The Help won big at the NAACP Image Awards two nights ago, taking home Best Film, Best Actress (for Viola Davis) and Best Supporting Actress (for Octavia Spencer). You can read more about the awards here. What I really want to talk about is the fashion. First, let’s set the mood. Like, I understand that the Image Awards are not the Oscars. Most ladies do wear gowns and get their hair and makeup professionally done, but it’s not a full-on crazy high-fashion event – Lenny Kravitz came in leather pants, for the love of God.
So, with that in mind, what do you think of Viola’s extremely low-cut orange Hervé L. Leroux dress? I just… I don’t know. Viola’s body is INSANE. She’s beautiful, she looks so strong and sexy and fit. But I also feel like I don’t need to see this much of her rack, you know? I feel like her boobs detract from the real issue – which is that she should and hopefully WILL win the Oscar. Also, I’ve been loathe to discuss this other issue, but I think we need to say something: Viola has an issue with too-bright colors. I understand that her gorgeous dark skin tone means that she CAN pull off really bright, vivid colors, and yes, she owns them in a way that other women cannot. But some of her color choices are just… too bold. Too vivid. I hate to say it, but some of the colors she’s picking are kind of tacky. Tacky color plus boob buffet equals… trashy. Damn it, V! You better wear something gorgeous to the Oscars. And NOT TOO BRIGHT.
And here’s Octavia in Tadashi Shoji. The color of this dress photographed very differently depending on the light, so I’m not going to call it too-bright when I don’t know what it looked like in person. I do like the style of the dress on a voluptuous woman, though – the wrap effect at the bust is very flattering. That’s something us large-busted girls figure out fast. V-necks, wrap effects, a loose sleeve, they all help to flatter our bust.
Last girl that I want to discuss – Taraji P. Henson in Randi Rahm. Like Viola, Taraji’s body is crazy and beautiful – she’s very strong and sexy, but this girl has not figured out how to dress her body. With her bust, she should not be wearing something this high-necked. The whole thing makes her look thick-waisted, which she isn’t.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Damn. Viola needs to lay off the weights. There’s looking fit and looking manly. And no that shade of orange is not for her.
She reminds me of Serena Williams, the tennis player. Way too much steroids.
Not a good look on anyone. Even harder to pull off wiith those shoulders and chest. It looks painful!
I love jewel toned dresses, but I must agree that Viola’s dress is just too bright! That bright orange color overpowers her…what’s the expression, the dress is wearing her? Her body is rockin’, but the cut of the dress doesn’t flatter her toned arms or her bosom. It makes her look masculine, and I’m certain that’s not what she was aiming for.
Viola’s boobs have a little too much support and are definitely too shiny. I love a vivid orange-red, even before Pantone told me to, but her… breast styling cheapens the entire look too much.
I think Taraji looks fine. Octavia continues to slay. Tadashi Shoji has been working well for her.
“Breast styling”! Love it!
whoa, boobage! but i love hot fit Viola looks, so kick-butt.
I like Viola’s dress but I hate when breasts look like that. It’s not sexy. I agree that the cut makes her look masculine. She looks like a linebacker when usually she doesn’t.
Who is the hell let her leave the house with cleavage like that? It looks like two donuts, side by side. Yikes.
Yes, too bright. Yes, too low cut.
The issue with Viola’s puppies is not so much that they were on display, but mostly that they were so tightly leashed. What a painful look. As for the colour of her dress, I think it would’ve looked more flattering if her skin didn’t look so shiny in the photos. I wonder if the colour looked better in person?
I totally agree Lithe…nothing wrong with the level of boobage…its the way her breasts have been harnessed…owie…a bit more natural curve and it would have all been fine…colour is fab…
Color looks great on her; too much boobage.
what my name says…
I don’t like the dress at all. I think it would look better on someone with not so much up top.
It hurts to look at her in that dress.
I like the dress, but not on her. The color is too extreme for her skin tone. I disagree about Octavia, I think she wears flattering clothes for her size (unlike Melissa McCarthy) who I also like but her clothes are just wrong for her size. Tariji, I just love she can’t do no wrong.
I like the color but it is way too boobtastic!!
It would have been a passable dress if it hadn’t been for Viola’s boobs tied so tightly. If you take away the massive cleavage (cover her cleavage with your finger), the dress doesn’t look so bad on her. I am also tired of the same kind of dress that she wears to most events. I’d like her a bit more covered up. She is fit and has great legs. Maybe a shawl or dress that covers her shoulders and/or upper arms and just a bit of cleavage. This outfit was a fail and looked very cheap on her. Hope she chooses wisely for the Oscars.
Octavia looks great right here. Her only major misstep was at the BAFTA awards. Other than that she has looked classy and stylish in outfits that flatter her body type which is a very difficult task when you are a heavier woman in Hollywood. I hope she copies this style but makes it a bit more glamorous for the Oscars.
Taraji looks good. The dress isn’t her best but it looks fine on her.
@kibbles – You are so right. When you cover her boobs with your finger in the pic, it softens the whole effect and looks good. I almost felt like the photo sighed with relief!
Viola seems to love orange which is ok but the dress is squishing her tatas. Taraji is beautiful. Octavia picked a very proper dress for her figure.
she looks gorgeous and happy to me, I love darker hued women in bright colors.
The colour is lovely, and it’s otherwise a beautiful dress except for I hate the way it mashed her boobs. It should have been designed with more boob support so that they are displayed more nicely. the mashed-boobs look is not attractive. the lift-and-display approach is much more pleasant to look at.
I agree. The color doesn’t bother me but what the dress does to her boobage is just not attractive. She is a beautiful woman but this dress hurt her more than it flattered her. I hope she gets a lovely gown for the Oscars!
I think Viola looks super uncomfortable. She does have an amazing body and a great rack!
Maybe the dress is too tight? Idk… I’ve never seen her shoulders look so buff so I wonder is the dress pushes her boobs so much together that she cannot shift her shoulders low and to the back and instead has to cramp them forward. She looks completely stuck.
to me it’s her short neck. a halter looks great if you have some neck.
Viola, big shoulders, no neck and halter…fasion fail. Does this girl not watch WHAT NOT TO WEAR?!!!!
yeah I thinks you are right!
Agreed. Whatever contraption is hoisting and squeeshing her boobs up look painful!
so very unflattering
I agree about the boob situation looking a little tacky and too tight but I have to disagree about the color. I think it works on her. The wig though needs to go.
the glare looks like white m&m’s sticking out on second thought, she looks like a chipped-off orange m&m
The color looks great. I LOVE bright colors on dark skin BUT the boobs O_o… They totally distract you from seeing anything else and they kinda highlight the stretch marks on her arms…
Not to mention I don’t need to see that much of her and I think it was inappropriate for the event.
i think the problem with the colors is that lately she’s been choosing stuff which is pretty much neon. i hate neon with a passion and i think she looks so much better in jewel tones.
the neckline is really unflattering on her dress but other than that, man, she has an amazing body!
Like the color but too much of the boobies!
Her boobs are so shiny they look like rubber! This is my biggest complaint. I think the color looks lovely against her skin tone, and I don’t mind a nice pair of boobs on display, but why are they so shiny!?
My first words when the picture loaded: “Oh my GOD!”
That shade of orange is so tacky and on Viola it looks trashy and here boobs. As if the orange wasn’t eye popping already there’s here boobs.
And is it just me or does she have the most uncomfortable smile? Honestly, in every picture where she’s smiling full out she has a smile that looks uncomfortable as if she’s not use to smiling.
Like a kid who only knows to show teeth and not actually smile.
Her smile always looks so straining.
I think the cut does not do justice to her rack, but the color is fabulous. I think the cut may be too distracting. She looks super-fit and healthy, and that’s never out of style. What a nice contrast to all the stick figures!
siamese oranges. ugh.
That’s a dress for a desperate, bleached-blonde starlet on her way out. It’s a dress for Tara Reid. Not for an awesome, talented, gorgeous woman like Viola Davis
^^This.
Nope! I think she looks GORGEOUS! <3
Love the orange but I think the exposure was a bit too Anna Nicole.
I like Viola’s dress: Low cut, colour and all but the “boob placement” is awful; it just looks wrong and uh, no. Taraji’s dress is beautiful (and looks comfortable as hell) and she looks good in it.
Viola has an amazing body, but her tatas are too big to pull off that neckline, that’s for the small and perky crowd. I’d like to see her in a long, figure skimming dress, with a slit up the side, maybe in white.
In the minority here, but I think Octavia’s blue dress does absolutely zilch for her beautiful figure. The dress is just so… round. She has looked so much better.
Love the orange on Viola, but that’s def a dress for an A cup. Goopy would actually look okay in it.
Don’t mind the colour of the dress, damn she has beautiful skin, even if it’s a little too shiny here but that boob sitch ruins the whole thing. They look too squashed in and uncomfortable.
I think my girl Taraji looks fab and Octavia seems to know what styling really works for her figure. She looks lovely as well.
Come on she looks beautiful. I sniff a wiff of racist behavior here
I didn’t know boobs were a race, because that’s what most people objected to, the squisshed boobs.
her boobs look like a butt!
The color is great but what’s with her boobs?? Why do they look like that? I wouldn’t be caught dead looking like that. She has a gorgeous body and face but tone down the boobage, already.
She looks like a beautiful trannie.
Oh, honey – you’re better than this. Put them away.
Not too low cut just an Ugly boob smash. Color atrocious.
Dress makes boobies look smashed. The color is brilliant but the style does not work bec of the way her boobs look. She also needed some powder to tone the shine down.