Recently in Celebrity Dresses Category

PROS:

*The compliment watch: How can I get one? "Your teeth shine like diamonds!" What a good compliment.

*Blair's unnecessarily diabolical strategy to get Chuck to kiss that guy, and his disproportionately casual response to it.

*Vanessa's sort of ugly-awesome, Stevie Nicks-reminiscent "fancy dress." 

*"Where did you learn to give a pep talk? Guantanamo?"

CONS: 

*Vanessa's straight hair. Girl should stop with that nonsense. 

*What is up with what appears to be a writer's room joke about these Welcome Back Kotter mugs? It is getting to be as bad as the whole "Rufus is so cute with his waffles" thing.  

*Serena's outfit to the campaign office. Don't get me wrong -- the dress was awesome. But... like, is that her casual-wear? 

Next week, it looks like we're in for Halloween and sex tape drama. So far, I'm intrigued. Stay tuned.

Maybe one day men around the world will get sick of the "super-hot siren sex-bomb" look that Megan Fox has so artfully mastered but... I doubt it.


Kristen Bell is, as usual, appropriately dressed for the occasion: flirty, adorable, and dressed in metallic zebra-prints

Of course, not everyone was so successful...
Isabel Lucas, I am sure you are a very nice girl and potentially talented actress. But the tanning MUST STOP.

In preparation for the release of the new Wes Anderson movie, Fantastic Mr. Fox, which comes out this November, I thought it would be nice to reflect on The Royal Tenenbaums, one of the most aesthetically awesome movies in the history of film. (Oh I said it!) Also,  maybe my favorite movie of all time. It is about a family of low-functioning geniuses-- the Tenenbaums -- living in a gutted-out, broken-down, and highly romanticized alternate-universe version of Brooklyn. Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) is a once-brilliant playwright who peaked at age twelve and has been smoking herself through depression ever since. Chas is a hyper-neurotic fatalist in a red track suit. Richie, a fallen tennis champion, is in love with his  sister Margot (although she is, as is frequently pointed out, adopted) and has been sailing the world on an ocean liner in a futile attempt to get over her.



Now, this movie has several, um, very important lessons buried within its subtext. Such as: the importance of a good soundtrack, and the power of a thick layer of eyeliner. But one thing I distinctly remember my high school self taking away from it at the time was: the benefit of having a uniform. These characters wear basically, if not actually, the same thing every day. But because of that, every single element of their outfit says something about them. Margot Tenenbaum's Lacoste minidress-and-fur coat combo is almost as instantly recognizable as Lady Gaga's bubble outfit, and anyone in a red track suit would be immediately taken for Chas (or his progeny) on any given Halloween. And what I realized, too, when shamelessly mimicking this technique, was that having a "look" makes life (not to mention shopping)...way easier. So check out the movie, buy some tennis clothes, and put a dreamy record on the record player -- until next week.