by Louise Marsland (@louise_marsland) Since bad behaviour is banned from the actual Loerie Awards (read our event overview here), the only thing we have left to write about outside of the actual awards that sets the industry apart as “creative” (read: outrageous, entertaining, fascinating, fashionable, uber-cool) is the fashion.
So why are you all dressing like clients? This was the most fucking boring red carpet I’ve ever been on and I’ve been covering The Loerie Awards since the Stone Age at Sin City!
In fact, I’ve had more interesting fashion combos from my toddler than what we were subjected to this past weekend.
What happened? Did everyone go to rehab? Was there a memo we missed? Did it say “Dress Code: Dress like a marketer” on your invites?
Is no one subversive anymore? *Sob*. It was all a bit ‘oudoos’, in fact.
If you’re just going to pitch in boring jeans and T-shirts, you might as well be totally shocking and actually wear black tie or a little black business suit (*note the sarcasm*).
The ultimate fash-ho, Joan Rivers of Fashion Police, would fine you all.
Anyway, we managed to scrounge around and find a handful of beautiful people who made an effort to glam up or stand out… We salute you for being a shining beacon in a sea of mediocrity.
Apart from the ‘dress like a corporate client’ theme which was prevalent, gold glam was a clear trend; the brave few still brought their short skirts despite the thick snowfall on the Cape mountains (including Table Mountain on Friday); there were a fair amount of prints in line with the current fashion trend — we loved the few who featured skulls; and of course the biggest accessory was the heavy statement or ‘collar’ necklace, a fetching trend to jazz up any outfit.
On the whole, the men were more stylish this year than the women as the skinny jeans trend extends to very sharp skinny pant evening suits. The men also had bigger hair this year than the women. I blame ghd for the uniform straight helmet-hair trend. We loved the gals who rocked out their ‘fros’.
We only saw two hats this year, but think they were only worn to disguise bad hair days, except for the guy who was clearly channelling Johnny Depp’s less attractive cousin.
1. Pirated…
We love the skulls prints. It screams “I’m fierce, a little dangerous and I work in a cool job where I can rock prints like this!”
2. Shine a light on me…
More gold than a gold Loerie, more glitter than Martha Stewart and a ham, these red carpet stars shone brightly in the fashion stakes.
3. Big hair… big ???… Not.
This year the men rocked the big hair. I’m not sure this is a good trend. Leave it to the ladies.
4. Print it…
There were some gorgeous print dresses, off-the-shoulder numbers and diaphanous fabrics.
5. Collar me…
The current fashion trend of big collar necklaces seriously glammed up many outfits.
6. Shoe porn: ’nuff said.
*Envy!*
7. Who let the dogs out…?
Not sure what statement Mike Schalit was making with this print shirt with dogs on it. And not even doggy-style, which would have been nicely off-centre. Maybe he was trying to say, “I’m really just like the rest of you guys, not a millionaire ad agency legend with more Loeries than you have red underpants.”
8. We got the skinny…
Love the skinny suits on the guys.
9. The long and short of it:
Last year there were so many fanny pelmets on display that Sharon Stone sued for copyright infringement; this year, short skirts weren’t much in evidence, probably due to the snow on the Cape mountains.
10. WTF?
— Louise Marsland has written about the FMCG, media, marketing and advertising industry for 18 years of her 25 year media career as a former Editor of magazines AdVantage, Marketing Mix and Progressive Retailing; as well as websites Bizcommunity.com and FMCGFiles. She currently edits the weekly Wednesday Media & Marketing Page for The New Age newspaper; and is the Co-founder and Publishing Editor of SA’s newly launched industry trendwatching portal, TREND. at www.trendlives.info, in partnership with MarkLives.com.