Red Carpet Moments

Into every life a little glamour must fall. Roll out the red carpet for some light relief this week as we celebrate that most fabulous of evenings – Oscar night. It can be a tad arduous to sift through hours of footage of Academy Awards for anything from best sound editing to best lighting of a mechanical monster, but the sight of those glam frocks and rocks makes it all worthwhile.

Frivolity may be frowned upon in these troubled times, but I suspect we need it more than ever. Art and creative expression, especially movie-making, is about uplifting the spirit and reflecting who we are and that may not necessarily be serious. As the sculptor Robert Arneson says, “I want to make high art that is funny, outrageous and also reveals the human condition, which is not always high”. Sometimes it’s just the festivities around the art, not the art itself, which are just what the doctor ordered.

That little spark of inspiration struck me when I was having lunch with my friend Charlotte a few days ago. We were practising a bit of starving artist chic in a cheap French café with no atmosphere but mousse au chocolat to die for, when it dawned on me that a red carpet moment would be just the ticket to perk us up. Charlotte and I have trodden a few red carpets together, including the disastrously soggy BAFTA one a few years ago that ruined an awful lot of celebrity shoes and hemlines, and they never fail to inject some much-needed glamour into our lives.

Perhaps the most memorable moment in our ‘girls just wanna have fun’ red-carpet forays came at the after-party for a televised tribute to Dame Judi Dench. There we were, champagne flutes in hand, surrounded by a veritable smorgasbord of Hollywood hunks from Pierce Brosnan to Joseph Fiennes, with two rather gorgeous young waiters duelling it out to see who could top up our glasses with more fizz. With that much guy-candy and bubbles on tap, we felt life could not possibly get much better. That’s the power of red-carpet moment: dressing up, feeling glam and not having a care in the world. It’s complete escapism and is totally worth it. We all need to cut loose every now and then and just have fun. The shallower, the better - worthiness can wait. Spring is in the air and the celebrations beckon.

Of course, not all celebrations require champagne (only 99% of them). We’re looking forward to the VIP evening at the La Dolce Vita exhibition at Olympia later this month, where we’ll be knocking back copious quantities of prosecco while watching a fashion show celebrating Italian style. The Italians certainly know how to live – great food, great wine and a total obsession with all things glamorous.

It’s a European thing, really. Even the most simple things can seem stylish or artistic if they’re continental. The composer Arthur Rubinstein tells of getting creative inspiration from the city of light: “When I sit in Paris in a café, surrounded by people, watching people pass by, I don’t sit casually – I go over a certain sonata in my head and discover new things all the time.” I’m not entirely sure it would sound quite so romantic or inspirational if he was describing a Starbucks in Victoria.

But I digress. The point of this week’s I Am Fab is to shake off the winter cobwebs with a hefty dose of glamour and fun – to create your own red-carpet moment. Get together with some friends, dress up to the nines and head out to paint the town red (to match your toenails). Get some inspiration from past Oscar galas – they’re so iconic that Dominick Dunne has written a book about them. It’s called Oscar Night and you can get a sneaky peak into it in Vanity Fair this month. Steal some style tips from Grace Kelly or Audrey Hepburn and go full-tilt glamourpuss. Find an event or invent one, just get out there and party up a storm.

Upping the glamour factor can be the best antidote to the curveballs that life throws us. When I broke my ankle a few years ago, I famously teamed my crutches with LK Bennett kitten heels. It may not have been the most comfortable option, but it certainly made me feel better. If you have to hobble, do it with style – that’s my motto. Let’s choose fabulousness, whatever life has in store for us.

Above all, heed the advice of celebrity stylist Ken Pavé, who says “The most beautiful thing a woman can wear is confidence, which especially goes for the red carpet!”

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All material © 2006 Alison Porter. No article may be reproduced in full or in part without the express permission of the author. (Originally posted 6 Mar 06)