Met Gala Monday

Well, one week on.  But as with all things in my life lately, it took me a while to find my nail art supplies amidst the mess of these (never-ending) renovations, and it’s not like *I* was the one attending last Sunday’s Costume Institute Gala at the Met – Anna Wintour would never have the scrubby likes of me around, let alone in my current state of perpetual dishevelment, both physical (our new bathtub is lovely; now could we just get a faucet and reconnect the water?) and mental (I keep losing important things – my keys, my wallet – and yesterday I very carefully wrapped up a rasher of bacon and laid it in the cupboard beside the crackers; I just found it this morning.)  Had I managed to score an invite, it most likely would not have been my best showing.

But do you know who looked abso-friggin-lutely fantastic?  Cara Delevingne.  “The cosmic hula-hooping dirt scientist from Suicide Squad?” no one is asking.  Well, yes, her, and okay, I’m in agreement that her turn as Dr. June Moon (seriously) is maybe not one of her better roles as an actress.  But in wearing one of her many other hats as a model, the girl slays – she’s got the strong features, lithe figure and cocky attitude necessary to pull off major runway looks like the one she sported last week at the Met Gala.

Years ago I was super into celebrity gossip; spent too much time contemplating the hows and whys and wheres of shoeless Britney in the night.  I kicked my “need” for up-to-the-minute details on the whatabouts of my not-so-favourite stars a long time ago, but I still love looking at morning-after photos of the fashions sported by celebrities on the major red carpets.  And of all the red carpets, the Met Gala’s themed event has got to be the majorest (the carpet was actually pink this year), with nearly all the attendees adhering to the year’s chosen theme.

2019’s theme was “Camp: Notes on Fashion.”  And not camp as in “Here’s a nylon tent and four pegs; good luck keeping the bears out of your food” but as in Susan Sontag’s definition (pulled from the 1964 essay that inspired this year’s theme) of a “love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration.”  So look for a lot of colour, bonkers headpieces and unexpected adornments.

I literally gasped out loud when I saw Cara Delevingne’s Pride-inspired Dior confection.  She looked like one of those striped, rainbow-coloured lollipops you get at the fair.  With a bunch of bananas and eyeballs stapled to her head.  And girl was working it – she even had a pimp cane. 🙂 Oh, but that dress!  Ultra mini, super broad shouldered, horizontal stripes in a rainbow’s worth of unusual colours…had I the money, the bod and any place to wear it (simply pulling on a pair of pants these days feels like a pretty major accomplishment) it would be mine.  I’ve never been so in love with an outfit in my entire life.  I’d even wear the banana-eyeball fascinator.

I’m also not sure I’ve ever been so in love with a manicure as I am with this one, either the striped base version or the excessively, artificially adorned one (no eyeball or banana nail charms, but I found some suitably weird ones in my collection all the same.)

In following the exact colour pattern of the stripes on the dress, I used virtually every single Enchanted holo I own; I’m particularly fond of the very retro assortment of greens and blues on my middle finger.  And I’m totally blowing my own horn here, but those stripes are free-handed – striping tape is great in some applications, but it tends to pull and bleed when you’re trying to do such fine detail work.  Better to take my chances with a fairly steady hand.

Really, this might be one of my favourite manicures EVER, and I’ve been doing this a while – nearly six years by my last count.  It’s just the most fun, whimsical thing I think I’ve ever done, and I adore it!

So a very nice way to kick off the week, proud of a thing I did.  And to a week that make you proud, friends – I hope we all have wonderful ones. 🙂

Celebrity Style

Mix and mis-match nails inspired by an Altuzarra gown the lovely Amy Adams wore the other evening at one of those innumerable lead-up events to last night’s Golden Globes. I’m not the least bit familiar with Altuzarra, but they’re also responsible for the gorgeously tailored suit Evan Rachel Wood wore last night, and she looked incredible (except…I really hate the “no feet” look that happens when pants are hemmed right to the ground instead of hiked up a bit to the lower arch.  Besides, how else am I supposed to see what I’m assuming are a devastatingly awesome pair of shoes?  Feet are great and the things we cover them with are even better; free the feet!)

Designer Unknown (31DC2016)

Day 25’s theme in the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge was fashion, and the outfit I chose as inspiration was a dress recently worn by singer Rita Ora to a taping of America’s Next Top Model (I thought that show ended a few years ago.  I…guess not?)  I saw the striped, diaphanous dress on Ora in this Go Fug Yourself article, and I was immediately smitten – it’s very 1970s, updated with a more modern colour palette in shades of shimmering black, silver, turquoise and purple.  Very groovy, baby.

Except I have no bloody clue who designed this dress.  Neither does Go Fug Yourself.  And the Internet seems just as oblivious, if my half hour of unsuccessful keyword searches are any indication.  I have no idea what gives; why all the mystery?  This is a beautiful dress, and whoever designed it should be celebrated!  So if you happen to know who’s responsible for this very pretty gown, please do let me know.  For now, though, I’ll have to be content with this inspired-by manicure.  I think I can manage that. 😉

Fashionably Striped (31DC2016)

For last year’s theme of fashion in the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge I did a manicure inspired by the gorgeous Naeem Khan gown actress Ellie Kemper wore to the 2015 Emmy’s. Studded with intricate beading, the solid stripes and chevrons of the super slinky, very retro gown glimmered with sequins in shades of dusky blue, plummy purple, shimmery nude, rusty orange and bubblegum pink.  The dress itself was gorgeous and Ellie, of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, looked like a stone cold fox (an adorable, super floofy fox, maybe; Ellie Kemper is like a human ray of sunshine and I have a hard time associating her with anything other than cute, cute, CUTE!)

But my favourite part of that particular outfit was, hands down, its terrifically unique colour combination. Really, stormy blue, dark purple, light pink, rusty orange and nude should not be colours that work beautifully in tandem, and yet here we are!  But I wasn’t hugely fond of the job I did on last year’s manicure – lining up all those chevrons, horizontals and verticals without the aid of striping tape was a pain, and the end result was kind of sloppy.

But with my free-handed striping game now so much better than it was this time last year, I thought I’d take another run at the Naeem Khan gown, this time in a series of bold vertical stripes for day 12’s theme of – yup, you guessed it – stripes.  Final verdict?  MUCH better – kind of like the striped pattern on an amazing pair of pjs from the 1970s – and still my vote for the coolest, most unique colour combination you’ll find in fashion or nail art!

Red Carpet Fashion (31DC2015)

Last Sunday’s Emmys brought all the usual fashion choices to the yard (and Gwenyth’s, like, “My cape’s better than yours.”) Mostly, I find that award show red carpets bring the beautifully predictable – the naked dress, the gossamer ballgown, the men’s-style pantsuit, the jewel-toned mermaid. I may have just described nearly all of the outfits that made their way down the Emmys red carpet last week – pretty, but also pretty boring.

There was one dress, though, by designer Naeem Khan and worn by Ellie Kemper (of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which is so weird and irreverent and sweet and funny and why are you not watching it on Netflix right now?) that I just adored, and so I chose it as the inspiration for these nails that I did in service of day 25’s theme of fashion in the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge. Ellie Kemper is just the cutest, pluckiest thing ever (I can’t help but think that in real life she and Kimmy are actually quite a lot alike) but she sells the hell out of this slinky, 1970s-style number – the tailoring is exquisite, and she carries what has to be a 30 pound dress with admirable ease (all those sequin chevrons = heavy.) You can see a photo of the dress (and Ellie Kemper!) here, once again courtesy of the fine ladies of Go Fug Yourself (who were likewise wowed – hard not to be; this dress is fabulous, and I think these nails are, too!)