Mr. Blackwell Is Simply Appalled
When news came a few weeks ago that fashion arbiter Mr. Blackwell had been diagnosed with Bell’s palsy, many feared that the painful facial palsy, caused by damage to a cranial nerve, would mean the 75-year-old style watcher would have to forgo his annual worst-dressed list.
But Blackwell, who continues to be in and out of the hospital, did not disappoint. He announced his 41st annual picks Tuesday--not at the media breakfast he usually holds at his Hancock Park home, but by fax and e-mail.
Most of his 10 subjects were predictable, but his signature rhymes were colorful, as always. In his only telephone interview of the day, Blackwell said too much body-baring was last year’s biggest fashion faux pas. “It’s a bad influence on the younger generation of America.”
He fricasseed pop divas Bjork, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Courtney Love and Mariah Carey, whose “X-rated baby-doll disasters” he called “laughably low-rent.” “Who’s her designer? Larry Flynt?”
Morticia look-alike Angelina Jolie Blackwell dubbed “fashion interrupted,” and for barely dressed bomb Elizabeth Hurley, he advised, “Buy a coat!”
He skewered Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris. “The pretty, brassy lassie from Tallahassee needs cosmetic direction. Her paint-by-numbers makeup screams out for discretion!”
Surprisingly, he singled out Dr. Laura Schlessinger, harangued more often for her words than her wardrobe, as a “turtlenecked terror.”
And Madonna, considered an international trendsetter by many, is no fashion plate in Blackwell’s book. “From ghetto glam to rhinestone cowgirl to Mrs. Guy Ritchie. Any way you label it, she’s still just kitschy, kitschy, kitschy!”
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When I told my fiance I was covering the American Music Awards after-party hosted by Teen People magazine, he joked, “What are they going to serve, punch and cookies?”
Of course, the Monday night bash at Las Palmas in Hollywood was hardly that innocent. Bubble-gum pop princess Jessica Simpson, 20, looked every inch the siren in a red leather duster coat, matching red leather tube top and pants, custom-made by Richard Tyler.
“I was so nervous, I thought I was going to throw up,” Simpson said of her turn performing at the award show. “I didn’t look at anyone, I just closed my eyes and felt my song.”
Houston R&B; group Destiny’s Child hobbled up the red carpet to the door of the club in slender gowns with fishtail trains. The psychedelic creations looked Pucci-esque, but were actually designed by group member Beyonce Knowles’ mother, Tina Knowles.
Erica and Tina Atkins, a.k.a. L.A.-based gospel duo Mary Mary, lit up the room in matching orange pantsuits they bought downtown in the garment district. “It’s a better place to shop than the mall because stuff you see down there you don’t see on everyone else,” Tina said.
The new Southern California girl group Dream, managed by Sean “Puffy” Combs’ Bad Boy Records, donned studded jeans from Fred Segal and vintage-looking rocker T-shirts emblazoned with the names of bands the Ramones, T. Rex and the New York Dolls.
“We’ve heard of the bands; we don’t really know them” one of the fair-haired 15-year-old songstresses chirped. “But we love the shirts.”
