Getting dressed has always been the best part of my day. I love dispensing style advice on a daily basis, and I can usually take a two-second scan of an outfit and decide exactly what it needs added or removed to be perfect. And yet if I ever hit the A-list, you can bet your bum I wouldn't be dressing myself.
And do you want to know why? It's because people like me are sitting behind the protective comfort of their computer, firing off "oh no she didn't..." type tirades with every little misstep a celebrity makes, and I really, really don't want to be a Don't. I'd have Rachel Zoe on speed dial faster than you can say "BANANAS."
And yet, it seems more celebrities are doing exactly the opposite--practicing complete wardrobe decision-making freedom--than ever before. The New York Observer reports that an increasing number of starlets are going directly to the designers themselves to score red carpet dresses, to rather mixed results. Their prime example is Blake Lively, who claims to make all of her own clothing choices, and it definitely shows. She's had some superchic hits (the recent Roberto Cavalli backless dress, above right), as well as some major misses (the one-shoulder-one-leg gown she wore to the Costume Institute Gala, which sadly failed to make our best dressed list).
"She's the one that looked like a mess in that Nina Ricci dress at the Golden Globes!" celebrity stylist Phillip Bloch said to the Observer about Blake. "This is why you need a stylist. If you go to a designer, their goal is to get you out the door and on the red carpet in their gown come hell or high water. They're never going to say, This just might not be right for you.'"
