red carpet @ 14th annual screen actors guild (sag) awards

here's my quick rundown of the notable gowns at the 14th annual sag awards, the first awards night of the season during the writers strike. i figured i'd also include my designer reference pictures since dug them up anyway

i really liked the white/silver gowns worn by christina applegate, becki newton, ashley tisdale and brittany snow

christina applegate in an elie saab fall 2007 couture gown with neil lane jewelry

becki newton in an elsie katz spring 2008 couture gown with jewelry from leviev and bochic

ashley tisdale in a badgley mischka spring 2008 rtw gown

brittany snow in a zuhair murad fall 2007 pret a porter gown with neil lane jewelry

and there were some i didn't like so much ...

eva longoria parker in a naeem khan spring 2008 gown and verdura jewelry

marion cotillard in a modified nina ricci spring 2008 rtw gown and chopard jewelry

holly hunter [EDIT:] in what i think is a vera wang resort 2008 gown based on her history with the designer as well as the grey belt and draping of the gown

bold colors also seemed to be popular on the red carpet

rebecca gayheart popped in a red marchesa gown resort/spring 2008 gown

i happened to like sandra oh's hanbok-style gown by kim me hee. it's different and i kinda like the volume, especially since we all already know how skinny sandra is

marcia cross in a monique lhuillier pre-fall 2008 gown embellished with a lorraine schwartz brooch

america ferrara also (though more muted, almost like a dyed bridal gown) in a monique lhuillier gown with lorraine schwartz jewelry

one bold color i think didn't work, though, was yellow

vanessa williams in an escada summer 2008 gown with fred leighton jewelry

kate beckinsale in a luisa beccaria spring 2008 rtw gown in an unflattering (and i thought she could never look bad) shade of yellow with van cleef & arpels vintage jewelry

"prints" charming

something else i came across while in hong kong: hong kong and singapore's answer to the UK's paperchase ... prints

i went to just about each of their 5 hk locations, because i just couldn't decide what to get. in the end, i went home without a single purchase because it was just too difficult to choose!

these screenshots from their book-style website (i personally don't like this format with the flipping pages) don't really showcase their line of products. check out the pictures of their shops (in the shops tab of their site) to get a better sense of the variety they offer and their style of merchandising.

i love it when we're "crew"sing together

i try to keep the cuteness factor here down, but i can't help with this one. was it the cuteness overload that drove jeff pfeifle to leave jcrew?

check out the crewmutts line with items ranging from $39.50 for a rugby-stripe polo to $68.00 for a sherpa hoodie (you can get a matching one for yourself for $49.99 in their final sale).

once you pop, you can't stop

there's not much to do in hong kong aside from eat and shop. so that's what i did during my recent visit. enough eating to return home to discover that perhaps some of my pants had shrunken while i was gone. and enough shopping to understand why there are as many foot massage places as there are starbucks around (there are 20+ starbucks within a radius of 5 or so blocks from my office).

my favorite shopping find during our daily excursions was the black compact wool structured coat with cashmere cable and crochet yoke by pringle of scotland. it felt like having a warm cashmere blanket wrapped around my shoulders with the structure of a finely tailored coat. i'm pretty sure i stared at myself in the mirror and stroked the yoke for at least five minutes before i decided i needed to take it off. mostly, though, because i realized that not only was the UK10/US6 a tad large for me, but more so that the coat was designed to fall above the knee. on me, it hit mid-calf. not quite as flattering. oh well.

i also tried on this amphora compact wool single breasted coat with trapeze skirt (which i saw online back in october), as it looked a little more casual. again, beautiful construction, but the waist fell closer to hip level and was too long overall. and that's why i tend to buy jackets and short pea coats rather than long coats.

also while i was out in this particular former colony of the united kingdom, i was able to check out firsthand the size, shape and quality of smythson's nancy clutch, which i mentioned in the same october post. good thing i didn't order it online! it was awkward to hold, the leather looked more like vinyl, and the black version actually looked like a crumpled garbage bag. how unfortunate.

all this talk about fall/winter stuff has me excited for next season! even though we're still wearing fall/winter 07/08 items, with spring/summer 08 items in stores, i'm glad to see pre-fall and fall/winter 08/09 preview items hit the runways.