Victoria Beckham's Optical Illusion

Call her a style icon or a walking mannequin, love her or loathe her, there’s no denying that Victoria Beckham’s style statements always grab the headlines! Her most recent public outing in Milan was no different, she stepped out for dinner with David on Monday, in this €1,171.36 Alexander McQueen column dress. It’s a strange optical illusion, creating curves from one view, and making her look even thinner from other angles.
If you stare at this dress any longer than 30 seconds you will be hypnotized, the monochrome blurred lines make me feel dizzy.

Well Victoria Beckham must be doing something right, because the dress sold out on www.net-a-porter.com within 24hours of hitting the newsstands. You too can take inspiration from her look and buy monochrome this season...however you may have to take a few shots of absinthe to get the dizzy effect!

VIP Style Awards?!?

At the VIP Style Awards held in Dublin last week, Ireland’s best-loved TV personalities and socialites didn’t fail to impress. This is the one glamorous award ceremony where you can take risks, have fun with your outfits and channel your inner Carrie Bradshaw…and they did just that!

While standing together, the Xpose team looked like they jumped out of a box of Quality Street , but when flying solo they looked great, staying true to their individual styles and being adventurous!

The Xpose host Lorraine Keane was crowned Ireland's most stylish woman! Hmmm, don't know if I agree with that, given some of the awful outfits she wears on the show. However on the night she picked one of the hottest colours for spring and wore a deep purple number by bridal designer Tamen Michael, looking her ever glamorous and groomed self.

Aisling O’Loughlin won best dressed of the night, in this peacock inspired dress. I love the top bustier detail, but the tulle bottom is a little over the top! This dress would have been more show-stopping if it was cut just above the knee and made into a cocktail dress!

Although Karen Koster played it safe in a little black dress, she hit two key trends with popping-red, statement shoes (copies available in Topshop) and a one-shoulder detail on the dress.

Yvonne Keating looked stunning in a powder pink dress, with diamond-embellished belt detail and ruffle detailing on the neck and base of skirt. She and husband Ronan Keating won most stylish couple on the night and we can see why - she kept it classic and age-appropriate but had fun with a summery colour.

My personal winner of the night was Pippa O’Connor in a dazzling blue, empire line, and silk-chiffon gown. It was elegant with a twist, having the one-shoulder strap with embellished corsages on it, and keeping it stylish with smoky eyes, nude lips and a loose chignon bun and minimal silver jewellery.

But the worst dressed award goes to Miriam Ahern…she’s a cross between a flamenco dancer and big bird dyed black! The ruffles…dear god, all the ruffles, this lady needs a crash course on how to dress for your body type…yes black is slimming, but not with layers and layers of RUFFLES and detailing! One good thing she did was to accessorise with red lips and nails and a cute red diamond bangle. (But that’s the only compliment she’s getting).

Oh dear God what was she thinking???

Loveable Paula Abdul from American Idol, has never exactly been top of the style polls! But she at least manages to look half decent on the show (the miracle work of a stylist)... however if you caught any of her reality tv programme, you'd see that unfortunately she likes to dress herself for red-carpet events! Bad move Paula, seriously bad move!

She recently wore a floor-length, flowing, canary yellow gown with jewlled detailing to the Grammys! Sounds stunning right??? Well check out this hot mess! (Photo to right) There's just too many trends in one dress, dwarfing the tiny star. Plus it doesnt help that she has a hairstyle to rival Marge Simpson..adding to the over-the-top look!

It's not the first fashion disaster she's had either, Paula regularly makes the worst dressed lists! Dressing too young for her age in cleavage pushing mini-dresses, or trying to be stylish and ending up frumpy, in over-detailed garments!

Hint to Paula...maybe stick with the American Idol stylist and while you may not become a style icon overnight...you can at least steer clear of articles like this about you.

Oscars red-carpet happy ending?

There was a fairytale feeling sweeping Tinsletown on Sunday, as all of Hollywoods’ leading ladies lived out the Cinderella dream through their dresses!

Big, bold and beautiful seemed to be the recurring theme for the night, with most actresses being a little more daring with their choice of attire! Sarah Jessica Parker drew inspiration from her tutu in the opening credits of Sex and the City and donned a ‘barely mint’, Dior Couture gown with a huge tulle meringue skirt.

Penelope Cruz dazzled in a white Vintage Pierre Balmain dress with brocade detailing and sheer touches while Jennifer Aniston showed the world just how she bagged her toyboy prince John Mayer, in a figure-hugging, strapless, white Valentino gown.

The two Disney starlets who surely should have the princess look down to a tee got it all wrong on the night. Vanessa Hudgens wore a black Marchesa dress with a fishtail, aging her by at least 30years and making me wonder if she’s auditioning for a new role as Mortisha Adams.

Miley Cyrus (right) also dared to be different in a stunning Zuhair Murad dress with scalloped layers. On anyone else this dress could have worked perfectly, but on a sixteen year old pop singer just screamed "I borrowed this from my mum’s wardrobe".

Freida Pinto may play a rags to riches orphan in Slumdog Millionaire, but she looked nothing less than regal in a royal blue, Galliano, one-sleeved dress with intricate embellishments!

On-screen queen in Starwars and off-screen, queen of the red carpet, Natalie Portman (below) wins my vote for best dressed of the night! She shone in a stunning, lilac-pink, Rodarte, strapless gown with Swarovski detailing and was certainly the belle of the ball!

So Hollywood proves, that when it comes to fashion, there can always be… a happily ever after! Pity the Disney Girls got it SOOOOOO WRONG!!

Brit Awards - Style Slaughter

Music's elite hit the red carpet for the 2009 Brit Awards last night and despite the bitter cold,most stars opted for sweet and short numbers. Girls Aloud collectively get my vote for best dressed of the night, complimenting eachother in various nude and creamy white palettes, and various lengths and styles, showing the girls individuality! But of course amongst the stylish stars there were a few major disasters...

We expect nothing less than kooky from Miss Katy Perry, however casting aside her trademark 40s inspired, quirky outfits she turned up in this bizarre 'hello kitty', adorned corset with a guitar strap holding it up, teamed with last seasons spray on leggings! This new punk-rock look is not hot, bring back the old Katy please!

Estelle is known for her experimental taste...often sliding between best and worst dressed lists! This is definately one for the worst-dressed. It looks like she just walked off the set of Dynasty; with the over-sized puff shoulders and bow-embellishment!

Say NO to Neon...

Since when was neon considered a good look???

If you were born in the eighties..and went through the phase of crimped hair and neon leggings...lets put it down to experience !!!(lord i know there are some dodgy pictures out there of me in my tweens) But at a Lady Gaga concert last week (she's a total legend btw) I was bemused to see half of the audience in bright neon glowing 80's style clothing!!! We weren't supporting an 80's tribute band so what was the cause of this!?

I was shocked and appauled then when I went and "interviewed" some of these girls, this was their regular saturday night attire! And they don't stop with the tights and legwarmers, they have glow in the dark eyeshadows, green mascara and neon pink lipstick!I want to know who these kids mothers are and why on earth they were allowed to leave the house looking like that!

Let me be clear...under no circumstances does this look good...it stop being a trend in the 80's for a good reason...let's leave it to the fancy dress!

The IFTAs Red Carpet

The IFTAs, otherwise known to me as the Irish Fashion Trauma Awards, had their 6th annual ceremony on Valentine’s night and the crème de la crème of Irish stars turned up in their glad-rags for the evening’s festivities.

It’s about as close as we get to the BAFTAS or Oscars and although Ireland has its fair share of film and television stars, many of them are still miles behind in the style stakes!

The Good…

An array of blush tones in keeping with the romantic mood swept the red carpet;

My favourite of the night was Caroline Morahan in a iced pink, bustier, strapless, tiered number, with a chunky diamond cuff and swept-back simplistic updo and neutral make-up…she managed to look fashionable and youthful, clearly those years on ‘Off the Rails’ have paid off.

Another winner of the night… Amy Huberman shunned the glitzy over-the-top evening dresses and opted for a quirky, pink, embellished, shift dress. With a messy updo and smokey eyes, she would have stood her own against any of the cool, style icon Brits, aka Alexa Chung and Ferne Cotton.

The Bad…
There were a few on the night who almost had it, but just didn’t quite get there…

The beautiful Seoige sisters, usually look perfect on their daytime TV show, couldn’t relate this approach to their red carpet look. There was nothing overly-wrong with their dresses, they were just a bit predictable and boring…empire line, silk chiffon-layered, bust-enhancing, broach detailed and deep purple and teal green complementing colours…did anyone tell them that dressing the same as your sister is only cute up until the age of six???

Rachel Kavanagh, former ‘Fair City’ actress, is a regular at these star-studded bashes, so she should have the style thing down to a tee; however, she opted for boring black, high neckline with an awful chiffon fishtail with a sneak of hot pink coming through. The dress made her look bigger than she is - it needed to be more body-con for a va-va voom effect. She’s young and beautiful, so if she was sticking to this classic shape, she should have been more adventurous with the colour.

The Ugly…

Take a few hints from Dame Helen Mirren or Michelle Obama on the art of how to dress an older woman beautifully and elegantly without the element of mutton dressed as lamb!

Red was a fantastic choice of colour by Jackie Lavin of ‘The Apprentice’. However, red satin on anyone over the age of 40 can look cheap and she teamed it with over the elbow matching gloves, a la Moulin Rouge. Not only that but the dress had a plunging neck-line and diamonte detailing. How much is too much? Check out Susan Sarandon, she’s 62, still has red-hot sex appeal but manages to do it with a bit more class.

Finally we have Fionnula Flanagan, currently starring in hit American series ‘Lost’. She tried to play it safe in black…however, the diamonte polka dot bustier that is at least 2 sizes to small for her, makes me want to scream..put em away love!!! Take a hint from Helen Mirren…equally blessed with blossoming assets; the difference being she knows how to dress them!