Is Giorgio Armani the silver screen’s reigning king of Haute couture?
He might be, on the strength of the gowns he sent tinsel town for this year’s Academy Awards. All four dresses had enough drama and serpentine plot lines sewn into their sylph-like bodices to be worthy of an Oscar for best screenplay.
And this is what Armani does so well – he tells stories with his clothes. If Picasso’s narrative was in paint and Tolstoy’s in print then Girogio Armani is the master of the textual thread, mastering a way of drawing out a scenario in fabric that makes his work both regal and enchanting.
Of course, Girogio Armani’s claim to the couture crown is helped by the way other pretenders to the haute throne have abdicated, with Raf Simons at Dior giving us couture lite in the interests of being wearable (!) and Saint Laurent losing part of its name and heritage to Hedi Slimane’s dull formalism. The Dior haute couture dress that Charlize Theron wore to the Oscars was a wedding cake calamity that began well at the bodice but descending into multilayered catastrophe around her hips.
So much better were the pieces with the Girogio Armani label. Take Anne Hathaway. She appeared for a special Oscar performance of tunes from Les Mis wearing a custom Giorgio Armani beige-hued silk mesh gown. The Armani people described it as a “shimmering ethereal dress featuring multiple cascading tiers detailed with scattered rhinestones clustering around soft blue-dipped edges, creating a diaphanous, romantic silhouette” and for once they were not exaggerating. This number was so much better than the dental pink Prada dress Hathaway wore for her award, with the bib bodice that looked like something a hygienist would slap on before commencing a power cleaning of her back molars.
Jessica Chastain also looked stunning in a custom Giorgio Armani copper-toned silk satin strapless gown. She may not have won the Best Actress award (to everybody’s surprise) but she gets The Fashionable Truth’s Best Dressed award for wearing this mermaid silhouette with a fitted bodice and abbreviated train, shimmering white sequins and Swarovski crystals.
Naomi Watts also look stunning in an Armani gown fully enveloped in layered gunmetal grey sequins. The Armani people called it an “other worldly gown” because of its “galactic cap sleeves” which is a it hyperbolic bit they were on the mark when they said that “the fitted bodice cascades into a slightly pooling train creating an architectural silhouette.”
And just to prove he can do it all, Armani designed mini-couture for nine-year-old Best Actress nominee Quvenzhane Wallis, who looked adorable in her mini-me custom midnight blue gown, encrusted with iridescent black, navy and silver jewels scattered across the multi-layered tulle skirt.
The back of the dress was accentuated with a black and navy tulle bow. She even had a second dress made for the after-parties. But she has to lose the doggy bag. And I mean now. Bravo Giorgio – you are king of the Oscars.
…More stories like this are available in Quintessentially Asia.
影视天王
乔治·阿玛尼能称霸高级时装界吗？从他今年送往奥斯卡颁奖典礼的礼服所展现出的实力来看，答案是肯定的。这四件亮相的礼服有足够的舞台感，每一个曲折动人的线条背后都藏有故事，都能得奥斯卡最佳剧本奖了。而这正是阿玛尼所擅长之处——用衣服讲述故事。如果说毕加索通过颜料来讲故事，托尔斯泰通过文字来讲故事，那么阿玛尼则选用布料来勾勒故事，他掌控布料的深厚功力使其作品高贵而迷人。当然，阿玛尼的成功夺冠少不了其他品牌的逊色表现作对比：Raf Simons 给迪奥带来高级女装的精简版和“可穿上街”的理念（！）；Saint Laurent 则因为 Hedi Slimane 沉闷的形式主义设计而黯然失色。Charlize Heron 身穿的迪奥高级礼服上身还是不错的，但到臀部位置则演变成了一场接一场的灾难。阿玛尼的礼服则好多了。
譬如安妮·海瑟薇的礼服。她身着乔治·阿玛尼米色调的丝绸长裙，在《悲惨世界》的音乐声中缓缓步出。阿玛尼的人形容它为“裙摆上如瀑布水帘般的多层轻纱上抹着淡蓝色晕，洒满了闪烁而空灵的水钻，留下一个隐约而浪漫的剪影”。这次他们真的没有夸大其词。这件礼服比那件她穿在奥斯卡红毯的粉红色 Prada 礼服好多了——那件礼服就像一件紧身胸衣围兜。
穿着阿玛尼铜色丝绸缎面露肩礼服的 Jessica Chastian 也有惊艳表现。她也许与最佳女演员奖失之交臂（出乎大家的意料），但得到了“时尚真理”评授的最佳着装奖，因为她这一袭长裙剪裁合宜，配上闪闪发光的白色亮片和施华洛世奇（Swarovski）水晶，让她尽显美人鱼一般的身段。
Naomi Watts 在金属灰色亮片覆盖的阿玛尼礼服的衬托下同样光彩照人。阿玛尼称之为“仙袍”，因为它有“星河一般的盖袖”——似乎夸张了点儿。不过这句倒是颇为中肯：“合体的上身很自然地过渡到裙身，再到稍稍摊开的裙裾，其轮廓富有建筑感。”
为了证明阿玛尼的全能，阿玛尼特别为九岁的最佳女主角提名人 Quvenzhane Wallis 定制了一件小号礼服。这件午夜蓝礼服的多层薄纱裙上缀着荧光的黑纱、深蓝色和银色的珠宝，背面则有一个黑色和深蓝色的薄纱蝴蝶结。她甚至还有另一件为典礼后的派对而定制的阿玛尼礼服。不过，无论阿玛尼的礼服多么的好看，她的气质都被小狗包包给毁了！我的意思是马上扔掉它！不管怎么说，干得好乔治——你是奥斯卡颁奖典礼之王。
