BAFTA Style.

The British Academy Awards more often than not offer a more idiosyncratic vision in the red carpet than anything we ever see at the Oscars.
Europeans, and Americans in Europe, tend to be bolder even if that often means dressing like that they don't give a damn.
The BAFTAs usually offer a monochromatic palette (find me a BAFTA winner that isn't Tilda Swinton in something other than black, white or blue and I'll be surprised).
Last night wasn't that different but among the understated were some outstanding looks.


Saoirse Ronan has become a woman and she was "head to toes" in Burberry.
The playfulness of the white fluffy mini served to cover the subversive punk-ness of her leather bracelets and dark nails. Talk about versatility she was dressed for cocktails and a rock concert.


Vera Farmiga had never looked as lovely as she did in an overflowing white Marchesa gown with asymmetrical cuts and black sash.
Watching her walk the red carpet had a heavenly feel to it.


Stella McCartney gave Kate Winslet the excitement she had been lacking in previous red carpets. Not only did she look amazingly thin but that leg and those see through sides were mouth watering.


The insulting Audrey Tautou was gorgeous in Lanvin. She gave the event an unexpected splash of color and proved she's not the pale faced girl she plays in "Coco Before Chanel".
The candy colored heels and lips were sweet indeed.


Before yesterday I'd never heard the name Vionett, yes bad bad fashionista I know.
But after watching Carey Mulligan wear what I'm almost ready to call the best dress of this awards season (unless Oscar gives us something spectacular she has this in the bag) by the very exclusive French house, all I want to do now is spend the day submerging into the rich history of Madeleine Vionett's house.
This dress reminds me slightly of what Meryl Streep wore to the SAGs, but unlike the legend who was literally drowned by the flowered pattern, Mulligan owns it by seeming to spring from the black and white flowers in waifish glory.
Notice how she pulls off asymmetrical cuts, flowered patterns, a bold new hairdo and a short/long leg at the same time!
She's a style miracle.


I think that Kristin Scott Thomas was a bit too Cruella de Vil in this Louis Vuitton creation that seemed to be made from a buffalo she'd killed with her bare hands.

However once she took away the top she was all kinds of lovely and so elegant even if it looked she was carrying a dead fox to the show.

The British Are Awarding!

If you thought only American E! presenters made asses of themselves in front of celebrities, you will be happy, or not, to learn that the Brits are just as ridiculous.
Interviewing nominees and presenters attending the BAFTAs they have been on a roll of insane questions, dumb remarks and royal madness (they're gaga over Prince William).


Presenter "How was it to play gay? It was your first time".
Colin Firth "No it wasn't" he proceeds to say all the gay characters he's played, including "Mamma Mia" which even I'd forgotten about, " [Playing gay] is fairly routine for me now".
Presenter "How was it to take your kit off after more than twenty years?"
Colin changes subject.
Presenter "Does your wife prefer you do love scenes with women or men?"



The radiant Kate Winslet in Stella McCartney was utterly refreshing even when the guy asked her if she was jealous of "Avatar"'s success hahaha.
She charmingly replied that she was thrilled she wouldn't have to answer questions about being in "the highest grossing film of all time" anymore.


"You're obviously pregnant, right?"
- Presenter to an obviously pregnant Anne Marie Duff


"You were only in the movie for like ten minutes."
- Presenter baffled about Guy Pearce's appearance.


Instead of asking debut director Tom Ford about his film the presenter chose to ask him how he felt releasing Colin Firth's feminine side...
Ford reminds her gay ain't feminine.
She blushes and asks him if he 's wearing himself.
In most dapper style he replies "I only wear myself."


The funniest thing I saw so far though was the fuss over Audrey Tautou.
When she was first spotted the female presenters gushed about how pretty she looked and how she obviously was wearing Chanel because "it would be insulting if she wasn't".
Audrey insulted them minutes later when she answered she was indeed wearing Lanvin.
They proceeded to call her fashion choice the "shocker of the night".

Coco Before Chanel **1/2

Director: Anne Fontaine
Cast: Audrey Tautou, Benoît Poelvoorde, Alessandro Nivola
Marie Gillain, Emmanuelle Devos

"Coco is extravagant" says Gabrielle Chanel (Tautou) when someone suggests she should start using that name instead of her own.
This reaction and defense towards simplicity might have described the career of the woman who changed the course of fashion in the twentieth century.
The house of Chanel became known for its sleek, simple luxury and even pieces from the latest collections include the essence of what Coco intended when she started designing hats.
Anne Fontaine's biopic, like most movies of its kind, relies heavily on the audience's conception of the famous person in question.
This also gives the actors playing them the liberty to interpret them as they wish before the time when they became famous.
In such a manner Tautou makes out of Coco a fierce, strong woman who had no problem saying the first thing that came to her mind while smoking a cigarette.
Long before she became the pearl and tweed clad goddess of fashion/Nazi criminal, Tautou creates her as a businesswoman.
During her youth we see her singing in cabarets, but actually just looking for a man to look after her. She strikes gold with the millionaire Étienne Balsan (Poelvoorde) who becomes her protector. It's in her stay in his manor where she also meets Englishman Arthur "Boy" Capel (Nivola) who became the love of her life.
And so the movie consists of scenes where Coco delivers potent one liners, wears men's clothes and eventually realizes she might just have a knack for fashion.
Fontaine remains absolutely reverential and reveals little about Chanel making the movie a rather lazy enterprise that relies essentially on the title cards that appear before the end credits.
Those who have no idea what Chanel accomplished will leave the theater feeling cheated and those knowledgeable of her career will just feel teased.
Tautou does her best to make this woman engaging, but her performance remains on a very superficial level and plays her like the rags-to-riches, by way of social climibing, heroines we've seen a million times before, as if she has forgotten she's playing the woman who once said that "in order to be irreplaceable one must always be different."