Quel Scandale! Reese's used gown, Mariah's scary couture — Chanel's major fashion faux pas
Move over. Armani. Chanel made the bigger splash on the red carpet at Monday’s Golden Globe awards. Chanel dresses were spotted on hot young actresses Reese Witherspoon, Emily Mortimer, Natalie Portman and Vanessa Paradis as they strolled the red carpet.
But the House of Coco also made a couple of serious fashion faux pas.
Mariah Carey wore a gown especially designed for her by Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld — a skintight plunging neckline crystal-splattered gown that looked more Mae West than Maison Chanel.
So why was Carey’s name was left off of Chanel’s press release? "Was it left off?," asked Gretchen Gunlocke-Fenton in Chanel's New York fashion public relations office. "That could have been because we're never sure what the actresses will wear until the last minute. And she had several fittings in Los Angeles after she met personally with Karl in Paris."
Oh-kay.
And many in the fashion world are wondering why Witherspoon ended up in a Chanel gown previously worn (horrors!) by Kirsten Dunst. Reportedly, Witherspoon was excited to wear a "vintage" gown by her favorite designer, thinking that “vintage” meant a classic frock worn in some bygone era. She had no idea it was a Dunst redux.
It was only after the Globes that Witherspoon’s camp learned the dress was worn by Dunst to a 2003 Golden Globe Awards party, with her hair done just like Witherspoon's. Yikes.
Chanel issued this statement: "Chanel apologizes for the oversight that Reese Witherspoon's dress was previously worn to a Golden Globes after party three years ago. We are honored that Reese chose to wear Chanel and thought she looked beautiful. We congratulate her on her well-deserved win."
Witherspoon's publicist, Nancy Ryder, has told reporters that she and her other clients will boycott Chanel. And other star's stylists are horrified that this duplication occurred.
“A star in the best actress category should never be seen in a dress that’s been seen before anywhere, even on the runway,” sniffed a top L.A. fashion PR gal. “Most actresses today insist on a couture gown especially made for them."
But considering Carey's cheesy couture creation, maybe Witherspoon was lucky.
Photo (left
Mariah Carey, veddy scary in bespoke Chanel couture made specially for her by creative director Karl Lagerfeld.
(George Pimentel / WireImage)
Photo (right Kirsten Dunst at a 2003 Golden Globes bash (left, with Sigourney Weaver) — wearing the same Chanel dress loaned to Reese Witherspoon for the 2006 Globes (right, with Ryan Phillippe).
(Weaver & Dunst: Steve Granitz / WireImage; Witherspoon & Phillippe: George Pimentel / WireImage)
First Reese, now Natalie? Mon dieu!
Mon dieu!
First Reese Witherspoon. Now Natalie Portman?
The still-trembling House of Coco is about to be royally rocked by yet another Golden Globes dress debacle.
Unconfirmed reports are surfacing that Portman’s so-called "vintage" black lace Chanel frock worn to Monday’s Golden Globe Awards is another recent repeat. Embarrassingly, the same strapless Chanel frock may have been worn by Debra Messing to the 12th Annual Glamour Magazine Women of the Year Awards back in 2001.
How could this happen? Is it really the same dress? No clue. And it's too late to reach the Chanel PR folks at this late hour (almost 7 p.m. PST on Thursday).
No doubt they're all home, heavily medicated (two Tylenol PMs) after a horrible day of apologizing to Witherspoon's camp for giving the actress the same dress worn by Kirsten Dunst to the 2003 Globe post parties and calling it vintage.
But if this Portman/Messing report turns out to be accurate, it's fairly safe to say that heads will roll — Marie Antoinette style — soon at Chanel’s corporate headquarters.
Granted, Portman was a only Globes presenter, not the night’s big female Globe winner like Witherspoon. And the fashion pressure is not nearly as hot for presenters as nominees.
But Portman is a former Oscar nominee, an acclaimed dramatic film actress and last year's winner of the best actress in a supporting role (drama) Globe.
Anyway, Debra Messing? Even if it was back when she was still a hot skinny fashion clothes hanger (one baby ago), she’s still just a "TV sitcom star". Let's hope Chanel at least remembered to have the dress dry-cleaned.
Poor Natalie. But also, poor Chanel. Coco must be turning over in her grave. Time will tell if the powerful French design house can stitch up their frayed image by Oscar time. If they can’t, fashion critics will be counting the Oscar Chanel designs on one finger: Nicole Kidman. If she attends.
Photo (left Natalie Portman in 'vintage' Chanel at the 2006 Golden Globes (George Pimentel / WireImage)
Photo (right Debra Messing wearing what looks like the same Chanel frock at Glamour Magazine's 2001 Women of the Year Awards.
(Dimitrios Kambouris / WireImage)
Chanel's double dressing disaster, continued
The fashion world is positively reeling, darling, over the Golden Globes' double dress debacle.
Can you imagine? Reese Witherspoon accepting her best actress Golden Globe in a Chanel dress worn by Kirsten Dunst to a Globe party in 2003?
Poor Reese. Instead of being featured as a Globe winner on the cover of People and Women’s Wear Daily, looking happy in her exquisite frock, her photo is butted against a shot of Dunst in the same dress, like one of those horrid “Who Wore It Best” tabloid-style spreads.
Dear Lord, the dress duplication was even reported on Access Hollywood! The horror, the horror....
Then came word that Globes presenter Natalie Portman was indeed wearing a Chanel dress that was worn by a then-skinny Debra Messing at a Glamour Women of the Year affair in 2001.
Calls to Messing’s publicist, Portman’s publicist, and Chanel’s New York office and to Portman's stylist Kate Young have still not been returned. Hmmm. But confirmation about Portman/Messing's mirror mode comes from a highly placed source in a fashion agency that works with Young, who also styles Hilary Swank.
After the Globes show, Young told New York Times fashion writer Cathy Horyn why Natalie went with a black Chanel rather than one of the two Rochas (say, "row-cha") dresses (blue and pale green) made just for her by Olivier Theyskens.
Witherspoon's pub forgives Chanel
Nanci Ryder, Reese Witherspoon’s personal publicist, has issued a statement, published in today’s Women’s Wear Daily, the bible of the fashion world, that she still loves Chanel.
"I’m a big fan of Chanel and so is Reese. I have no issues with Chanel,” Ryder says. “It was an unfortunate incident but people make mistakes.”
She goes on to add that Reese and all her other clients will continue to work with Karl Lagerfeld’s fashion house. And she's sad that this has overshadowed Reese’s winning a best actress Globe.
I’ll second that emotion.
As for that look-alike Natalie Portman/Debra Messing black lace strapless Chanel dress? Chanel says it’s a case of mistaken identity.
“Debra’s dress was a ready-to-wear piece from the ’95 collection and Natalie’s was a vintage ‘50s couture dress,” says Chanel PR gal Gretchen Gunlocke-Fenton. ”If you examine the dresses closely, it was a totally different black lace and a different belt.”
So there.
... but I think Reese carried it well, considering.
We really need to boycott Chanel because of this event!
