The CMT Music Awards aired last night. Kristen Bell hosted, and there were five stages and many performances by acts like John Legend, Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert (both of whom won awards) and Jennifer Nettles. A video recap is on CMT.com, and you can watch the videos of the winners and performances there as well. US Weekly has a full list of the nominees and winners. We’ll mostly be focusing on the fashion here.
First off we have host Kristen Bell in Zuhair Murad. This is Kristen’s third year hosting the CMTs, I guess she really loves country music, and she joked ahead of the gig that it wasn’t hard work and that she just changes outfits and reads from a Teleprompter. As far as her red carpet gown, this is an amazing dress with interesting contemporary details. I love the geometric blue sequin lines and hexagonal shapes. There’s something sporty about the deep v neck, but maybe that’s just how she’s standing.
During her hosting duties, Bell changed into two other black sequin gowns, both by Monique Lhullier. All the gowns were individually very pretty and interesting enough but taken as a whole it was somewhat of a letdown. She could have switched it up. Here are Bell’s other two dresses.
Kellie Pickler brought the color in a magenta Lorena Sarbu gown with a chiffon tail of a train. I love Kellie, she’s such a great sport and she has a big heart. I remember how she shaved her hair in solidarity with her friend who was suffering from breast cancer. (I wonder how her friend is doing.) So that’s why I’m sad to see her in this kind of standard gown with her bolt-ons on full display. Plus that frosty makeup has got to go. You can do better, Kellie!
Jennifer Nettles, on the other hand, worked a sleeveless Halston Heritage sequin top with some white Katharine Kidd wide pants. This is an incredible look and her styling is excellent. This is how you do bangs, and if I could look like this with bangs I would get them. Nettles performed “All of Me” with John Legend and Hunter Hayes and that performance is getting a lot of praise.
Actress Kate Walsh was there for some reason, and I’m only covering her because I LOVE her character on Fargo. Fargo took a weird turn this week, jumping ahead a year for some reason. I’m not sure I’m as into the show as I was a couple of episodes ago, but the characters are what makes it and Kate brings it every week as a trashy, drunken widow. This really fug dress is Naeem Khan, and that designer is hit or miss. This is definitely a miss with that huge white brocade pineapple thing across the front, down the hem and into the fan train. How did this thing ever get made?
I’m also including Kacey Musgraves, she did a tribute to Alan Jackson and performed ‘Livin’ on Love,’ with Lee Ann Womack. You can see their performance here. I don’t have an ID on Kacey’s dress but it’s a typical ball gown look. I do like the thick line of sequins across the bustline. Kacey was nominated for Female Video of The Year, for “Follow Your Arrow,” which went to Miranda Lambert.
Cassadee Pope wore a custom Theia creation with a bizarre striped fringed crop top and a shocking pink skirt. This seems to be popular now, pairing a crop top with a long, full skirt, and more often than not I dislike the look. They loved this ensemble over at Red Carpet Fashion Awards, but to me it’s bizarre.
Finally here’s The Band Perry working a lot of majestic hair. They won Group Video of The Year, for “Done.”
Photo credit: WENN.com
Jennifer Nettles -perfect, absolutely spot on perfect. But sorry, CB, with those three dark gowns, all Kristen Bell needs is a big black wig and her homage to Elvira is complete.
Agreed on Jennifer Nettles. She has by far the best style in country.
I used to think Bell was lovely until I watched how she handled herself during the celeb baby/paps debacle. I agree with the case 100% but her execution was very strange to me.
Me too! Her and Dax both handled it weird and now they rub me the wrong way
+3, or is it 2?
ok-make that +4. They both annoy me to no end.
Me, too. Something about their presumption that the public and paps are super, super interested in the baby of two C-listers makes me want to make it clear that I’m not interested in their kid. At all.
When I try to explain to people my personal rule of never dating a man who puts more effort into his hair than I put into mine, I’m using that photo of The Band Perry.
Are they hardcore Christinas? Because the theme of a “virgin” bride seems to be quite present in their songs, at least the ones I heard.
LOL.
@Kali – my philosophy also. The mirror is mine. If I have to book time for the mirror, the relationship is over. I also never dated a man who was prettier than me. Note I said prettier.
Kristen has a nice dress, but her hair looks bad, like from the lead singer in Nickleback.
Kellie might be the loveliest person on Earth, but everytime I see her I remember her appearance on “Are you smarter than a fifth grader” and how incredibly dumb she was.
Wow, Jennifer Nettles looks incredible. Well done!
I love Kellie Pickler too, and the color of her dress is great. I love the bottom half of her dress though it feels too dressy for the CMT Awards. The top half is a little bit too much of a showcase for the girls.
Not crazy about Kacey Musgraves’s hair, this dress feels frumpy for her. I’d love for her to be more contemporary in her style.
This is just me being horribly judgy, but if not here, where?
Kristen Bell always looks painfully fake to me. It looks like it actually hurts her to smile and play nice for the night. Everything she does strikes me as calculated. Just look at that baby/paparazzi drama she started, which coincidentally started up right when she was promoting Veronica Mars. Now that that movie’s out and she’s not promoting anymore, suddenly that’s not a thing anymore. I just can’t see that as anything other than a PR narrative meant to make her look like a hero mom while she was selling a movie. Every time someone starts going on about how wonderful and cool she is, I can’t help but think they’ve transferred their fan-crush on Veronica Mars to Kristen Bell. Fake fake fake.
Ugh. Kristen Bell and her sanctimonious, preachy personality rub me the wrong way. I am not a fan of her look at this awards show either.
I like all of the dresses except Cassadee and Kacey. From what I can see of it, I think I like Kristen’s 3rd one the best.
She may not have handled the whole paparazzi thing perfectly, but I still agree with the sentiment behind it.
I don’t get the KB hate at all. She never acted like her baby was going to be sought after in the style of Britney, the Jolie Pitts or Suri Cruise. She knows she’s got a smallish but loyal fan following. She knew paps would try to take her daughter’s picture and guess what, they did, so enough with the argument of “who wants her picture anyway?” She made a clear request to paps and news outlets, they ignored it, she did what she promised and said she would not work with publications she finds unethical. I really don’t get the BFD.
I know some people find her response sanctimonious, but it was pretty clear her beef was with the ethics of the industry. And she is totally right, IMO. But people drama monger it up and act like she is insulting every other celeb who doesn’t take the same stand.
I agree msw. I’m on Bell’s side and I liker her – what I’ve seen, because I’m not warped enough to think I know any of these people based on what they put out there for us.
It seems to be she was ridiculed for using her baby and the her stance on the paps as an opportunity to garner attention. I don’t think so. She’s not attention whore and she doesn’t need it. Her career is fine – great actually.
There was also some backlash for publicing stating their opinion on the paps invading their privacy and then posting baby pics and whatnot on their tumbler or instagram or something as if that’s hypocritical. I don’t see it that way. People want to label it as not so much not wanting to share your personal life but wanting to control how it is shared. That’s ridiculous. Posting a pic of my son at baseball is not the same as a stranger shoving a camera in my son’s face and possibly scaring him, invading personal space, ruining a moment, etc. I don’t consider that me wanting control. I consider that me wanting some respect and decency around my son and I have every right to expect it. If you don’t give it to me, I will demand it and do what I have to to see it through. Now, some will say celebrities give up their privacy when they become celebrities. I agree to a certain extent, they should know they will now be a media item. That still doesn’t mean it’s okay to exploit kids or babies or anybody vulnerable. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.
Nettles is just absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous!