When fashion scholars look back on 2007, it seems inevitable that the year won't be remembered for John Galliano's wonderfully flowery, romantic spring collection for Christian Dior, or for Rodolphe Marconi's incredible and unprecedented documentary on Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld (yes, the white ponytail is real).
Instead, sociologists will look back and scratch their heads, wondering why there appeared to be an undergarment shortage among young female celebrities in Los Angeles, or why the diminutive Olsen twins were dressed to engage in gladiatorial battle this summer in their ridiculous knee-high sandals. It wasn't all bad - just mostly bad. Here's our highly subjective list of the style hits and misses of last year.
PHOTO: AGENCIES
MISS
Tom Brady for Stetson
PHOTO: AGENCIES
Sure the Pats QB looks great in the ad, but hold up, partner. We don't wear cowboy hats in these parts. Come to think of it, we also don't wear stinky cologne. Star football players who earn millions may use Stetson to freshen their cat's litter box, but definitely not as cologne. While we're on the subject of Brady, what's happening with his hair? Is he planning to transfer to the Bruins? Mullets belong on the ice, not on turf.
HIT
PHOTO: AGENCIES
Red, everywhere
After a couple of seasons of orange on everything from rugs to throw pillows, another color made a comeback this year: red. The rosy hue showed up on high-end furnishings as well as the more affordable stuff. Fashionistas got caught in the crimson tide, too. Looking for a hot handbag? Nothing's hotter than red.
PHOTOS: AGENCIES
MISS
Jennifer Hudson's Oscar dress
It should have been a dream date. Vogue editor-at-large Andre Leon Talley hand-picked a dress for Oscar contender Hudson. Instead, the dream girl looked like a fourth member of LaBelle circa 1975 in a crazy space-age bolero jacket.
HIT
Thom Browne for Brooks Brothers
A pairing as unlikely as the short-lived Ashley Olsen-Lance Armstrong romance, the collaboration between Thom Browne and navy-blazer supplier Brooks Brothers had the potential to be as appealing as a double feature of License to Wed and Alvin and the Chipmunks. Instead, Browne turned out a collection of classic suits and dresses that appealed to Brooks Brothers' buttoned-down patrons, and attracted more stylish shoppers to the store.
HIT
The natural home
Interior designers had a field day (pun intended) adapting natural elements to the great indoors, beginning with faux bois, then moving on to squirrels, insects, owls, deer, and finally diving into the undersea world. The impetus sprang from an appreciation of fleeting nature, but the hippie-dippy sentiment was kept in check with design smarts from Loyal Loot and Eleanor Grosch.
HIT AND MISS
Katie Holmes' transformation ...
Tom Cruise's bangs
Could Scientology dictate unusual hair styles for men? While John Travolta experimented with dangly hair pieces, Tom Cruise grew out his bangs like a 6-year-old who refuses to get a hair cut. As Tom overdid it with conditioner, his wife finally crawled out of Dawson's Creek and made herself over in the image of her new idol - Victoria Beckham.
MISS
Sharon Stone's fur fetish
Every time Sharon Stone was photographed on the red carpet, she was toting the pelt of some poor deceased animal on her back. It's one thing to accent evening wear with an occasional vintage fur, but Stone must have been dating a Canadian furrier this year given all the mink, chinchilla, rabbit, and lord-knows-what else she was wrapping around her shoulders. C'mon Sharon, only Eskimos and woodland creatures should be wearing fur coats that often.
HIT
Gwen Stefani's LAMB runway show
Fashion week can be a nightmare of pretentious concepts and over-the-top displays of self-importance. But singer Stefani effectively knocked the stuffing out more established designers with a show that was as fun as the clothes she sent down the runway. It wasn't cutting edge or breaking new ground, but her soundtrack of swinging 1960s mod music and the dazzling black-and-white video display was tastier than cotton candy.
HIT AND MISS
Green as a marketing tool
It's lovely that we're finally recognizing the fact that polar bears are losing their icy home, but it's not so lovely that corporations are jumping on the bandwagon by touting items with minimal amounts of recycled material as environmentally friendly. Instead of spending the money marketing their home products and fashion as green, these folks should be spending their cash on reducing waste in packaging, or investing in new, energy-saving technology.
MISS
The high-waisted jean
Assisted living facility fashion finds its way to the young ladies of major metropolitan areas, and the results are pure disaster. Did the American Association of Retired Persons pay Jessica Simpson and Mischa Barton to bring granny chic to the masses? It seems like the only logical explanation for these hideous trousers. Here's hoping that the fragrance industry doesn't follow suit by bottling Eau de Icy Hot.
HIT AND MISS
Marc Jacobs keeps them waiting
The designer's spring 2008 line wasn't polarizing because of the clothes - the black bugle-bead evening dresses and trompe l'oeil underwear were conceptually enthralling. But fashion writers, editors, and Fashion Week organizers were livid at Jacobs' two-hour delay in starting the show. Given that the rest of Fashion Week featured staid spring fashions displayed against stark white runways, it was worth the delay to see Jacobs stage his backward spectacle.
HIT
Catherine Deneuve's ads for Louis Vuitton
The 64-year-old actress is resplendent in adverts for the Vuitton bags. Unlike, say, Tom Brady and Stetson cologne, it's entirely believable that Deneuve would be traveling through Paris with armloads of luxury suitcases.
MISS
Heidi Klum's derriere cleavage
About as sexy as a rat in a bikini, Klum decided to show a little bit of backside at the afterparty for this year's Victoria's Secret fashion show. The dress looked like it was cast out by Carol Channing after she backed into a paper shredder. Pardon the pun, but it's time that someone told Heidi that crack is indeed whack.
MISS
Britney Spears' disregard of undergarments, Britney's baldness, Britney's hats, Britney's hair weaves, Britney's MTV Video Music Award's outfit.
Enough said. ...
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless