Elle Style Awards 2012: Best and Worst Dressed

New York Fashion Week, the BAFTA's, the Grammy's and now the Elle Style Awards. Is anyone else completely overwhelmed by the amount of events that have taken place this week?! As much as I want to harp on about how I'm obsessed with several NYFW collections, I'll start with the Elle Style Awards which took place last night. It's a little baffling that some people turn up to the red-carpet, for an event based solely on style and fashion, looking insanely boring. And yet it always happens. I'll start with some of the best-dressed of the evening and although it's not properly Spring yet, florals have already made quite an impression on the red-carpet.

Florence Welch rarely puts a foot wrong when it comes to red-carpet dressing and this midi-length floral Erdem number looks great on her. Her posture is pretty terrible here which gives the whole look a dodgy granny vibe but otherwise I would say this is the perfect look for her. I attended one of Mary Katrantzou's first shows at the LFW Topshop space back in 2009 and thought her designs were fantastic from the beginning. Poppy Delevigne looks consistently beautiful and this Mary Katrantzou for Topshop dress is stunning on her - forget the cute and quirky print, look at those legs! If anyone else has watched Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model then you'll know just how irritating judge Julien Macdonald is. However, to his credit, he knows how to make a show-stopping red-carpet dress, worn here by Tali Lennox. Only an uber-confident (and toned) woman could wear this dress and Tali pulls it off brilliantly, if you've got it, flaunt it. Right?

Now, on to the not so fantastic. The thing that most annoys me about these dresses is that they are all gorgeous in their own right: they just haven't been worn properly. This might sound strange, but so many potentially great outfits are ruined by bad posture, opaque tights and strange accessories.

As head designer at Alexander McQueen, Sarah Burton has no excuse not to be impeccably dressed. With that in mind, this black-velvet knee-length number is doing nothing for me; granted her choice of shoe is spot-on but otherwise this outfit is extremely average. I have no idea who Laura Carmichael is but everything about this stunning embellished Christopher Kane dress is wrong for her; had she stood with more confidence, ditched the clutch and given the good ol' 'hand on the hip' pose a whirl she probably would have look great. Sadly, she just looks incredibly awkward and out of place, sorry Laura! I don't even know where to begin with Hayley Atwell: the black opaque tights, the ankle boots, the hair, the earrings - what was she thinking?! It's almost as if she raided Debenhams and then forgot how to dress herself. If she'd have lost the earrings, clutch, tights and boots this might have stood a chance at being a half-decent outfit.

There's never any telling which celebrities will get it right and which ones will get it wrong but good posture and confidence never fails to make someone look great. What do you think of these outfits and how would you have styled them?

Photos from Elle.com

Spotlight: Martha Streck

You know the kind of girl that turns heads as she walks down the street? Well, Martha Streck is one of them:

I rarely want to be someone, but I definitely want to be this girl. Her street style is near on impeccable and she looks like one of the few models that actually smile these days. Obviously they're not my main reason for wanting to be someone but with legs like that I hardly need to justify myself. 

Martha is in this weeks Spotlight because she's never really crossed my radar before and I think she's absolutely stunning. I love this image from Dior Couture this season and can't wait to see her over the various Fashion Weeks.

Paris Fashion Week is so close I can almost taste it. What designers/models are you looking forward to seeing the most? I really really can't wait to see what Sarah Burton produces for Alexander McQueen, something completely outrageous I hope! What do you think of Martha?

photos from altamiranyc.blogspot.com and thefashionspot.com

Alexander McQueen Spring 2011 featuring Lindsey Wixson

This time of year is terrible for going out but great for fashion. There are more new campaigns than you can poke a stick at and Fashion Week (depending on which city you're in, obviously) is just around the corner. Understandably, this time last season the fash-pack were a little apprehensive about the future of McQueen without Lee at the helm. However, Sarah Burton's début in September was more than impressive. With this in mind, I'm actually quite disappointed by the Spring 2011 campaign...

I absolutely loved the collection and it gave everyone with doubt in their mind reassurance but this is just doing nothing for me. Maybe it's because I've not caught on to the Lindsey Wixson bandwagon yet but her doll-face ruins this for me. Sorry Lindsey! She's great in the whimsical Mulberry campaign but this is McQueen - where is the edge and glamour?! Maybe it'll grow on me but I'm definitely hoping that the other images are more impressive. 

What do you think of the latest campaign and who would you have liked to see modelling the campaign? 

photo from fashiongonerogue.com