Kate Winslet (with Leonardo DiCaprio) at 2009 Golden Globes wear­ing a dia­mond pendant-brooch

After all the red car­pet pub­lic­ity dis­played in every fash­ion mag­a­zine, in terms styled by Madi­son Avenue ad agen­cies, listed by the arm-length the celebri­ties who either bor­rowed or got paid to wear items from houses like Fred Leighton, Neil Lane, or any of the ven­er­a­ble firms, who among you still believes that celebri­ties wear their own jew­elry at these events?

I thought so.

Yes, we are in a reces­sion, and yes, just about all of us will not be buy­ing baubles that are equal in cost to our mort­gages. That does not mean we don’t want to see them worn in a dec­o­ra­tive and enter­tain­ing way on the red car­pet. The awards are the­ater; they are meant to give us a few moments of fash­ion­able glam­our and friv­o­lity. Like a great movie, we watch the red car­pet to dream…admire…scoff…whatever. This is not a Marie-Antoinette-let-them-eat-cake moment. We need the escape, or the humor. If we wanted to be reminded how ter­ri­ble things are we’d be watch­ing CNN.

Is any­one offended by the gor­geous four– and five-digit gowns from Armani Privé or Reem Acra, or Chris­t­ian Dior that celebri­ties wear? Oh…wait a minute…they have to wear those. Naked on the red car­pet is a no-no. Silly stuff…the dresses, the bags, the jew­elry are all part of the cos­tume. Why skimp? Sen­si­tiv­ity towards those less for­tu­nate than one­self, when gen­uinely expressed and well thought out, is a noble act. Mod­esty framed this way, and flooded by kleig lights, often comes off as com­mer­cial rather than sin­cere in these instances.

Eva Mendes wear­ing vin­tage Van Cleef & Arpels Turquoise and Dia­mond Necklace

Bey­once at the 2009 Golden Globe Awards

Last night at the Golden Globes, there were those who wore some fab­u­lous things — Eva Mendes and that vin­tage 1970’s VCA turquoise and dia­mond neck­lace, as well as Beyoncé‘s exu­ber­ant all dia­mond col­lier framed her face and suited her arma­ture per­fectly. The gem-intense flo­rals around Christina Applegate’s neck hit the mark too. As did Selma Hayek won­der­ful dia­mond ear­rings, although I think she, too, could have embell­ished a bit more. Kate Winslet’s dia­mond pendant-brooch was clev­erly placed; she looked in every way, a win­ner. It was a plea­sure to watch these women. Not only did they cre­ate mem­o­rable images, they pro­vided much needed excitement.

You really had to look hard and quick to find the jew­elry on many of the atten­dees. Amy Adams wore great emer­ald ear­rings but they were dif­fi­cult to see with her hair styled as it was. She also wore a remark­able emer­ald ring, which could only be viewed when the cam­era panned to her table. I notice a pat­tern here, when times are dif­fi­cult, either in war or money, neck­laces van­ish, and large, gumdrop-sized cen­ter stone rings begin to appear. Fine. Great. Why hid them? There was a lot of big-earrings-and-not-much-else going on too. Fash­ion for­ward? Yes (see Marc Jacobs Spring 09 run­way). Inter­est­ing? Not for Hol­ly­wood where this is com­monly rec­om­mended by styl­ists, year in, year out.

Eva Lon­go­ria Par­ket at the 2009 Golden Globe Awards

I liked Eva Lon­go­ria Park­ers’ close-fitting dia­mond ear­rings, they suited her small hair and lovely face, but I think the neck­line could have used a lit­tle some­thing, per­haps a sprin­kling of del­i­cate strands a la Amy Poehler, or a gem-y brooch. What was Ms. Poehler wear­ing exactly? Sweet they were, but red car­pet dressy? Not so much. The SNL troupe, ie, Tina Fey (who wore not much jew­elry, save a pair of teeny-tiny ear­rings) and Poehler need to stop work­ing so hard, and take some time to enjoy their suc­cess — and that includes wear­ing a bit o’ bling when the occa­sion calls for it. Email me ladies, I would be happy to hook you up…