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.

With the help of three fashion experts, Oprah explored how women from ages 30 to 70 can dress stylishly, fashionably and age-appropriately. The panel of stylists included Stacy London (host of America’s “What Not To Wear”), Lloyd Boston (author of “Before You Put That On”) and Charla Krupp (author of “How Not To Look Old”).

Between the three experts and a whole slew makeovers, many of the points made resonated strongly with my personal beliefs on style and fashion:

• One mistake that women make is to shop by size rather than fit. Going up a size for the most flattering fit should be the main focus, and not the number on the size tag.
• Body type, age and lifestyle dictate which trends will work for you and which won’t – not every trend works for every person.
• Many women in America are hung up on comfort and wear clothes as if they are going to the gym (I believe comfort and style are important, but that sweats are for working out and lounging at home).
• Dressing well causes people to sit up and take notice.
• Handbags do not need to match shoes.
• Patent is great at any age but in smaller doses as you get older. Less is more as you age.
• You can wear cream and white through Autumn and Winter as long as the fabric of the garment is season-appropriate.
• If you wear clothing that is waist-conscious, you will always have a flattering silhouette.
• Women at any age can wear classic and sophisticated looks.
• A pair of good jeans can make you look 10 years younger.

The experts also made some points that can be true in some situations, but really depend on your body type:

• The older you are, the slimmer you should go on a wide-leg pant. Wide-leg pants are best with chunky heels and boots as opposed to thin-heeled stilettos.
• Pencil skirts are a great look for women in their 50’s and over because it gives the body a great shape.
• You should wear high neck blouses if you are feeling bad about your neck because it draws the eye upward to the face.

One other point: While the style makeovers were impressive for that TV moment, the crux to having style is maintaining it from day to day. Perhaps this topic will get covered another time. Do you agree with the fashion experts? If you didn’t see the show, there is a lot of coverage and extra material on Oprah’s website.

We normally focus on their red carpet appearances, but I also admire certain celebrities for their everyday style. I may not personally aspire to their specific look (because fashion personas and body types differ), but I truly appreciate the way the following women dress and I enjoy looking at their everyday ensembles. They seem to adore fashion and always look fabulous.

Australian Style

• Nicole Kidman and Cate Blanchett have bodies like supermodels and can dress like they’re just off the catwalk. They mix classic, eclectic, retro and funky fashion with all the grace and elegance in the world.
• Naomi Watts likes to take fashion risks and pulls off the look well. She’s usually one of the first celebrities to try a new trend and I admire her courage.

European Style

• Penelope Cruz epitomizes smart and sophisticated Euro style. She manages to adapt cutting edge fashion trends in an effortless and unfussy way. She’s always sporting the hottest silhouette and colour, but never looks as though she’s trying too hard.

American Style

• Jennifer Aniston seldom takes a fashion risk and sticks to simple, uncomplicated, clean-cut lines in neutral shades. Her discipline to remain a staunch modern-classic is commendable and she has earned herself a distinctive signature look that suits her to a tee.
• Jessica Alba is young and wears fashion trends to their fullest. She has fun with what she wears and likes to mix pretty items with retro urban pieces.
• Beyonce and Gwen Stefani are pop stars who rock their glitzy yet tasteful styles. Their artistic fashion personas enable them to sport their over-the-top clothing choices with ease.

British Style

• Kate Moss doesn’t wear trends – she sets them. She continues to inspire top designers with her edgy, daring, and dramatic sense of style. There is no one who gets way with wearing what Kate Moss does and I enjoy her evolving and creative wardrobe concoctions.
• Sienna Miller isn’t quite Kate Moss, but she is a style icon in her own right. She’s the bo-ho urbanite and bold fashion risk-taker whose unusual clothing combinations always seem to work.

Sarah Jessica Parker has fallen off the radar. She looked fabulous in Sex and the City, but her dress sense seems to have gone astray since then. Whose celebrity style do you admire and why?

Television’s biggest award ceremony made for a stylish red carpet event last night. To my surprise, most of the dresses were long and colourful. From fuchsia to watermelon, aqua to teal, and crimson to eggplant, neutrals were not the order of the evening.

Yet my favourite looks were neutrally toned. These were my top 4:

• Portia De Rossi glistened in a long midnight blue strapless number that was “held up” at the neck (halter style) by a bejeweled snake. The gown was amazing and unique and my absolute best.
• Kyra Sedgwick wore a long black work of art that looked sculptured both from the front and from the back. The gothic and dramatic appeal of this dress might have been an over the top choice for the Emmy’s, but I loved it all the same.
• Eva Longoria was a perfect little princess in her sparkly short, gold cut-away sheath. Sassy, smart and immaculate as only ultra petite Eva Longoria could pull off.
• Ali Larter wore a long red voluminous strapless gown and makes my list not because I thought the dress was particularly fabulous, but because it looked so comfortable.

If you managed to catch a glimpse of the show, I’d love to hear about your favourites.

Apparently so. A college student who was on her way from San Diego to Tuscon for a doctors’ appointment was asked to get off her flight because her outfit was too revealing. Kyla Ebbert sat down in her seat and just as the flight was about to take off, a flight attendant asked her to come to the front of the plane and (in front of the other passengers) told her that she would have to catch a later flight, in a different outfit. According to Kyla, he told her that Southwest was a family airline and she was “too provocative to fly on this flight”.

Embarrassed and desperate, Kyla asked what she could do to stay on board so that she could make her medical appointment (it was a day trip and she didn’t have any spare clothing). She asked for a blanket, covered herself up and managed to stay on what became a rather miserable flight.

There is no dress code policy on Southwest Airlines and Kyla is asking for a formal apology. Things were different when she flew back to San Diego a few hours later and a different flight attendant actually complimented on her outfit. Take a look at Kyla’s outfit on the MSNBC video and let us know what you think. Did Kyla cross a line? Should there be a line at all? And if so, how should it be enforced?

Spanish actress and style maven Penelope Cruz and her equally gorgeous sister Monica uncovered their new clothing line in Spain last week. They’ve had a stab at designing part of an Autumn/Winter 2007 line for Spanish design house Mango (MNG). The collection is due to launch on 16 September alongside a fab advertising  campaign that features the stunning Spanish beauties themselves. Penelope Cruz has a superb sense of style and I’m champing at the bit with curiosity. I can’t wait to see these products hanging in one of my very favourite and affordable places to shop. Watch out rival Spanish retail giant Zara… Mango’s Cruzing with style.

With Spring here and Summer around the corner,  contemplating “the big chop” is common. Short hair has been particularly popular amongst celebrities this season (with Michelle Williams, Elisha Cuthbert and Audrey Tautou amongst my personal favourites). Short hairstyles are certainly not for everyone, but the right cropped cut can take your face from “drowning in your layers and locks” to “all eyes, neck and cheekbones”. 

Whether short hair will suit you is beyond my expertise (I am not a hair stylist). But I sport a short style myself and have some thoughts to share about taking the plunge:

• Find a competent hair stylist. An excellent cut is crucial with short styles.
• Pay close attention to the colour of your hair. You’ll cut out a lot of your best hair colour (either dyed or naturally sun-kissed) when you chop it off. Short hair has to be the right colour in order for it to look it’s best because only then will different areas of the cut be emphasized, creating volume, interest and texture. 
• Dress your best on the day of the cut. This will give the stylist a better sense of the type of look that you’re after.
• Tweak your style and make-up if necessary. You might prefer to wear dresses, skirts, frills and darker lipstick after your haircut because you like the contrast of your boyish cut with a more flirty style. That bright green bag you thought you could never pull off suddenly works with your new sassy cut.

This is not an easy decision. If you are in the mood for an edgy cropped look, I’m torn between encouraging you to go short and advising you stay longer and more versatile. At worst, your hair will grow out. At best, you’ll have gone from drab to fab!

Michelle Williams, Elisha Cuthbert, Audrey Tautou and Selma Blair sport short cuts this season.

Hollywood’s swankiest event once again glittered with glamour. The night was filled with flawless designer gowns, radiant skin, bare necklines, jewel encrusted clutches, Jimmy Choo shoes, Chopard bling and lots of style. It was nice to see variety amongst the dress styles (tired Grecian-goddess looks did not reign supreme this time around). 

My favourites of the night were:

• Reese Witherspoon in Nina Ricci was a petite picture of perfection. Her form fitting strapless eggplant gown ruffled romantically into diagonal toned layers of elegance and grace. The contrast of this classic dress with her simple, super-straight modern hairstyle was genius.
• Nicole Kidman was superbly statuesque in her flaming red, catwalk couture halter gown. The neck bow on this dress was overwhelmingly delicious and wouldn’t have looked right on anyone else but Nicole Kidman. Her surreal mannequin-like presence is breathtaking and she too sported super simple straight hair (a new red carpet trend).
• Penelope Cruz in Versace was a classic Spanish beauty. Her strapless blush corset gown erupted into a train of pretty and playful tulle feathers. Her slicked back hair was timeless and complemented the drama of her dress well.
• Cate Blanchett in her metallic slate, Armani Prive off-the-shoulder sheath gown was once again the red carpet risk taker who always gets it right. Cate’s style is avant guard and I love seeing her award ceremony choices because they are so unconventionally glamorous. Anyone else would have looked like a gladiator in this dress, but Cate looked  fabulous.
• Kate Winslet was beautiful in her mint green Valentino. Her asymmetrical gown draped immaculately over her curves, and she matched it up elegantly with a side parting and pulled back hair.

This international lineup proves that redheads look stunning in red, and that milky cream, satin skin is better than bronzer. That concludes this years award season. Reese Witherspoon and Cate Blanchett get my youlookfab award for being the best dressed celebrities on the red carpet this year.

Cate, Reese and Penelope on the Oscars red carpet, courtesy of E! Online.

It’s at the Grammys where you’ll see celebrities (and their stylists) have plenty of fun with fashion. Creative and quirky musicians try not to take themselves too seriously as they break red carpet fashion rules in their edgy and daring outfits. Artistic license, a sense of humour and lots of skin make this award show the over-the-top fashion event that it is.

Ladies raised their metallic hemlines while gents sported tuxedos with bling and sneakers. Poufy pony tails, tattoos, body piercings, braces, punk hairstyles and far too much make-up are perfectly acceptable at the Grammys. With an explosion of funky individuality, long elegant dresses seemed tame and boring by comparison. But those are the ones that made my favourites list:

• LeAnne Rimes in a Grecian chocolate brown Monique Luillier was graceful and goddess-like.
• Carrie Underwood was a pretty barbie doll picture in her romantic metallic dress and cascading blonde curls
• Shakira tamed her wild locks in her flawless classic red strapless Carolina Herrera
• Jennifer Hudson embraced her curves and showed just enough skin in her simple red halter-neck dress
• Christina Ricci was striking in her diagonal vintage creation

Few seemed to pull off the mini dress stylishly, but my vote goes to Ciara in her short jewel-encrusted  baby-doll halter dress. And just for fun, Imogene Heap and OK Go get my vote for most outrageous.

Elegance amongst the flair and daring that separates the Grammys from other award ceremonies this season.