Hollywood piles on designer wears and branded diamonds
despite recession - Sun, 21 May 2009, 00:00 EST
Hollywood
piles on designer
wears and branded diamonds
despite recession
Style experts
and analysts cited a return to elegance of old Hollywood at the
year's early awards shows, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominee the
beautiful Amy Adams was a perfect example. The "Doubt"
actress looked amazing, stunning and elegant in a wine colored gown
and H. Stern's- "Nature" diamond
earrings with rose quartz drops and amethyst.
As millions of
Americans are struggling to pay their monthly bills, the word on Main
High Street is that this is no time for the affluent to be showing
off with lavish jewels and flashy cars.
But over in
Hollywood, the show does and will always goes on, with the biggest
stars of movie and TV dressing up in gemstones
and stunning diamonds for the winter awards season, thus providing
that window into the glamorous life the public so craves.
Fears that the
economy might pared-down accouterments and inspires drab attire at
shows such as the 81st Annual Academy Awards, the 15th Annual Screen
Actors Guild (SAG) Awards and 66th Annual Golden Globes proved to be
unfounded, with flash and color out in full force.
Pulled-back
hair, classic diamond
jewelry and fishtail-style gowns were among the style hallmarks
of the Oscars, with Hollywood's leading ladies forgoing potential
fashion risks and instead turning to sophisticated, elegant looks. In
terms of jewelry, the most popular combination appeared to be drop
earrings or diamond stud paired with a diamond bracelets at the wrist
and diamond ring.
Kate Winslet,
who won the Best Actress award, accepted her Oscar in a stunning Chopard
bracelet featuring 117 carats of multi-cut diamonds,
which she paired with a diamond ring and pear-shaped diamond cluster
earrings in platinum.
"At the
end of the day, do we appreciate [celebrities] for the entertainments
they bring or do us want them to emulate us?" she asks.
"They have to make good movies; that's what they are paid for.
They are not paid to fix the economy." Andrea Hansen,
international communications director for Brazilian jeweler H. Stern,
had similar thoughts.
Hansen says
that while a few politically and socially minded celebrities laid low
amid the economic downturn (Angelica Huston, for example, skipped the
September Emmy Awards, which took place the week Lehman Brothers
closed), Hollywood remains relatively insulated, and box-office
revenues remain strong, paving the way for business as usual.
Michael Coan,
the chair of the jewelry design department at New York's Fashion
Institute of Technology, says Hollywood has not, historically, dialed
down the glamour in tough economic times. |
