I wrote earlier about the Empress Dowager Cixi in the Fan Bingbing post – click here if you missed it. Fan Bingbing was what I imagined a modern Cixi would look like. Lady Gaga, in Alexander Wang for Balenciaga, however was probably the closest interpretation of the outer robes that Cixi wore in her own time. You can see it in the full sleeve. And also the headdress. Obviously the Empress Dowager wasn’t exposing all that cleave though. Or maybe she was, when she was talking to her courtiers through her screen. I was a kid when my ma took me to Beijing for a tour of the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. There were screens all over the place. At that age you have to fight hard to resist the urge to poke your finger through the paper. I always imagined Cixi, with her long nails, getting pissed at her advisors and jabbing her pinky through one of the windows and hissing.
Gaga has probably made every Worst Dressed List there is out there because…what did they expect her to wear? A strapless column? To the MET Gala? When your date is Alexander Wang? Come on, now. You’re missing the point. Sincerely, as Duana noted in the Kerry Washington post.
