Award Season Winners and Losers: Part 1, The Trends

The day after the Oscars always feels a little like the day after Christmas. Award season is over. It's time to examine the booty, separate the good from the bad and the ugh, and pack up the glitter and sequins and put it all in storage for next year. But before we move on to other things (hello, Hunger Games!), let's debrief. Want to be trendy in 2012? Here's what you should embrace from this past award season:

1. Embrace your inner high school goth.
Black nail polish is not just for 5th period lunch anymore. Kristin Wiig (Bridesmaids, seen below), Melissa McCarthy, Zoe Saldana, and Kate Mara all sported black nails on the red carpet this year. Interested in embracing the dark side? Consider having a manicurist perfect your polish if you don't have the steadiest hand when it comes to painting your own nails.

Photo courtesy of People

2. Embrace your shape.
Christina Hendricks, take notes. This season's big winner, both in statues and in style, was The Help's Octavia Spencer. Proving that if it ain't broke, you shouldn't fix it, Spencer shined in Tadashi Shoji at the Golden Globes, the SAG awards, the BAFTAs, and the Academy Awards. If you're a curvy girl, you're not going to fool the world into thinking you're a waif. Even if you are packing industrial strength shapewear. So stop thinking "camouflage" and start thinking "highlight." Shoji used ruching, sequins, patterns, and belts to define and spotlight Spencer's waistline. The result is a perfectly proportioned hourglass silhouette.

3. Embrace your age.
I'll be honest, I was pulling for a Viola Davis win in the Best Actress category. However, there is no denying that Meryl Streep looked stunning in Lanvin. Streep was beautiful, sexy, and appropriately dressed for her age (cough, 62!).

Photo courtesy of People

And now for my first award show loser: Jane Seymour. No doubt Dr. Quinn has a rockin bod. If I look that good at her age (cough, 61!), I will kneel down and pledge my eternal servitude to the whims and wishes of the mighty metabolism gods. What I will NOT do, however, is wear the dress she wore to last night's Oscar ceremony. Why? It was the sequined first cousin of the dress that then-20-year-old Jennifer Lawrence wore to last year's Academys! Great on Lawrence, wrong on Seymour. It's too much arm, chest, and slink for a woman in her 60's. Here's the lesson: don't try to dress like a 22-year old if you are not 22! The 22-year old will beat you at that game EVERY SINGLE TIME. Stop buying into our country's obsession with youth and start embracing the wonderful things that come with being 32 or 62 or 82 (way to go, Christopher Plummer!).

4. Embrace your pallor.
It took 31 years, but I am finally en vogue! Pale is the new tan. Here are some of the A-listers that did not take a single step into a spray tan booth this season: Michelle Williams, Jessica Chastain, and Emma Stone. It's hip to be porcelain, so pick up the SPF 70 and start slathering it on, friends!

All photos courtesy of People

5. Embrace your inner frugalista.
Fashion is not just for the rich. Best Actress nominee, Michelle Williams, made headlines earlier this month by wearing a dress from fast fashion powerhouse, H&M, to the BAFTAs. Just because you have it, doesn't mean you have to spend it. It's chic to save!

Photo courtesy of People

6. Embrace your bestie.
No boyfriend? No worries! Rather than stress over not having an Oscar date, single lady (and Best Actress nominee) Rooney Mara rolled with sister and best friend, Kate Mara (American Horror Story). Other award season besties included Michelle Williams and Busy Phillips (Cougar Town), Best Supporting Actress winner, Octavia Spencer, and Josh Hopkins (Cougar Town), and Best Supporting Actor nominee, Jonah Hill and his mom, Sharon Lyn. Best Supporting Actress nominee, Jessica Chastain, also kept it in the family by bringing her Nana as her date to the Academy Awards. The lesson here? Stop stressing your single status. Next time you need a plus one, phone a friend!

The Mara sisters, Photo courtesy of Zimbio

7. Embrace your inner Anna (Wintour).
I still hear people refer to the "Katie Holmes bob" like it was "the Rachel." Sorry Katie, you may have worn the blunt bob with bangs for a minute in 2007, but Anna Wintour has been wearing it since Pangaea.

Ain't nothing like the real thing: Anna Wintour with her signature coif. Photo courtesy of Telegraph.

The "Anna Wintour" made an award season appearance on funny ladies, Anna Faris (What's Your Number) and Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids).

Photos courtesy of People 

8. Embrace your sparkle.
All that glitters is not gold, but some that glitters is. Get back to me when you figure that one out. If it glittered, sparkled and/or was covered in sequins, it went down the red carpet this season. Some got it all right (like E! News correspondent, Giuliana Rancic).

Photo courtesy of People

And some got it all wrong (Melissa Leo, this is two years in a row. Please fire your stylist.).

Photo courtesy of Makeup Talk

9. Embrace the mane event. 
Last night was all about Viola Davis's hair. The Best Actress nominee, who usually wigs it out on the red carpet, wore her brown hair close-cropped and natural. Grammy winner Esperanza Spalding, who sang last night's "In Memoriam" tribute song, "What a Wonderful World," also kept her hair loose and natural.

Photos courtesy of People

 Note: treat your hair like an accessory. When your hair is the highlight, keep everything else minimal.

10. Embrace your Diddy.
Because it's always good to be Diddy.

Photo courtesy of People 

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