt had a nice dress with bad fabric choices. The silhouette was fine and very popular right now, but those fabrics. I mean, that checkered belt thing. YIKES! Then we have this "hot mess" of a thing by Emily Pollard. They kept going on about her "idea" but it came out as nothing but a craft project gone wrong! Needless to say we said good by to Emily this week.

 Our Southern Contestants:

Amanda Valentine is already being portrayed as the "bitchy" one on the show. I chalk that up to editing at this point. She was able to send down a very cute and chic look. The pants are interesting, without being tacky, and the top is simple, yet does the job. Matthew Arthur produced a very cutesy lil number. It was nice, and made well, but was nothing new or exciting.

I am looking forward to the rest of the season.... Stay tuned!




Photos by: Barbara Nitke for Lifetime