Blackwell's 46th Annual Worst Dressed Women List

Blackwell's annual Worst Dressed List is out! Hmm, I must say I don't completely agree with it. Going through the list......

1. Britney Spears

To the public, 2005 was a seriously fashion-disaster year for Britney. Her clothes seem to get uglier and more tasteless each month. In her defense though, the poor girl married the so-not-cool Kevin F., put a halt on her career and had a baby, so she probably had other more important things to think of. Let's hope she gets her act together this year! (And let's be honest, she was never the best-dressed girl anyways.)

2. Mary Kate Olsen So I'm obviously going to defend her. She's 19 and I think the clothes she wears suit her perfectly. And she obviously cares more about personal style than what trends dictate because Balenciagas were the 'it' bags two turns ago and she's still carrying them, and we all know it's not because she can't afford any of the new 'it' bags. She's one star who won't dress the way fashion magazines dictate just to get be a 'trendsetter', (and this makes her a trendsetter herself.)

3. Jessica Simpson I repeat, Eww! I'm sure all her male fans disagree but she needs to stop dressing so slutty, and as Blackwell says, sack her current stylist!

4. Eva Longoria

I'm a bit puzzled by this. You usually only see Eva photos when she's at some kind of big event or party. She's not photographed by the paps that often so I don't understand the basis for declaring her one of the Worst-dressed. From the photos I've seen, she looks pretty fantastic so...ya.

5. Mariah Carey

Obviously a year with Vogue's Andre Leon Talley didn't help much with her sense of style. Here's a little tip: Cover up more skin.

6. Paris Hilton

Umm, I'm a bit biased since I really don't like the LA style and we all know Paris is all about the LA style. One thing worth mentioning though, I think Paris's formal dress style has improved considerably last year. Let's hope for improvements with her casual wear this year.

7. Anne Nicole Smith
She should be fighting with Mariah Carey for the Worst-Dressed Number 1 spot. Yuck yuck and yuck!

8. Shakira
Honestly, who cares how she dresses.

9. Lindsay Lohan

I'm not a Lindsay fan or anything, but I think her outfits last year were well put together. She and her stylist are great at mixing high end fashion with street fashion. Let's face it, we're all so jealous she can afford to change her outfits three times a day and still not run out of 'looks'. And hooray to Lindsay for dressing less slutty and waaay more trendy last year than her previous years. And thank goodness she got rid of the blonde hair.

10. Renee Zellweger
Is it just me or does Renee look weird in most of the dresses she wears? The dresses she chooses are usually pretty stylish but just doesn't seem to look completely fabulous on her. Weird.

SS06 Fashion Don't: Distress Jeans

In class today during an especially dry bit of the lecture, my eyes wandered around in an attempt to stay awake and landed on these ripped cropped jeans that this girl was wearing. And I thought, ugh. Not only is it ugly but its cold! I'm so glad that we're in the seasons of being ladylike and put together with the whole distressed jeans thing out the window. It is just one of the things about fashion that drives me NUTS!

Here is an especially good example of why I don't like it. What were the good people of True Religion thinking? This is just . . . *shudder*

Just a few more examples of ripped/distressed jeans that distresses me. This one by Dolce & Gabanna.

And this one by Elie Tahari. This one doesn't even look flattering on the model. Its like they're trying to be chic and sophisticated with the pointed heels and all, but the oh-so-carefully placed distress just completely ruins it.

And I use the word distressed here to include this monstrousity from Just Cavalli. And to match it with that top! Can we say tacky??

The China Market

1/3 of the world population is Chinese. A Chinese company took over (part of) IBM and *gasp* Tommy Hilfiger as well (which is ironic seeing as he had discriminated against them some years back...)! It does seem like they're taking over the world doesn't it? LOL. Anyway, thats how the trend has been going for some time now. And thats how companies like LVMH and Prada has had such record high profits. As a results, there's been renovations and flagship stores opening all over the place. Now it seems that they're all taking it up a notch higher, and is catering specifically to the noveau rich Chinese out there.

As we all know, the Chinese loves to play mahjong. And they also love the monogrammed brands. Putting their two love together and viola-the brand named mahjong sets! Marketing genius. Here's the Gucci set. I've also seen the Vuitton set at the store. Isn't it cool that the Chinese culture is finally being taken into account by international giants of the fashion world?

But Prada, just so they don't miss out on the profit since they don't have a monogram, have taken to enlarging their name and emblazoning it oh-so-prominently onto their bags to compensate. At least thats what I think. I cannot find any other reason for a design that is so lacking in design. This design has been going on for a while now, when will it stop? Part of me takes pride by the fact that the Chinese are getting so influential that it can influence the design of Prada. But fashionably speaking, that is just not cool.