2015 GOLDEN GLOBE FASHIONS

SPOT THE COMIC BOOK INFLUENCES

AMBER LOVE 12-JAN-2015 I rarely watch awards shows, but yesterday I wanted to enjoy Twitter and was sick of the 24-hours of football talk. I saw that Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were hosting the Golden Globes last night and decided to get with the live tweeting. What I saw was an improvement in red carpet fashion that finally seems to be over a hurdle of unglamorous awkward styles. The stylists finally pulled their heads out of their asses and returned to classy days of Hollywood.

Fey’s red carpet gown was awful – like she was stuck in a chiffon jellyfish. But she toppled the Twitter feeds when she took the stage in a tux. So many lesbian exploding tweets! Batwoman would be so proud.

FAIRY TALES

My favorite gown of the night was Anna Kendrick. She was there for INTO THE WOODS, a fairy tale musical. I honestly don’t know who she even is but when I saw her on the red carpet, my jaw dropped. Her gown plays into the magical and fantastical themes of fairy tales. It’s wispy with a glorious gossamer skirt that practically floated. The little magenta details against the pale pink looked like a flock of butterflies taking off. The only change I would have made was her hair. To continue with a woodland fairy theme, I think her hair would have looked great down in long wavy tendrils.

This same nature-to-gown effect was seen in Lupita Nyong’o’s gorgeous purple and white gown by Giambattista Valli, clearly her favorite designer and it works perfectly for her.

PATRIOTS

A lot of red, white, and blue – thankfully not in the same dress usually, but Sophie Hunter attempted it. I’m not sure whether this was American or French patriotism showing through. I’m inclined to believe some of the stars had narrowed down their outfits to a top three and made last minute decisions with their color choices to further emphasize their “je suis Charlie” statements. The “je suis Charlie” influence appeared in the form of signs held up, small Charlie buttons on purses, pens held up and pen shaped jewelry accessories. The pen was the new AIDS ribbon of the red carpet.

When I see so much red, white, and blue, I also think about comic book costumes. Where would we be without the symbolism of Wonder Woman’s bloomers and Captain America’s striped torso? There was a presence at the Golden Globes that these celebrities, who often depict godlike characters, were showing their formal selves as demigods would. There were a couple of gowns in yellow (depending on the lighting they looked either bright canary or pale – pictures really make the difference with yellow).

Metallics were big and they looked great, but some were just “too much” like Juliana Moore though, her starts out overpowering with the disco ball look and darkened to black feathers so that helped it. My favorite of the metallics was Diane Kruger. Head to toe, she looked incredible. The shiny wasn’t overpowering. She even had sparkly diamonds all over her wrists and it still wasn’t overdone with glitter effects.

Amal Alamuddin was one of the few in all black, sophisticated and elegant – sad to say, boring. She looked like she was going to the opera. Don’t get me wrong, she was 100% gorgeous but not festive and this was an awards show. And I have no idea what her preference is, but every reporter referred to her as Amal Clooney which irritated the hell out of me. I’m not sure if she’s using the Clooney name.

CAPES

I guess there weren’t enough capes, drapes, and trains to call it a trend, but there were several and they actually worked. Jennifer Lopez, always a fashion maven, pulled the caped crusader look off the best. If a Flash Gordon sorceress were modernized and giving interviews, she’d be J.Lo. Props to her for also securing herself in place with a clear plastic strap holding the cup area together (a cosplay trick I’ve seen a lot of women as Star Sapphire and the Goblin Queen use).

THE MEN!

Of course, when it comes to formalwear, I’m vocal about the bourgeois white wedding gown. It’s been time to let go of white weddings for decades. There are some cracks in the surface as far as that goes. So finally, when it comes to men’s tuxedos, there are more and more breaking from “CIA Black,” as I call it. The men were there to celebrate, be honored and give honors, and finally acknowledge through their wardrobes that they are in the ARTS not attending a funeral.

Mostly, the men kept the palettes dark. A few ventured into dangerous territory with metallics which the women pulled off flawlessly. Some of the metallics on men didn’t work out but others maintained Hollywood glitz without looking like a Vegas lounge singer. However, none of us know WTF Prince was wearing and judging by his cane-carrying blind act, maybe he didn’t know what he was wearing either.

Of course some bloggers and tweeters disagree with colorful tuxes and called Adrian Grenier’s purple duds “Vegas style Joker,” but I think, if the tailoring is done well, the colors on men should be welcomed. Matthew McConaughey also went with a deep purple; the supernaturally gorgeous Matt Bomer stood out in blue. Matt Lauer and Robert Downey, Jr. also swayed to the oceanic dark navy end of the spectrum. Maybe Iron Man wouldn’t have worn blue but Superman and Captain America certainly would. It would have been interesting if one of the Hulks present, either Edward Norton or Mark Ruffalo, had dared to wear purple but no such luck, although Norton’s neck tie did appear to be indigo against a white shirt in a classic black tux and Ruffalo also went with navy.

But then you have the people that stand on the sides of the fashion boat and rock it until they are the only ones left standing. Alan Cumming and Jared Leto, bless their hearts, let their freak flags fly and managed to pull off their unique looks. There’s probably a Twitter account for Leto’s braid.

Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.