the last dress looks SO 1950s housewife, it's basically killing me. it would have looked better without the accessories...maybe just the belt. maybe.

it is cute though. very "Pleasantville"

*Sigh*

Sorry, but no more Debra Messing. Please!

I thought we were going to do the top 10 worst PR designs.

I know that I'm going to get jumped on for saying this, but I'm just being honest.

Still think you guys are the best!

xoxoxo

Love you guys. Great commentary.

The Zuhair Murad looks great on her. But the tiara, oy.

Omfgajen (commenter #1), of course the last one is '50s housewife, and that's why it works in its own kooky way -- Grace is in her I Love Lucy loving element.

omg -- you know - i would love to have her body and bank acct -- i cannot understand why she is so frequently OUT?? Ugh - just a mess. She needs to tone down all that eyeliner too! yuck! i realize she didn't sit there and do her own makeup - but really - hire a new makeup artist then. ugh.

i like the 50's housewifey retro dress. i didn't love the blue brooch and earrings - but i thought it was a cute dress.

I just think she could do sooo much better -- she could always be IN if she wanted to.

LOVE the Elie Saab, but she does need stilts to make it work.

Someone PLEASE take the kohl away from her and otherwise those gorgeous eyes!

She's a study in monotone in that leather apron thing, isn't she? Hair, dress, clutch, shoes...all the same damn color. The only pop of color is the ring. Kinda scary. Sorta reminds me of Leatherface....

As for the costumes, agree with everything you said. And the brooch-matches-earrings thing of the 50's housewife look...that's my Mom through and through! ;)

I'm a bit tired of Ms. Messing's (and/or her stylists') attempts. Absolutely nothing works here except the cute shoes with the last Donna Reed look. And WTH is with the turquoise costume jewelry and the orange gloves?? Donna Reed would NEVER have done that!!!

First let me say, she has GOT to lose the Rachel Zoe racoon eyes. That goes for every look. Very 2 years ago and aging.

That first dress reminds me of the first Coach leather bag I bought when I was a kid. It looks better as a bag. On her, my immediate thought was that she looks like the Village Smithy and should be under the spreading chestnut tree.

The second dress is total fug, and it looks like she has an alien crawling up her back.

The third dress/tiara looks like something she pulled from Princess Di's closet, back in the day. Throw on some earrings to try to jazz it up and what do you get? Um, this.

But I love the last dress. How cute is that!

Debra Messing- She is very entertaining, you have to admit.
1. Baggy and leather just don't work together. I don't really like leather for anything but jackets, shoes and bags.
2. Love the big crazy ball gown. Perfect for the occasion. I don't hate the necklace, but the ring pose is weird.
3. The gray is pretty, not over the top. She has kind of a Laura B. in this dress.
4. I'm a tiara kinda gal, but the earrings are a no. The tiara with this dress though, is a little tugboat-QE2ish.
5. Love. I agree with you on the matchy-matchy earrings. Fun , campy, slighty over the top. Right up my alley.

Veneta - HATE with a burning passion! She DOES look like a big purse. I can't stand that conehead hair, and what's with the matchy-matchy shoes and bags lately? Ugh!

Dolce - Hate. It's entirely too much.

Saab - Love. The makeup looks great.

Murad - Ugly. Agreed on the tiara/medallion earrings combo.

Valli - Head-to-toe LOVE. Such a fun look and I love the hair. The shoes are to die.

Picky, picky.

That last dress is meant as an homage to the 1950's Lucille Ball, which Messing so resembles. And she rocked it.

3. The gray is pretty, not over the top. She has kind of a Laura B. vibe in this dress.

if you're wearing some kind of one-of-a-kind dress that can't be altered to fit you correctly and you wind up looking like you're standing in a hole

ROFLMAO. So true. The first dress is hideous on her and on the model.

As usual, I like her looks better than most do here. Which no doubt means that in her place I'd make the same mistakes which she does. Looking at the photo evidence of the tragic waste I made of perky boobs and a size 4/6 body when I had them - that means that my fashion sense has improved!

Overall, I tend to think she chooses dresses she likes more than dresses she likes on herself, if that is clear. Either that or her stylist(s) completely lack the objective eye one hires stylists for. Most can all relate to convincing ourselves that a dress which we loves works better on our actual persons than it does.

Leather dress - ugly. At least I though her shoes & jewelry worked with it.

D&G gown - costumey, yes, not "pretty-pretty" yes, necklace out of control, yes - but I'd have liked it except! for the odd illusion that the black band of color across the breasts somehow gives of flatness & droopiness at once. Or maybe it's the cut of the bodice.

Elie Saab - Yes, she's too short for the dress. And the bodice gives her boob bulge unless she stands just so. But damn. She looks good and the dress is gorgeous and I can see why she wore it.

Murad - Least favorite. Agree it's too much texture, though I like the color; agree the jewelry is too much and tacky. What I totally fail it on is the illusion (if it's not illusion her other dresses are masterworks!) that she is nearly flat chested and the boobs extend barely a nipple's width farther from her backbone than does her abdomen.

The G. Valli - as you said, cute as can be. Love the shoes. I'd have liked the ensemble more if the costume jewelry or the gloves had picked up the olive in the belt & shoes.

The leather dress is eh. I don't think it's terrible, but she does kind of come off looking like a handbag, and it is a dull color on her.

The Dolce and Gabbana was one of her best looks here, I thought, and I like the necklace, though it would not be appropriate for many things.

The Elie Saab is pretty, but a little boring.

That amber Zuhair Muhad is just nasty on her! She looks like she thinks she's a Saudi Arabian princess with that ridiculous tiara and the earrings. Ugh, Debra.

The last look is cute and fun. I do not like the flower brooch, but the earrings are fine.

I have to disagree.... I don't think I have ever seen either one of them looking all that good away from their shows.

A few "IN" but mostly "OUT" for both of them.

Thanks for the blog, still check you all first. xoxoxo

I am going to try to read your gay minds:

you wrote all of the reveiws of the dresses, read them over and realized you were pretty much dumping all over her, and so out of guilt you then wrote the preamble, "We only do this cuz we luv ya". Am I right?

Problem is, you are right on all of these looks. And actually, you are being charitable on some of your comments.

(and who in their right mind would wear those big ol' earrings plus a tiara. You are right on the mark.)

Love love love love love the Elie Saab dress.

I love the last look! It's cute.

-Iris

oh, and the brown dress is too long on her, too broad on the shoulders, too shiny...well, I hate leather dresses, but that's just me.

She really goes to lots of events, doesn't she? Envelope opening...hosted by Debra Messing.

That being said, she's got lady balls, fashion-wise speaking. She seems fearless and will wear whatever frock is of the moment.

But the leather number? A little too Silence of the Lambs for me.

The tiara....HORRIBLE!

I thought she looked gorgeous in the Elie Saab.

I think this is a case of overnitpicking. She looked good in everything except the pukey yellow dress... that just isn't a good dress and the tiara ruins it for me.

The purse dress... I think she pulled it off ok. It could have been more disastrous, so she ekes an In for me.

I didn't like the styling with the 50s yellow dress.

"she looks like the Village Smithy and should be under the spreading chestnut tree" -- yup! my first thought was a farrier's apron (the guys who shoe horses).

i actually really liked the costumes -- but as costumes, not for normal wear. LOVED the beaded one, but i agree she is too short for it. i was thinking - i love this dress, but would prefer to see it on a mannequin in a museum...it must weigh a ton!

i get a kick out of the 50's look. very cute -- again, as a costume. i would never put those gloves & that jewelry together with that dress for regular wear. i can, however see it on stage in a musical based in the 50's.

Lilly Allen also wore the same dress. Check it out here: http://gofugyourself.celebuzz.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.cgi?search=fugderful&IncludeBlogs=1&limit=10

Just ruined another keyboard as I spit my coffee out all over it due to the line: "After the event, she went to her nightshift job of slaughtering cows." I should have been expecting that, dammit.

She has such beautiful eyes, I wish she wouldn't junk 'em up with so much liner.

Hi Guys, LOVE your blog! I've never commented on here before, so bear with me... :)

1. The leatha is too too much. My train of thought...she looks like a handbag...a big leatha handbag...hey, I wonder how Stella is doing?

2. Dolce & Gabbana: The dress is alright, HATE the necklace (it looks like it's trying to eat her), and the ring...it's kinda "eh" for me.

3. Elie Saab: Very Laura B. indeed. I kind of love it. Although is it me, or does it look like her girls are suffocating in that top? It looks...a little painful.

4. Zuhair Murad: Definitely Princess Di. The tiara and ring are definitely too much. Is it me or does her skin suddenly look more sallow there?

5. Valli: Love this! If the brooch were a little smaller, I think I could live with the matchy-matchy thing. The gloves are a little stark, but the more I look at them, the more they grow on me. As for the shoes...I need them. :D

Well, OF COURSE she's wearing a leather dress. After that event she borrowed the rubber boots and gloves from PRS's Jerry Tam, and went after her makeup artist and stylist with a chain saw.

So much wasted fabric and hand work.

The leather dress is one size fits many. There's more Debra so the photogenic folds aren't there.

The big gray dress in the first pictures is wearing her. I hardley noticed her, the dress was so overpowering. Then I saw the back and I loved the whatever you'd call the ornament that covered her shoulder blades and the sort of corset peaking out, and I liked the back of the dress. Starlets don't want to be told to "Turn around so we can gaze at your rump because it's interesting."

That first dress is the spitting image of the couch in my parents' basement, circa 1978. We called it "Suburban Pleather."

The fake bangs are hurting my eyes. It burns! It burns!

"angry parsnip said:
I have to disagree.... I don't think I have ever seen either one of them looking all that good away from their shows."

either one of who? I just see Debra Messing....

Laura B - who's that?

The leather dress is a drag either way but slightly better at knee length on the model.

She needs to wear bangs more often. Adorable.

And tiaras. Her hair also looks fabulous in that tiara style.

The naugahyde couch dress, not so much. That first dress looks like it should be accessorized with magazines and ashtrays.

--GothamTomato

Wasn't the gray D&G one of the dresses in SJP's Vogue spread with Chris Noth?

Leather dress: nope. Might have worked as a skirt with a different top.

D&G - looks like she was attacked by a giant bedspread and then a chandelier tried to eat her face.

E.Saab - AWESOME DRESS!!! Very cool, very "old Hollywood" but when a dress is that ornate do you really need that much jewelry?

Murad - Queen of the prom; all she needs is a sash, roses and a bucket of pig's blood.

G. Valli - dress is a nice color, nice shape, SHOES ARE GREAT!!! Hate the accessories.

She needs someone new to do her hair and makeup. Too heavy and dark. Which is a shame, because I think she is very pretty.

1) D&G dress - a perfect example of how accessories can make or, in this case, break an outfit. Plus - there seems to be some sort of vine growing out of her back. Not Fab.

2) Elie Saab dress - Love/Hate this one. She looks like she's standing in a pool of glittery puke....but I do love the top 3/4 of the dress....looking front on in one of the pics, her left boob is being mashed excruciatingly.....I just....don't know.

3) Zuhair Murad dress - UGH. Why God Why????? The tiara and the earrings are WAY too much. Lose one (preferably the tiara, I mean, she looks ridiculous) and you may salvage this. Don't hold your breath.

4) Vintage look - thought this was fun but hate the gloves and somehow....just sort of....blah after a while. Guess I'm all Messing-ed out.

wow! Debbie can do no right by you guys! yet she's still thought of as a fashionplate. hilarious!

Oh, the leather dress is basically a formal apron / romper to me.

Hate. Wanted to love. But. Hate.

1--It's criminal that something had to die to make that gorgeous woman look ugly. Heinous. Looks like it was made of a vinyl car seat.

2--Steampunk Scarlett O'Hara?

3--Pretty, if uninteresting dress, but she needs to be screeching 'I'm melllltttting!

4--Almost pretty. That belt detail keeps it from having a nice line and the tiara makes her look like Amy Adams, and we already have one of those.

5--It's cute? ish? But the top doesn't fit right, it looks a little two long and Michael Kors did the silhouette better last spring.

5--

Out, kind of Out/In, In, In, In. But not so much on the tiara with the earrigs. It's one or the other unless you're Queen of Somewhere Fabulous.

Aww, I loved them. It was fun and adventurous. Or at least interesting. We've seen way worse on people wearing boring clothes. At least she is always a standout.

Is she pregnant again, because she is looking (for her) very chesty.

Didn't like the dresses for real wear, but fun for COSTUMES. I really liked her hair and makeup on most of them, though, which is strange because I usually hate her styling. She needs to lighten up a bit on the eyeliner though. But she seems to have fun with her clothes.

boo, i'm over this woman, and any woman over 35, for that matter, who lets Rachel Zoe style her. *sigh* remember when karen used to make fun of grace's clothes all the time? can we get megan mullaly to start hosting events or what? i much prefer her. and she should bring jack ;)

1. Hemmed at the knee, this would have been fine. except for the too-heavy eyeliner, I think her styling and jewelry were good on this.

2. I love the necklace. Ring is hideous. Gown? well, it's fantasy and pretty.

3. You got this one right. Other than the fact that she hasn't had a fitting and had the silly thing hemmed, it's great.

4. Ugh. Hate everything about this. Too much texture is sufficient, but the color is just hideous and the jewelry doesn't look good with it.

5. Now this is something I can get behind. Costumey and intended as such. I don't love the jewelry but eh, you can't have everything.

Do we have to do an "In" or "Out"? Well, then, I'm teetering but I'll give her an "in" for trying. Is that fair?

They're all OUT - except for the last costume. She seems the most comfortable channeling Lucy!

I love Deb-BUT-the leather dress was way too long.

Debbie can't wear grey, or silver, or white. And she needs to stop with that business.

You boys are soooo bad I love love it !!!!!!!!!! you do say all things we are thinking xoxox

Usually I agree with you guys (or at least one of you), and for the most part, it's still true through this post.

Except... The neck/back-lace with the first outfit? AWESOME.

I look at that and think two things:
(a) Who thought to make jewelry for someone's back? Cool!
(b) How hard was that to make so it stayed balanced?

Sure, it isn't the sort of thing you can wear everywhere...or anywhere you expect to sit in a chair with a back. But I think it's wonderful to see jewelry decorating new places, particularly without needing to stick a hole in the body to do it.

That last pic makes her look like Tammie from RuPaul's Drag Race!
I'm sure someone here has already said that (sorry-- in a rush-- didn't scroll), given the sparkling bitchery that graces these comments, but it bears repeating!

Deb, I adore you, but, you're trying just a skosh too hard.
Temper it w/ a smidge of restraint & a sprinkle of sense, then you're back to fabulous!
You too, Zoe!

Was the 1950 Housewife dress for a costume party? Ugh and the LETHA dress ahahah meat packing is exactly what I was thining too did she costar in that "Midnight Meattrain" movie? As for the other three she looked absolutely fabulous!

formerlyAnon said...

Elie Saab - Yes, she's too short for the dress. And the bodice gives her boob bulge unless she stands just so. But damn. She looks good and the dress is gorgeous and I can see why she wore it.


Ouch! I wish you hadn't pointed that out. Just looking at is giving me mastitis.

So are these before or after Debra Messy supposedly dumped "that stylist in a mumu*", AKA Rachael Zoe?

(*Thanks for keeping it real, Stella!)

Look 1 - Leather - Love the shoes and despite the baggy fit, I wouldn't have hated it had it been closer to the knee.

Look 2 - Row 1, right - I has stunned at the "neck piece" - but noticed the Swarovski logo on the wall- so I hit the close up and WTF was that a mattress or rug pad under the top fabric?

Look 3 - from far away - impressive - but Debbie with that severe hair and makeup - you have to STAY far away.

Look 4 - Zuhair Murad - I think she looks regal. (But good point about the jewelry.)

Look 5 - at first glance/first pic...Kathy Griffith? I actually like shiny orange hair, so oddball that I am I liked the small pics.

You guys are crazy, the last one is cute and the second one doesn't work?

The second one is gorgeous and the last one looks like a peeled banana.

I love the Saab.. but what's with the too long to walk in dresses?

I like the 50s lucy too minus the accessories.

She looks afraid of the D & G dress. The expression on her face is one of "am I pulling this off? Is it working"?? No, Debra. Sorry, it's not working.

Anonymous... in the first part of the blog TLo talked about Debra and SJP,
so trying to keep it short I omitted her name.... Opps! sorry

Cheers. . .

In the first pic, Debbie looks like an 1980's employee of Wilson Suede and Leather.

Back in the dinosaur ages, that store had all the employee dress in what else.-leather! So a customer saw employees dressed in leather pants, leather vests, leather coats, leather dresses, etc...

I'm not sure why she thought that was a good look.

She's just got to quit and go crawl into a hole. Her 10 minutes are OVER.

anybody else think that the D & G dress looks like the Vivienne Westwood dress worn by Edina Monsoon for the PR PRs award dinner?

Big fat NO to the leather dress. As for the first Costume Designers Guild Awards dress, I prefer the washed-out zombie look of the runway model; she's a little too animated for it (like a very perky goth, maybe). As for the second dress, I don't have a problem with the length, but her boobs don't quite fit in those cups. No to the yellow dresses.

I can hardly look at the clothes because I'm trying to figure out the face. Has she had the cheek fat implants that Madonna et al. are all doing?

Swallowed by a cow; what next? Bored by the woman. She obviously is at the mercy of her stylist and either has no personal "look" or wants to catch the cameras. Either way it's a snore.

ask said...
..Look 2 - Row 1, right - I has stunned at the "neck piece" - but noticed the Swarovski logo on the wall- so I hit the close up and WTF was that a mattress or rug pad under the top fabric?

I thought the Swaroski sponsorship might have something to do with the hyper jewelry accesorizing also.
As to the back of the dress. I think D&G were doing a deconstruction/show the architecture of the garment thing. On the bodice back you can see the garment peeled away to show the corselette foundation which is made out of English net and boning with a satin binding on the top edge. The skirt looks to be supported by a( probably more than one) crinoline made out of tailors "hair" canvas, a canvas used for jacket interfacing that looks kind of like oatmeal.

I do like Debra Messing as an actress, kind of Lucille Ball-esque as someone pointed out. I even liked HER in the one episode of the dreadful Starter Wife I saw.
But.... I do NOT understand how she has become some sort of fashion plate as she seems to have been annointed by the press and the powers that be at Project Runway when they had her as judge. First of all, any shots you see of her in her own stuff are usually fashion don'ts and the stylist she has needs to be shot. There were some OK things. I did like the last look but on the whole it was all wrong - fit, make up, style etc. She is a pretty woman but whoever set her up as a sort of fashionista needs to be severely talked to.

The Elie Saab dress is stunning.

Brooklyn Bomber said...
The Zuhair Murad looks great on her. But the tiara, oy.

I agree, the tiara ruins the look.

1. Usually am not a fan of Debra Messing's fashion choices. Even when the dresses are beautiful, she never seems to pull them off. However, I have to say I love love love all of these (except that first awful leather thing). For me she got everything right. I love the playfulness; the tiara, the bright lipstick, the bangs. She is a different character in each one without being overly cheesy. And I need that costume necklace! :) It is crazy, and BEAUTIFUL!

2. I adore your blog. As the song goes, "you makes me happy when skies are grey." Normally I refresh about 20 times a day (okay, maybe only 2 or 3)but recently I haven't been keeping up. So, I just read all your posts since January 27 in one marathon sitting. You bitches have been busy! It took forever but I enjoyed every minute of it!!! Thanks for the amazingness that is Project Rungay!

heart
K

I wish she'd do something else with her eye makeup. The heavy raccoon-style just doesn't suit her, especially since her crow's feet are clearly visible, and in fact makes her look older than she is.

Bottega Veneta - I like the runway look a lot, it is not flattering on Debra. The shoes on both looks are fab.

Dolce & Gabbana - Love the dress and the necklace, just not together.

Elie Saab - I like it and noticed the LB overtones. Great hair and make up.

Zuhair Murad - With all that stuff going on, it's still a meh look. A total waste of a good tiara.

Giambattista Valli - Love the dress. Love DM's hair. I like the idea of the gloves and jewelry, but am disappointed at the color clash.

TLo and Debra get a big kiss from me for bringing the fabulosity, mwah!!!

I like the Elie Saab a lot, the other ones, whatever, the last one, awful. Lucy wannabe. awful.

i liked all of them except for 2.
not THAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT bad...

I hate that last look on her but I feel like it's the kind of outfit that would have looked adorable on Chuck from Pushing Daisies.

Sewing Siren - 9:56 am
Thanks for the input on my comments about the back of look 2...

Since I can't imagine designing my sofa, so that the side or back of my sofa showed its' underpinnings (coils, foam, batting etc) so why would anyone want that showing on a gown?

"2--Steampunk Scarlett O'Hara?"
LOVE! :)

I actually kind of love that necklace with the D&G, but she's wearing it with the wrong dress. I think it would look grand on a very very plain outfit. Picture that necklace on The SWINTON for example, with a SWINTONish outfit.

LOVE that necklace with the crazy back. Love.

Why does SHEEEEEEEEEEEEE get to wear all those dresses?????

Seriously, why does she?

more like debra mess. ew, not a fan.

thigh high boots and garters ima boot images