Cover Girl: Sarah Jessica Parker for Marie Claire

Posted on Aug 3, 2011 in Fashion

Marie Claire has a sneak peek at the cover of their September issue and we only have mild and complimentary opinions on it. No, really. Well, except for that one.

On not wanting to be a celebrity: “I never wanted to be a celebrity; I never wanted to be famous. And in my daily life, I work really hard to not trade on it in any way. I am so desperately worried about anybody saying, ‘She cut in line’ or ‘She took our table’ or She got out of jury duty’ or ‘She doesn’t do her own grocery shopping.’ The things that bother me are counter to who I am and the way I live. It’s not like it’s hard to be decent and respectful and well-behaved. I do wait in line, and I do take the subway, and I do do my own grocery shopping, and I do take the kids to school.”

On being an actor: “I love, love, love being an actor,” she says. “It’s still the hardest and scariest thing I do, outside of parenting. But I’ve always been someone who likes a busy day. I love the opportunities, and if I can manage my time and the children are okay and we’re okay, it’s hard to say no…”

Bottega Veneta Resort 2012 Collection/Model: Hanne Gaby Odiele

That’s a perfect cover-of-the-magazine dress; colorful, simple, draws the eye to the face; but that “lifting my skirt” pose should never be done by any woman with a shred of dignity. Credit where it’s due, though; she looks better in it than the model on the runway.

Of further potential interest to T Lo Minions is the Christian Siriano dress she’s wearing inside:

Christian Siriano Fall 2011 Collection

We saw this dress walk the runway. And let us tell you something; one thing we’ve learned as bitchy fashion bloggers is that no matter what your thoughts are on the aesthetic value of a garment, if it stands out in your memory months later when it was only one of literally hundreds of dresses you saw that week, then the designer has pretty much done their job. We remember walking out of Christian’s show talking about this particular dress and concluding that we weren’t likely to see it on the red carpet or at the Met Gala, but it’s the quintessential “very editorial” dress. Perfect for pictures, if not for life. She looks great in it and the Siriano brand gets a deserved boost out of it. There’s a reason why Christian is more successful (at least publicly) than pretty much everyone else who appeared on or won Project Runway. It’s because he or the people advising him have always had a very good understanding of how to play the press game.

[Photo Credit: marieclaire.com, style.com]

Tags:

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_HY2MWD4YWQVWUJH2P7B7P6VFVM Jennifer W

Will someone please shave her head and make her start over???
- http://twitter.com/kmc1138 Kathleen Coyle
  
  Hee hee – I still love her hair. I agree it’s bad, but . . . I think it’s because the summer I was 9 years old I watched “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” every single day. Same thing with the hair, I guess. I know it’s bad but I have a giant soft spot for it.
  - http://www.sineaddoyle.com Sinead
    
    Ah, I used to watch that non-stop as a 9/10 year old. I can still quote the whole movie start to finish! The colours in her cover look just brought me straight back to her outfits in it (bar the uniform)
- Anonymous
  
  She looks like she has a terminal case of split ends……and a bad perm she’s trying to straighten.
http://profiles.google.com/shannonlstewart Shannon Stewart

I think it’s both — he understands the media game very well, and has been smart enough to listen to some very savvy advisors. In fact, that was always one of Tim’s points about Siriano: he took the opportunities handed to him by the show, including outstanding advise, and ran with it.
- MilaXX
  
  I agree, Siriano seems to have embraced the celebrity part of being on PR and used it to his advantage.
Anonymous

I like the spread and she look fresh and pretty.
Anonymous

She’s wearing a rug of fug!
- Anonymous
  
  I thought “muppet fur,” but it amounts to the same thing!
  - http://onionjam.tumblr.com SkipperJane
    
    It’s even the same color as Telly Monster!
Anonymous

100% agree that she looks better than the model.

That’s the only dress I remember from the Siriano collection (just because I remember thinking that it looked like an Easter Island statue covered in mauve shag carpet) so I guess he did his job indeed!
- Anonymous
  
  I just did a scroll-back to look at the pic, and now I see the Easter Island head. XD
bswartz

I want to know about the PR backstage secrets that are promised on the cover!
Anonymous

The CS dress is like a really dramatic dress with a t-shirt you threw on over it to do your make up.
Anonymous

The CS dress is like a really dramatic dress with a t-shirt you threw on over it to do your make up.
Anonymous

He must have had her in mind when he designed the dress. The model walking the runway looks very much like a Sarah Jessica stand-in.
Anonymous

He must have had her in mind when he designed the dress. The model walking the runway looks very much like a Sarah Jessica stand-in.
Anonymous

I mentioned that lifting the skirt gesture last week in my PR9 premiere T Lounge comments. Thanks, boys, for the big tsk-tsk. Skirt lifting is appropriate for avoiding puddles, muck and snow when said skirt is in danger of being soiled, but as a pose in a photo – it’s a signal no female should send.
- Anonymous
  
  Then I guess you’ll have to make sure The Seven Year Itch gets edited before going to Blu Ray.
  
  –GothamTomato
  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1326120071 Gaby Ripoll
    
    But she’s not lifting her skirt – she’s pushing it down. The air from the vent is lifting the skirt up.
    - Anonymous
      
      She could have just got off the vent.
      
      Shameless hussie.
      
      –GothamTomato
Anonymous

I mentioned that lifting the skirt gesture last week in my PR9 premiere T Lounge comments. Thanks, boys, for the big tsk-tsk. Skirt lifting is appropriate for avoiding puddles, muck and snow when said skirt is in danger of being soiled, but as a pose in a photo – it’s a signal no female should send.
Anonymous

I admire Christian, but this looks like a plain ol’ white tee shirt and a really big bath mat. I assume by your observation, it moved well on the runway.
Anonymous

I admire Christian, but this looks like a plain ol’ white tee shirt and a really big bath mat. I assume by your observation, it moved well on the runway.
http://www.facebook.com/sbhadleywilson S B Hadley Wilson

Congrats on attending the Siriano show. Your blogging career is truly inspiring in how it’s gone from the computer to the catwalk. You two should be very proud of yourselves.
- http://www.facebook.com/WendyLKaufman Wendy Kaufman
  
  I also have really felt privileged to see their careers come together.
Anonymous

Her hands look weird..like plastic alien hands……definitley over photoshopped
- http://www.facebook.com/atelierjl Atelier Jimmy Leonardo
  
  Definitely what I thought. It seems so unnatural. Dresses are cute, though.
- http://twitter.com/asciident Melissa Della
  
  God, yes. I get that they were trying to soften away her “mature thin woman” hands (bony and vein-y), but they went too far with it!
- http://twitter.com/asciident Melissa Della
  
  God, yes. I get that they were trying to soften away her “mature thin woman” hands (bony and vein-y), but they went too far with it!
Terence Ng

As a mother, it’s good that at the end of a long day, she can come home, slip out of her tired work clothes, and slip into a haute couture dress and a t-shirt and just veg out. (Yes, I know it’s just a white top version of the original dress.)
- Anonymous
  
  But as an entertainer and a person she thoroughly earned it!
- Anonymous
  
  But as an entertainer and a person she thoroughly earned it!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_T53WBEPGJZ7MMMZC4O563YU5HA Observer

Sorry, I know there’s no rational reason for it but I hate her and all her clothes.
- Lies L.
  
  Yay! More irrational SJP hatred! Me too.
http://twitter.com/jennawaterford Jenna Waterford

That skirt looks like a classic Star Trek monster.
- http://www.facebook.com/WendyLKaufman Wendy Kaufman
  
  You mean the Horta?
  - Anonymous
    
    OMG, it does resemble the Horta! Wasn’t that the murderous female rock creature in the mining colony???
    - Anonymous
      
      The one that Spock had to mind-meld with to understand why it was acting up? ( I can’t believe I know this…_
      - Anonymous
        
        That’s the one. Good episode!
      - Anonymous
        
        I’m impressed that you know that.
  - Toni Mitt
    
    Ahhh the rock monster! Just a cranky mom defending her…um…cubs. Or eggs. Or younguns. Yes–that skirt resembles her very well!
    - Anonymous
      
      Her pebbles?
    - Anonymous
      
      Pebbles. I think the word for a mother horta’s offspring would be pebbles.
      
      Sad to say I’m old enough to remember the old Star Trek when it was in real time on my TeeVee. It’s still one of my all-time favorite shows.
    - Anonymous
      
      Pebbles. I think the word for a mother horta’s offspring would be pebbles.
      
      Sad to say I’m old enough to remember the old Star Trek when it was in real time on my TeeVee. It’s still one of my all-time favorite shows.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MNMVM2GPVUEIOJXBOSLCXKAW4U judy brown

A dirty shag carpet and a clean white T-shirt do not a glamorous outfit make.

Maybe it was better on the runway, but that skirt looks like something on the floor of an apartment I wouldn’t rent.
Anonymous

That’s not a dress. It’s a giant loofah.
trentmeester

OK, I really hate the PPS dress. Bad enough in the runway pic, but on the floor like that, SJP looks like she’s snuggling under a blankie in her sleepshirt.
https://profiles.google.com/104791269167429064986 Judy S

Maybe she’s holding the skirt down because it wants to flare up? The hands are strange. I was thinking of paintings, Titian maybe. They don’t go with the rest of her. She does look great in both dresses. I kind of like the tshirt with mountain of mauve poodles concept.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_F3HKIK7MIJMBDAQBDWEAQDTXUM theneva
  
  The hands look odd because they’ve had all the tendons and veins photoshopped into oblivion.
  - Anonymous
    
    Yes, her hands have been waaaay over photoshopped. And her arms as well, making it look like she has mannequin arms on her real body. I really prefer the natural SJP to the photoshopping. But it wouldn’t be a magazine thing to do to let a woman have her imperfections.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=12500056 Joseph Lamour
  
  I was thinking more Bougereau for the hands. Also LOL @ mauve poodles.
Anonymous

I like the Christian Siriano dress better with the black top. With the white, along with the pose in the picture, she looks like she’s in her pajamas wrapping a big fluffy blanket around herself. Waiting for the coffee to brew. That she brewed herself.
- http://twitter.com/ginpeck Gin Peck
  
  From coffee beans that she bought herself at the grocery store.
Anonymous

I like the Christian Siriano dress better with the black top. With the white, along with the pose in the picture, she looks like she’s in her pajamas wrapping a big fluffy blanket around herself. Waiting for the coffee to brew. That she brewed herself.
Anonymous

Didn’t we recently see this dress on someone else on this blog? SJ does look very pretty in it.

That shag rug skirt is the color of organ meat. Memorable but not flattering.
Anonymous

Didn’t we recently see this dress on someone else on this blog? SJ does look very pretty in it.

That shag rug skirt is the color of organ meat. Memorable but not flattering.
Anonymous

No, no, no. You can admire CS but Pepto-bismol spilled and washed over a bathmat does not a dress (dress?) make.
Anonymous

No, no, no. You can admire CS but Pepto-bismol spilled and washed over a bathmat does not a dress (dress?) make.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MNMVM2GPVUEIOJXBOSLCXKAW4U judy brown

On the other hand, she looks better in the orange and pink number than the boy with anorexia (it’s a dress that needs breasts to give it shape.)

But you’re 40ish Sarah, you don’t lift your skirt in public, like a precocious toddler or slutty teen.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=606569056 Barbara Guttmann
  
  It’s not her fault, that’s probably where they got the hand from.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MNMVM2GPVUEIOJXBOSLCXKAW4U judy brown

On the other hand, she looks better in the orange and pink number than the boy with anorexia (it’s a dress that needs breasts to give it shape.)

But you’re 40ish Sarah, you don’t lift your skirt in public, like a precocious toddler or slutty teen.
Anonymous

She looks 12.
http://profiles.google.com/awilsongirl Amy Wilson

Good heavens- that Siriano dress looks ah-mazing they way they styled it for the magazine. I love how she has been posed and everything- god, it makes that dress sing. I love SJP so I am always happy to see her in a magazine spread.
- Anonymous
  
  It’s interesting that they styled her with JBF hair for the Siriano dress – as if it just happened right then and there on that rug of a skirt.
http://twitter.com/VicksieDo Vickie Lord

But whose hands are on that cover? Not hers!!! She looks WAY better in the dress than the model, she has the boobs for it~ I hate the top of the Ciriano dress, but the bottom is awesome.
http://twitter.com/VicksieDo Vickie Lord

But whose hands are on that cover? Not hers!!! She looks WAY better in the dress than the model, she has the boobs for it~ I hate the top of the Ciriano dress, but the bottom is awesome.
Anonymous

I find her “I never wanted to be famous” comments somewhat disingenous. Because one adjective you can definitely apply to Ms. Parker is “overexposed.” The woman is everywhere–mag covers, editorials, TV ads, print ads, red carpets, uncarpeted openings, etc. Even though she has not done a TV show or play in ages, and the only movies she has done recently have been SATC retreads and bad ones at that. On the other hand, a friend’s sister knows her quite well and says she is down to earth and genuinely nice. She just needs to learn to say no to her press agent once in a while. Because genuinely nice or not, I’m pretty much up to here with her.

Resort dress: Meh. Scooching up your hem: Not cool. Siriano dress: Yeesh! I’ll take your word for it, TLo, that it was stunning on the runway, but I agree with the many previous bathmat/carpet comments. I think it’s hideous.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3AJ237ND3GAHDQJZ4TLCO4WLRA Emily

Pretty pretty pictures.
Anonymous

To me the top of the Siriano dress doesn’t work (in black or white). It’s too … schlumpy and T-shirty. I’d prefer it be really streamlined or the opposite and more like the skirt. It’s the skirt part that’s memorable and if the top were different maybe you would see it on the red carpet too.
http://www.facebook.com/WendyLKaufman Wendy Kaufman

TLO, really, WHAT is that Sirano skirt made form? In this pic, it may be scrunched organza. Thought it was fur, a la Cookie Monster, but no, that CAN’T be so. Please tell.
Anonymous

Putting her in that Siriano dress isn’t particularly inspired. It looks a great deal like the (much prettier) dress she wore on the last episode of the SATC TV show … waiting for Baryshnikov who had blown her off. She was sprawled on the hotel bed in a gown with a skirt that would have required a trunk all its own. As soon as I saw this shot, the other shot was brought to mind … and I’ll bet the stylist for MC thought of it, too.

I also love SJP, but the comments about her hands are right on. In both shots, they have been air-brushed into something that no woman in her late 40s could pull off, but that also don’t look human.
Anonymous

Putting her in that Siriano dress isn’t particularly inspired. It looks a great deal like the (much prettier) dress she wore on the last episode of the SATC TV show … waiting for Baryshnikov who had blown her off. She was sprawled on the hotel bed in a gown with a skirt that would have required a trunk all its own. As soon as I saw this shot, the other shot was brought to mind … and I’ll bet the stylist for MC thought of it, too.

I also love SJP, but the comments about her hands are right on. In both shots, they have been air-brushed into something that no woman in her late 40s could pull off, but that also don’t look human.
Rand Ortega

Getting out of jury duty makes you a celebrity?
Awesome!
Hey everybody, I couldn’t afford to serve JD because I’m an independent contractor so I’m a celebrity!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1303837450 Lauren Dorsee Dillon

Christian solved Star Trek’s problem by making skirts with all those tribbles.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=606569056 Barbara Guttmann

Editorial: I realize Ms. Parker has “old lady hands,” but since you insist on Photoshopping them, you are going to have to dial it back and get a better artist. You have given her “baby hands” with oddly pudgy fingers.
Anonymous

“Tlo said: There’s a reason why Christian is more successful (at least publicly) than pretty much everyone else who appeared on or won Project Runway. It’s because he or the people advising him have always had a very good understanding of how to play the press game.”

Exactamundo. He gets the game, and he also seems to be very pragmatic.

As for SJP, she looks gorgeous, as usual. And she attracts the haters like no other, also as usual.

–GothamTomato
bailey debruynkops

they photoshopped the fuck out of her hand. and the dress is cooler with the more shocking pink.
Judy_J

The skirt on that Siriano number looks like a big ol’ fluffy chenille bedspread. Now I need a nap.
Bridget Dierks

Those are DEFINITELY not her hands. Her hands are covered in bulging veins.
- Anonymous
  
  Ha! I thought the exact same thing. Such is the power of Photoshop.
Anonymous

Wow, she looks beautiful on the cover shot. Not so sure about the shot of her in Christian’s dress – not that the dress isn’t fierce on the runway (heaven forfend!), but in the photo, it kind of looks as if she’s emerging from the primordial goo that spawned Sesame Street.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=513945580 Megan Patterson

I like that they dressed her in something kind of unexpected on the cover too.
Anonymous

No, no, no. Not again! Make her go away. Send her back!!
Anonymous

II am a bitter bitter kitten today. I hate the 1970s Denny’s color scheme of the cover dress and that cannot be overcome by the cute design. I hate the “color” mauve with the intensity of 10,000 suns and that cannot be overcome by the stunning craftsmanship of the Siriano skirt. As for SJP’s interview, it’s the pretty standard, insincere, stuff that should surround a fashion shoot so I can’t really object.
Anonymous

The hand holding the dress on the cover has been Photoshopped to death. Ouch.
Anonymous

You know why she looks better than the model? It’s because she’s airbrushed all to hell (or heaven, I guess, since she looks great). Those are not her hands. Her hands age her. That’s not the skin on her upper arms, either. And her face is not longer the smooth white pale milky skin of her youth, either, if it ever was, actually, since they airbriush everyone’s face. The model partially doesn’t look good in comparison because her legs and arms are blothy and pasty. I love SJP. And this isn’t criticizing her, either. It’s just a fact this cover showws a hell of a lot of airbrushing. Go back and look at Julia Roberts and the other ad pulle din Britain to see exxactly how much they can change/smooth/perfect.
- http://profiles.google.com/trashilove { edi } ilovetrash
  
  i truly doubt that those even are her hands. when i dont sell stuff for a living, i am a designer & my best guess is their production person was told to pull someone else’s hands from somewhere & shop em on, then shop on her ring. the legs might be hers, w/ photoshop. &, in this case, i think she’s lifting her dress at least in part cos if it stayed the length it is on the model it wouldve been too long to look appropriate on the cover. then again, she may have worn it that way & the whole bottom half–hands, legs, lifted skirt, everything but the ring–might be all another person.
  
  i have no problem w/ her either. i just hate this much photoshop, even tho, at times, i’ve had to do it to earn a living.
Anonymous

My mom and I married the same man.

(I just felt it needed repeating.)
Jennifer Such

Forget about her hands, those are the legs of a middle school girl. Ridiculous photoshopping.
Anonymous

Anything below the waist looks photoshopped beyond reality. Even the skirt could’ve been lower in the original shot.
MilaXX

I like SJP and I think she does live as much of a “normal” life as someone in her position can, but please stop telling us in every frickin interview how much of a everyday Joe you and Mathew strive to be.

I like the spread, like it or not girl can wear clothes.
Anonymous

I’m too distracted by the really busy, trashy-looking Marie Claire cover to notice anything else. They’re really going downmarket, aren’t they? But now that it’s mentioned, her photoshopped hands just look creepy. And the lifted skirt is a shame. And the dress is ugly. But she still looks better than the model.

Not a fan of the Siriano loofah skirt. Mauve is just a horrible, horrible color that looks good on no one. But she does look pretty great in that picture. Again, better than the model. I wouldn’t want to see her standing up in that thing, though. The seated pose works.
Anonymous

Great cover. She looks good, but still recognizable as herself, the dress looks better (in and of itself, and on her) than in the runway pic.

How DOES one decide to marry a piece of a Rose Bowl Parade float with an oversized silk tee?? Pulling it off is almost secondary to dreaming it up.
John Hixenbaugh

TLo, I like your discussion point about Christian Siriano, and I think it makes a great starting point for a series I would love to see on your blog discussing “Life After Project Runway” – the successes (depends on how it’s defined, e.g. success as a designer, success as a celebrity, success as both . . . does Santino even design anymore?), the lost potential, the where are they nows . . . Obviously, you have plenty to do, and I’m not trying to create more work for you, but I, and I’m sure others, would love to hear your collective thoughts on the subject when you find some downtime.
Anonymous

“Look at me sitting here in thousands and thousands of dollars worth of clothes on the cover of a magazine. I’m just a regular gal like you, ladies.”

Sigh. Clothes are good, though I hate that actress hem lifting thing. The hair? I gave up any hope of her doing something new with it years ago.
Anonymous

She looks good on the cover and the dress looks really great on her. Love the colors. Is there photoshopping going on…of course! They do it to everybody. Thankfully they didn’t butcher her face.

As far as the Siriano dress goes I know exactly what you mean because the second I saw it I remembered seeing the pictures of it on the runway. Whether it’s to your taste or not it’s certainly unforgettable. And I agree it’s perfect for editorials.
Anonymous

I think her face looks terrible on the cover!! Maybe they didn’t photoshop it!! I generally am annoyed by her, but do think she tries to be kind. I remember when she was on Project Runway, she was very kind to the designers and she was visibly cringing at what the other judges were saying to them. She does seem decent.
http://twitter.com/commish24 commish24

Sorry, Christian, but she looks like she’s being eaten by a giant fluffy bedroom slipper. Or a Snuggie that mated with Bigfoot. Either way, it’s not an attractive look. At least the t-shirt is better than the horrible one on the runway model.
http://vhanna26.typepad.com Vera

SJP looks better in both dresses than the models.
Anonymous

I wonder how many Muppets had to die to make that Siriano dress? I think it is memorable for being positively hideous. I don’t mind SJP, but I’m really tired of hearing her talk about how normal she is. Alright already.
Anonymous

She looks better in BOTH dresses than the models. BY A LONG SHOT.
Anonymous

lol no she looks like she’s getting eaten by a muppet in the Siriano thing.
Anonymous

lol no she looks like she’s getting eaten by a muppet in the Siriano thing.
Anonymous

LOL! There’s a Star Trek theme going on with that skirt.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Tracy-Alexander/3234141 Tracy Alexander

The Christian Siriano dress reminds me a little of the dress Carrie wore in the penultimate episode of SATC (in Paris, when she falls asleep that huge dress…).
http://twitter.com/RosamundYoung Rosamund Young

That dress is very similar to the mille feuille dress from the Paris Sex and the City finale, do you remember?
Anonymous

Why are we still looking at this woman?
Anonymous

Those clothes look so much better on SJP than on the models. What is up with these models who look like the walking dead?
Anonymous

On the runway, the top half of of the second dress looks like a garbage bag. Cannot unsee.
Anonymous

On the runway, the top half of of the second dress looks like a garbage bag. Cannot unsee.
Anonymous

Not a big Siriano fan. And this is why.
Anonymous

I feel bad about any poodles that were sacrificed for the skirt, though.
Anonymous

she does look like she’s wearing her husbands dirty old t shirt in the princess puffy sleeves dress. and her shag carpet is about to gobble her up. i love the cover dress, though. my daughter’s favorite colors to wear to pre-school were hot pink, bright red and orange, all at once.
Anonymous

I’m sorry, but ever since that post where we saw what her hands look like, now I can’t look at any picture of her where her hands have obviously been completely airbrushed and judge the outfits or the look in its entirety because I wonder what else has been completely redone
http://ape-z.blogspot.com April Zhang

Her hand/arm wrinkles are always so smoothed out in editorials, I always forget how old she is. And then I see photos of her on the red carpet, and it’s shocking. Forget the clothes, I can’t get over how much photoshop went in to this spread.

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Cover Girl: Sarah Jessica Parker for Marie Claire

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