Duana and I tussled over this one on message with Kathleen eating popcorn off to the side, totally a Kitty Covey, a comparison she would love. But UGH. Does that make me the Margot?
Anyway, the moment Taraji P Henson walked on stage to present and I could see how this dress moved, I was in love. Maybe the most I’ve been in love with any dress all year. ALL YEAR. So I was first to call it. At which point Duana jumped in like, whoa whoa whoa, Peter Noah, I want Taraji. But the thing is, she’d already been gushing about a few other looks throughout the night while Taraji was the only I’d singled out. So. Taraji is mine.
And I mean this literally. Who can afford this Giambattista Valli? So like a true basic, I need to find a knockoff. It’s so beautiful, it’s such great work by her stylist Jason Bolden.
Here’s another reason why this is such a perfect choice: as Taraji said herself on the red carpet, she wasn’t nominated, this is the best dress that’s also a presenter dress in that she’s not there to be ALL EYES ON ME. And still it’s not boring. Rather, it’s undercover exquisite. It is quietly confident. It is the BDE of red carpet dresses! This dress has ALL the BDE! So it will not correct you when you erroneously call it a mullet dress even though it’s not. You can go on thinking that, though. It won’t be bothered. It will know that you don’t know and be on its spectacular way.
A mullet dress is a dress with a hemline that is short in the front and long in the back. That is not what Taraji’s dress is doing. Taraji’s dress is the same length front to back – it’s short all the way around. Where you’re getting the length from is the cape. The cape falls from the shoulders. True superhero:
See how she can swing it around without moving the back of the short dress? That’s because the length is not part of the skirt. It’s a separate piece altogether:
I’m never really a train girl – too fussy, too clumsy, not tall enough. The way this cape becomes the train, though, is every fashion fantasy I’ve ever had but was never conscious enough to realise. Taraji and Jason woke me up. I am a believer.
