Thanks to digital image manipulation techniques, models and actresses can have perfect bodies, no cellulite and flawless complexions when they are depicted in magazines. According to a recent article in the UK telegraph, the same techniques are now being used in reverse to make gaunt models look fuller-figured. Apparently “Fashion magazines are manipulating images of skinny models to make them look “fatter” than they really are”.

According to a representative from one of the popular retouching agencies:

“It is now deemed just as negative to be too thin as too fat. Everyone is scared of being highlighted as the magazine or label that promotes very thin girls, so they are being a lot more careful about the images they present.”

But Susan Ringwood, who is chief executive of eating disorder charity “Beat”, responded negatively to this practice, saying that it acknowledges the issues associated with projecting the images of very thin models, but misses the point: “They should be using naturally healthy models in the first instance, instead of having to make them look that way.”

I’d love to see a magazine filled with pictures of models and actors that have not been retouched at all. How do you feel about digital photo enhancement in magazines?

Ps. The celebrity gossip site Jossip has some hilarious reporting on the use of Photoshop to alter our favorite celebrities in print.

The superbowl of the entertainment industry was full of strapless and asymmetrical frocks, metallic accessories and old-Hollywood styled hair. I expected silver and gold dresses to shine through, but to my surprise tomato red, black and ink blue were the colours of the night.

My favourite dresses:

• Marion Cotillard was magnificent in an eccentric mermaid creation by Jean Paul Gaultier. It was a bold red carpet risk and it worked beautifully. Her eclectic long necklaces complemented her dress and her asymmetrical hairstyle was pure perfection. An ideal mixture of modern and retro Hollywood glamour and I loved it.
• Katherine Heigl was gorgeous in a fiery red, single-shoulder strapped dress. Her short curly hairdo was refreshing among the multitudes of cascading locks.

Other great looks:

• Amy Adams was pretty in a classic and safe strapless deep green gown. Her red ringlets and gold accessories made the outfit and I loved the contrast that was created against her dark green dress.
• Nicole Kidman was flawless at five months pregnant. She gets my vote for best necklace of the night.
• Cate Blanchett is usually my red carpet favourite, but I can’t say that this year’s Oscar dress was her best. That said, she did look radiant and ultra stylish at 7 months pregnant in a deep purple, bejeweled, halter-neck gown.
• Miley Cyrus represented young Hollywood in the best way. Her look was classy and age appropriate. Her earrings were fabulous and the bow at the back of her dress was suitably playful.
• Jennifer Garner, Penelope Cruz and Hillary Swank looked lovely in their strapless and off-the-shoulder black frocks. Nothing too exciting, but Oscar worthy all the same.

George Clooney wore his tux best and gets my vote for best hair of the night.

What were your favourite frocks?

Follow these thumbnails to see some of my favourites at InStyle and E! Online.

There are celebrities whose style I admire, and then there are the rest. I am often appalled at how the following women dress and can scarcely believe that they pay professionals to help them put their ensembles together. They claim to love fashion, but I’ve seldom seen them look fabulous.

• Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen were stylish kids until they grew up and started sporting the spaced out zombie look. I cannot see past their unkempt scarecrow style no matter how gothic, esoteric or funky they claim to be. I’m all for a personal style that’s out of the ordinary, but the twins look dirty and I’d love them to clean up and start over.
• Jessica Simpson wears her skirts too short, her tops too low and her skin too orange. Adding a modest element to her style would increase her style quotient.
• Paris Hilton’s glitzy and often over accessorized look is in bad taste. She somehow never looks classy in her lavish designer wear.
• Britney Spears is possibly the worst dressed celebrity around, but her problems appear to be deeper than style.

Compare these celebrities to the ladies that get it right all the time. Jennifer Aniston, Cate Blanchett and Reese Witherspoon are are ultra-stylish and have impeccable taste. They know how to be subtly alluring without looking tarty, and understand that “less is more”. It is safe to say that money does not buy you style.

The 60’s fringe (or “bangs”) is back with a vengeance. This hairstyle trend started coming through last year and who better to sport it so perfectly than Reese Witherspoon at last year’s Golden Globes. Katie Holmes created her fringe a few months ago and celebrities like Heidi Klum, Liv Tyler, Agnes Deyn and Kate Moss have followed suit.

I love this look. I think it’s a refreshing change from the bouncy longer layers we’ve been seeing for years. It’s modern, practical and pretty. I think straightish hair works well with this style, but I’m unsure which face shape is best. I’ve always thought that my forehead was too small and my head the wrong shape for bangs, but I recently added a fringe to my short crop and it seems to work for me.

I say give bangs a bash if you dare. You might be surprised with how nice they look. In the worst case scenario you grow out your fringe. It’s a painful thought, I know, but perhaps worth the risk.

Heidi, Reese and Katie from the celebrity pages. Follow the thumbnails to fullsize images.

Last night’s Screen Actors Guild award ceremony marked the beginning of the red carpet season. Metallic dresses in silver, bronze, pewter and gold ruled the show. There was also quite a bit of black and, to my surprise, not much colour. I was pleased to see that strapless styles and half shoulder styles were in abundance, which makes a refreshing change to the “Grecian Goddess look” that’s been popular the last few years.

Overall, I wasn’t wildly excited, but three fabulous ensembles stand out:

• Javier Bardem was smooth and perfect in his tie-less tuxedo, patent shoes and swept back hair. He gets my vote for best dressed person of the night. And his acceptance speech was brilliant.
• Ruby Dee was an inspiration accepting her award at age 83. If you can look as graceful and elegant as she does at that age, you’re truly stylish.
• Cate Blanchett, who is usually among my favourites at any red carpet event, blossomed beautifully in her very pregnant body. Florals are one of the biggest trends for 2008 and who other than Cate to sport it with style.

Debra Messing, Eva Longoria and Ellen Pompeo all looked nice. A little too sparkly for my taste, but I liked the cut of their dresses. Let’s hope that the Grammys and Oscars provide a better selection of fabulous gowns.

Click on the thumbnails to see larger images, courtesy of E! Online and People.

USA Today confirmed that Sunday’s Golden Globe award ceremony has been canceled due to the ongoing writers strike. They point out that this is miserable for fashion designers who rely on red carpet events to expose their work and that the cancellation would have a financially draining ripple effect. Make–up artists who make the bulk of their income during award season are out of a job, and non-profits such as “clothes off our back” (who auction off red carpet gowns for charity) can kiss their inventory goodbye.

It is a pity that the designers’ efforts won’t be seen at the Globes, but all is not lost. Well known red carpet dress designer Monique Lhuillier astutely pointed out that dressing celebrities for movie premieres will gain importance if fewer award ceremonies are in the pipeline. There’s also the rest of the award season to look forward to. Hopefully there will be ample opportunity for designers to showcase their work at the Oscars, Grammys and Emmys this year.

I’ll miss reporting on my top red carpet picks at this year’s Golden Globes. Perhaps a glimpse of last year’s favourites will bring back a spot of Hollywood glamour this month.

It was the “year of the dress” and I’d like to conclude 2007 with my best and worst frocks of the year:

Best:

1. Nicole Kidman in her red Balenciaga gown at the Oscars. She was a walking work of art that night.
2. Reese Witherspoon in her short canary yellow Nina Ricci number at the Golden Globes, because it was so unexpectedly fresh, young and sassy. The red shoes that accompanied her outfit stole the show.

Worst:

1. Mary-Kate Olsen in what looked like a Grecian table cloth gone terribly wrong at an Aids Fundraiser in NYC .
2. Jessica Simpson in her preppy check mini dress that left nothing to the imagination.

My award for worst celebrity look for 2007 goes to Kirsten Dunst at the premier of Spiderman 3. She wore an awfully unflattering combination of separates. The colour, choice of silhouette, shoes and stockings of this outfit left me speechless. I hope that Kirsten’s style quotient is back on track next year.

Best Dresses	Worst Dresses	Worst Celebrity Look

Click on the thumbnail pictures to see the outfits at E! Online.

Trinny and Susannah of the original British reality TV show “What Not to Wear”, recently launched their latest book: The Body Shape Bible. Their mantra throughout the book is consistent: “Forget your size, discover your shape and transform yourself”.

Dressing for your body type is also a strong theme on youlookfab.com and I use five body types as a frame of reference (the pear, apple, rectangle, hourglass and inverted triangle). Trinny and Susannah have identified twelve definitive women’s body shapes in their new book which I found very interesting. In each case, it’s the proportion and not the size that matters. So whether you are a slim, average or larger version of a body type, the same dressing principles will apply.

The twelve body shapes are really a more detailed breakdown of the five that I use. There are three pears,

• The Skittle – average size bust, slim waist, okay tummy with big thighs and chunky calves (e.g. Halle Berry)
• The Bell – small shoulders, bust and waist, short waist with big thighs and bottom (e.g. Hillary Clinton)
• The Pear – small bust, long waist, flat tummy, saddle bags and heavy legs (e.g. Sandra Bullock)

…two apples,

• The Apple – average bust, tummy larger than bust with flat bottom and okay legs (e.g. Kathy Bates)
• The Vase – large bust, gently curving long waist, hips same width as bust with slim thighs and legs (e.g. Kate Winslet)

…two rectangles,

• The Column – shoulder width same as hip width with a slight waist and long legs (e.g. Nicole Kidman)
• The Brick – broad shoulders, no waist, average tummy, flat bottom with chunky thighs and calves (e.g. Kim Cattrell)

…two hourglasses,

• The Cello – large bust, hips, bottom and thighs with slim lower legs (e.g. Oprah Winfrey)
• The Hourglass – large bust, small and short waist, large hips and full thighs (e.g. Salma Hayek)

…and three inverted triangles,

• The Goblet – broad shoulders, large bust, no waist with narrow hips and long legs (e.g. Catherine Zeta Jones)
• The Cornet – broad shoulders, small bust, no waist with slim hips and slim long legs (e.g. Cameron Diaz)
• The Lollipop – large bust with slight waist, slim hips and long legs (e.g. Angelina Jolie)

I like their comprehensive body type descriptions and hope that this information helps you to identify your body type more accurately. Do you feel that the extra details make the descriptions easier to use? Can you identify your body type?

Katie Holmes is not a celebrity whose sense of style catches my eye, but her new hairdo grabbed my attention. Over the past 3 years, she’s gone from here, to here and now to here. A retro 70’s bob with thick fringe (bangs) looks chic, new and fairly easy to maintain with the help of a flat iron. The most recent chop might set a new trend, much like Jennifer Aniston’s “Rachel” did in the ’90’s.  I think that the new do is fab. What do you think?

Katie’s evolution (click on the thumbnails to see larger images on E! Online and MSN Entertainment)

Cate Blanchett is one of my favourite actresses and in my book sports the best celebrity style. She pulls off her daring, edgy and dramatic haute couture taste with the greatest of ease and always manages to look elegant, statuesque and ultra-glam. But her outfit at the premiere of “Elizabeth – The Golden Age” gets my thumbs down. It’s such a shame that her dress looked like a neon road traffic beacon instead of a tasteful, voluminous designer piece. Cate is pregnant with her third child and perhaps she wasn’t feeling quite her best this time around, hence the fashion faux pas. But we’re all allowed our off days so we won’t hold it against you Cate. You still rank at the top of my celebrity style list because your record of impeccable style and your fabulous face go a long way.