Ugg boots have never looked so good as on the (very high) heels of fashion month, where the celebrity contingent runs a sartorial marathon to make that famous Greek battle look like sissy stuff. If you don't believe me, I give you Kelly Osbourne as exhibit A: During New York Fashion Week, the Fashion Police judge executed three high-end looks (Jeremy Scott, Marchesa and Anna Sui) in under five hours. As WWD pointed out, that's "the average time of a recreational female marathoner." And nearly as exhausting.
And I should know: At the close of New York Fashion Week, I headed to a cabin in the Sierras where nobody could see my freshly scrubbed face and, yes, Ugg boots -- a bad habit I indulge only in the privacy of the backwoods. But turns out, I'm not alone in this deep-seated desire to shelve my five-inch Alaïa booties and nurture my inner bum.
Take Kristin Cavallari: Seeing her in front rows across New York, K. Cav was a walking billboard for celebrity as chameleonic model -- ladylike at Luca Luca, Parisienne at Malandrino and punky-girly at Betsey Johnson. Now back home in LA, the Hills star is looking more like herself -- with minimal makeup, leggings and tees. Even Kelly Osbourne, who clearly takes great care with her look of late, let go her bouffant in favor of a simple bun and glasses (and sweatpants?) for a recent dinner at Katsuya. Maybe celebrities really are just like me.
Well, not exactly. There's no paparazzi waiting to shoot me landing at the airport in flip flops or kicking up my Uggs by a campfire in the Sierra. Thank god. But there lies the love part of society's love-hate relationship with the paps: Without them, in the age of stylists, how would we ever identify a celebrity's authentic style? Dakota Fanning, for instance, isn't the walking pouf of Marchesa froth we see on the red carpet; she's the girl in the cable knit poncho and leggings who landed at LAX after the Miu Miu show in Paris.
The true identity of a celebrity is only ever debatable -- what do we really know about them anyway? Today at StyleBistro HQ, we were chatting about Rihanna who we believe, despite a recent sartorial clowning around, resides in the upper echelon of stars with a genuinely primo sense of fashion. On the heels of her rainbow-bright appearance at Miu Miu's Paris show, Rihanna hit the streets looking decidedly more down to earth in monochrome leggings and a relaxed knit sweater. It seems that here we see the real Rihanna, off stage and able to poke fun at the game: Even in pale pink fishnet, Rihanna's daytime headband evokes a certain Rosie the Riveter roll-up-your-sleeves 'tude.