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• Elle Style Awards - 2009 Fashion news

  
  11 February 2009
  

  Despite the torrential downpour the Elle Style Awards were a mammoth success, with celebrities and designers such as Alexa Chung, Sienna Miller and Pixie Geldof leading the fashion pack...

  Another torrential downpour; another awards night. BAFTA stars and celebrities braved lashing rain, ankle-deep puddles and a bone-chilling wind for the Elle Style Awards at Big Sky Studios in North London last night.

  Minders with brollies and a canopy hastily erected outside the main door provided a brief respite as the girls in their gowns shook the raindrops from their hair.

  Freida Pinto, still elated after Slumdog Millionaire’s success the previous night, and recipient of Elle’s Best Actress award, wore a funky Chanel short dress with a transparent PVC yoke embellished with silk camellias. Alexa Chung, the host for the evening and winner of the Best TV Star, was also in Chanel, looking extremely sophisticated in a teal-blue, short, fitted backless dress, accessorised with a gigantic cocktail ring by Mawi, and a new upswept hairdo. "I don’t look too mumsy, do I," she worried. No way, Alexa.

  Courtney Love, who was named Woman of the Year, entertained the camera crews with impersonations of Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. Her ‘Cruella de Vil’ black fishtail gown, worn with a little shrug encrusted with jet and black sequins, was by Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy. Roisin Murphy also played the Givenchy card, teaming her mirror-beaded top with a pair of Armand Basi grey harem pants.

  VV Brown, the funky, retro-look singer, lived up to her reputation in a vintage top, with a Luella Bartley prom-skirt and Topshop ‘cage’ shoes. Her hair? "I just started to roll it back and it kinda grew and grew," she said. Titian-haired model Olivia Inge cinched her sapphire-blue Ashley Isham with a jewelled belt she bought on holiday in Thailand. Also in jewel brights was the actress Nathalie Press in fuschia silk by Mulberry.

  Pixie Geldof, who still can’t quite believe she’s made it to the cover of Italian Vogue, wore a backless, white Alexander Wang and BF, Alice Dellal, was in her infamous boots with a skintight, sausage-skin of a dress, completely transparent at the sides, which she bought on eBay. Novelist Kathy Lette also worked the see-through look in a black Moschino suit with a skirt featuring peekaboo lace sides.

  Spotted Alexandra Burke, the X Factor winner, in one of Dolce & Gabbana’s sequinned nautical looks from their D&G collection. Catherine Bailey wore a red-print maxi by Mother of Pearl, designed by Damien Hirst’s wife, and daughter Paloma was in Alaia.

  Newer labels surfaced, too. Model of the year winner, Rosie Huntingdon-Whiteley, wore a vintage-look, pale, apple-green gown by Kaviar Gauche, the Berlin-based collection designed by Alexandra Fischer-Roehler and Johanna Kuhl, who won an On|Off Visionary award at London Fashion Week in 2006 and have just started selling at Question Air, which has several branches in London.

  Meanwhile, Pauric Sweeney is emerging as the designer of the bag-of-choice. Courtney Love, Jade Parfitt, Emilia Fox, Natalie Imbruglia, VV Brown and Ben Grimes all carried his clutches and just yesterday; Jessica Biel was spotted with a Pauric S. handbag while out with boyfriend, Justin Timberlake.

  Mickey Rourke arrived just in time to pick up his Best Actor award and gorgeous Sienna Miller, who received the Style Icon award, made a discreet entrance, which almost fooled the photographers. She’s looking forward to the catwalk debut of Twenty8Twelve, the label she jointly runs and designs with her sister, Savannah, a Central Saint Martins graduate, and which is one of the hottest tickets for the forthcoming London Fashion Week, starting on Friday February 19th.

  Also joining in the Best-Dressed fun were Rolf Snoeren and Viktor Horsting, recipients of the H&M Style Visionary trophy, who dazzled in black DJs with lapels encrusted with jewels, beads and crystals, Matthew Williamson and Christopher Kane who was named best British Designer.

   

  (telegraph)