This looks better than it did when she was walking around on the live feed.
I happen to think Debra looks better than she did in her Will & Grace days — I think she’s one of those people, kind of like Julianna Margulies, who was always pretty but really clicked in her late thirties/early forties, and she’ll probably look exactly that good for the rest of her days, which will be endlessly irritating to those of us with early-onset crow’s feet. But she paints herself into such a boxy corner. All that gathering up in the navel region is giving her a weird shape, and I keep wondering if it’d work better if she wore it backward. Still, because this photographs much more flatteringly than I expected, I’m throwing it up to a vote. Because it’s possible I don’t know how to judge her anymore when she’s not swaddled in her Smash swobes and scarves, like a refugee from one of those old Top Model challenges where the winner got to keep everything she could put on her body in thirty seconds.
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Comments (39):
Like the sparkles, but I’m really sick of seeming so much breast bone.
ME TOO.
Yes, why would she wear something that emphasizes that she has AAAA boobs? On the plus side, if she ever needs CPR, should be a cinch to figure out where to push.
Small breasts are not something to hide or from which to shy away. In other words, small boobs are beautiful, too! Nothing wrong with AAAA boobs, and nothing at all wrong with drawing attention to them.
Word. I love when famous women don’t try to hide their small boobs.
I actually like the sternum on a small chested woman (see: Kate Hudson prior to the boob job).
What I’m really sick of seeing is the boobs squashed and propped up and presented on a seeming plate. I’m all “yeah, yeah, boobs, whateve, I’ve got a pair too, put those away.”
Yeah, there’s a difference between “I’m not hiding my boobs, even if they are AAAAAA”, and “I’m exposing my empty sternum and what can be seen of my teeny-tiny boobs, because that’s what nowadays’ fashion is about, and this is a democracy”. I guess what soundly AAAAA haters mean is that there more flattering cleavage styles for small chested ladies. This is a site about how people look in their clothes, isn’t it? Boob debate aside, Debra’s face radiant and those are some fierce curves.. She ain’t no boxy in ma eyes, gurl!
I want to like it – I like the material and the idea but it is making her look a touch wide (and we know she isn’t at all) so I just can’t get behind it. BUT, wow, her face and head suit look great. I totally agree with you about her looking better now vs. the W&G days.
Agreed- that dress is doing strange things to her body. And from the neck up she looks fab.
Yeah, the way it gathers in the middle it makes her look much more “hippy” than she probably is given the celebrity demands for anorexia. If it fell more naturally and didn’t broaden her beam so much I’d be totally on-board.
Want to like it so bad. It’s just doing weird things to her hips…and what woman wants that?
It is. If you can believe it, though, it was worse in motion. i think the sternum part looked worse.
She’s really hippy, (even when she was really, really skinny, and I like this more full, womanly look better on her); so I think that this dress is actually perfect. If she tried to wear something that falls straight (see her wardrobe on Smash) it would actually make her look heavier than she is. This displays her curves and accentuates them.
Yes – thank you for writing that! On W&G, she was always super-thin, and still had hips. She looks great and healthy where she is right now, and I think the dress gives her more of an hour-glass figure even though she does have wee boobies.
Yes, I am always trying to watch what looks good on her, because her shape is far more realistic of Many Women of Her Age (wide through the hips and upper thighs).
On live feed, I didn’t think it looked very flattering; but this photo is ok; but the photo with Amy P (as “the meat in the crazy sandwich” as the post says) makes it look horribly unflattering. So… no verdict from me on this one. Maybe a wee less-deep cut up above would’ve been my personal preference.
I think that the necklace really starts to pull the look apart. I would have preferred some really beautiful piece in there, and instead it looks like she’s wearing a souvenir from her trip to Hawaii or something. Some interesting statement piece that represented an “impossible conversation” or something.
This is spot on! Put your finger over the droopy necklace and imagine something shorter and gorgeous there and the whole thing looks SO much better.
She’s so beautiful. My only complaint is that the dress gives her no shape, which is a shame. Still, she’s dressed better than usual.
Not an attractive dress or look.
Considering what she wore to the Derby, this is fantastic. Love the sparkliness, but I agree that it’s doing weird things to her hips and making her look a little baggy in that area.
It looks like the entire dress should be hiked up a couple of inches to be more flattering.
I think it has potential, but it desperately needs to be altered. You can tell by the droopy armholes that the dress is too tall for her (I’m really short, I recognize the signs).
Imagine this taken in a couple of inches at the shoulders. Presto–the neckline isn’t so strangely bare and the gathers drape downward, eliminating the illusion that the dress is pulling on her hips.
Swap out the necklace for something better, with a little contrast, and this becomes a great outfit.
I agree. Hike the thing up a bit and we’re in (better) business.
This dress is just so meh, it does nothing for her. And they showed a clip of her not being able to climb the stairs in it. THIS is not the type of dress that is worth not being able to move in.
Between this dress and the frightening Derby dress, she has started looking as if her hips are as wide as the wide Missouri. And I don’t recall her looking that broad on SMASH (which I have stopped even hate-watching, so my memory may be failing me…).
It just all looks so saaaaaaggy. Saggy arms, saggy neckline, saggy hips–even saggy necklace (I agree with gail above that that necklace is pathetically wrong for this dress).
And her face is SO pretty. It seems like such a waste.
Exactly! This makes her look wide as a house and so did the Derby dress. And the neckline does nothing for her – so much empty space on her front. Not attractive!
REALLY!!! I’m not a fan of accentuating lack of cleavage. SERIOUSLY!!! Not even going to get into how unflattering this is to her hips. The only thing this has going for it on Ms. Messing is color and sparkle. (She also apparently lost her feet in a tragic farming accident. ;^)
It’s the length that’s bothering me. Maybe if I could see a peek of toe?
JLo could barely pull that off twenty years ago, and you. ma’am, are no JLo. Maybe it IS on backwards.
“CAN SOMEBODY HELP DEBRA UP THE STAIRS PLEASE!!!”
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The helmet hair is not helping. DM has gorgeous curls, a thick bountiful head of hair, and THIS is what she does with it?!!
The draping on this gown is a disaster on her. The proportions are wrong; the draping should be 5 inches higher, at her sternum. And no one ever needs to display so much torso when attired in an evening gown. NO ONE. This isn’t a physical exam; there is not reason to be exposed sternum to navel.
Meh – sparkly shower curtain. Fail.
But there is something truly odd going on with the top half of her hair that I just can’t put my finger on. It’s like she’s wearing a hair-covered motorcycle helmet or something.
It’s hard for me to look at her without being mad, because I watched Smash for the first time in months this week (my TiVo recorded it as a suggestion) and her character was SUCH AN ASSHOLE.
I’m with those who like this in theory but not practice – too much sternum and the gathering hits in the wrong place.
i just wish she would wear a darker more colored lip. i really hate the flesh toned lipsticks she tends to favor.
The problem with the top part of the dress isn’t her lack of bust/cleavage. The problem is that it’s just too low cut for anyone. Anyone (even a big chested woman) would be showing sternum, unless their breasts were unattractively hoisted together to cover it (which runs the very high risk of looking tacky and cheap). Nobody’s natural boobs come together on their own to somehow shield our sensitive eyes from visible sternum. A bit of sternum isn’t bad, but I agree it’s too much here; I disagree that somehow her body is to blame. The dress is just so badly cut and does thicken her silhouette considerably.
Yeah, this doesn’t suit her figure and I’m not sure who it WOULD suit.
It is swamping her waist in a most unkind way.
Geee-zus, can she please wear a dress in a color for once? She wore that bright pink dress awhile ago and it was so refreshing, but for the past however many years it’s just been drab or black. This dress would have been so much better in an emerald green. And her pale lips have got to go. She’s so gorgeous but it’s a complete waste with her style and makeup choices.
When I caught a glimpse of her next to Amy Poehler in the other photo I spontaneously yelled in my head, “Who would do that to Debra Messing???!!” So I guess I don’t like it.
Too low and not J Lo.