Cobie Smulders for ELLE Canada

Posted on Apr 24, 2012 in Fashion

Kittens, sometimes, giving good face can overcome even the most unattractive of dresses.

Cobie? Would you like to demonstrate?

Cobie Smulders covers the latest issue of ELLE Canada magazine photographed by Giuliano Bekor in a Stella McCartney dress.

Stella McCartney Spring 2012 Collection/Model: Karmen Pedaru (ELITE)

Darlings, we’re looking for volunteers to go out in the world and hunt down every single dress from Stella’s spring collection just so we don’t have to look at another one ever again. STYLISTS: We GET it. You all love these bizarrely baroque, unflattering frocks. We realize it must get boring looking at the same old “attractive” and “flattering” dresses, and that you all sometimes completely lose all sense when it comes to what looks pretty because you spend all day, every day looking at pretty things. Really; we totally get it. We spend all day, every day looking at dresses too and sometimes even we find ourselves weakening and saying things like “It’s kind of …interesting…” about dresses no sane woman would ever consider wearing. But we’re here to tell you: ENOUGH.

Cobie, keep up the good work. But take that thing off your neck. It’s not helping.

[Photo Credit: Giuliano Bekor for ellecanada.com, elle.com]

Tags:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=12801074 Brett Hulst

that dress literally makes me want to die.
- JosephLamour
  
  hyperbole must never figure into your life
  
  (i hate this dress ever, ever so, too)
  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=12801074 Brett Hulst
    
    God weeps on this dress… is that better?
    - JosephLamour
      
      haha, the first was fine, it is truly that awful. that whole collection, actually.
    - introspective
      
      and his tears are joined with those of all the angels in heaven. cant agree more with the need for this dress and all its fugly cousins running about various red carpets to be laying somewhere in a flyover state brush fire.
  - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_6RS6NLL44AED3E4QWIYTDQGU6I Psy_Chick
    
    I figured this was an homage to Robin’s overuse of the word “literally” on How I Met Your Mother.
  - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_6RS6NLL44AED3E4QWIYTDQGU6I Psy_Chick
    
    I figured this was an homage to Robin’s overuse of the word “literally” on How I Met Your Mother.
http://twitter.com/connectinglines Me Again

I like the dress! Am I crazy? (And where did the first “L” in ELLE go?)
- NatalieD28
  
  Haha – you made me scroll back up and I too am confused! Since usually when it disappears it’s due to the model’s head…hmm…apparently this issue is ECanadaLE hahaha
- http://twitter.com/The_Bugler Anna Daugherty
  
  I kind of like it, too. Makes the wearer look really curvy.
- Jasmaree
  
  I do too. Perhaps the peep hole in the front is a bit much, but otherwise I really, really like this dress.
  
  And I’m not sure why so many magazines think it’s necessary to cover part of their logo with the picture. Maybe if they got rid of articles like “MANLY PURSUITS: WHY YOU’LL NEVER BE ENOUGH” they’d have more room to work with. I’d never thought I’d say this, but I think I’d rather have “4,654,403 WAYS TO PLEASE YOUR MAN”.
  - http://www.celestiae.net Isy
    
    I’m sad that the Manly Pursuits thing is not a joke. I had to scroll up to make sure. At least the pleasing your man thing is potentially fun. Reading about why you’ll never be enough? Not so much! Wtf………
- http://phantomminuet.blogspot.com/ MinAgain
  
  It’s an interesting dress, and it looks really good on Cobie. The model, not so much. I think it’s the styling.
- http://www.facebook.com/mary.nease Mary Nease
  
  I think it’s one of those dresses that looks good in editorials on the right person, but in the “real world” it just doesn’t work.
erinbinek

Oh, I am SO sick of that dress in all its incarnations. Make it stop, TLo!
- halleygee
  
  Same here! And that thing on her neck makes it even worse if that was possible.
  - MissAnnieRN
    
    that thing on her neck is ridiculous. It’s a neck cage with a pussy bow? WTF? Umm, OK – you must have some good shit on your end, because I’m not feeling this at all.
  - http://www.GiftedCollector.com Nancy Abrams
    
    Who would think it was a good idea to add some unrelated thing on top of this busy dress? It’s hard to believe that someone actually got paid to put this together.
Judy_J

I am sick to death of that dress in all its incarnations. Make it go away…..PLEASE!
- erinbinek
  
  Jinx!
  - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_2P2ANLRZ6YAVGONA36I2AQJYGI VicD
    
    DITTO
  - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_2P2ANLRZ6YAVGONA36I2AQJYGI VicD
    
    DITTO
elleg929

I am not loving the hair and makeup either.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jessica-TallGirl-Freeman/1043623567 Jessica TallGirl Freeman

Amen TLo. How many versions of this dress are there? For as ugly as it is, they should all be burned in the town square at high noon. Is that a necklace or a torture device?
newleaf1

What is that thing around her neck? Looks like something the orthopedic surgeon gave her to hold her head up.
- kimmeister
  
  Looks like something that Kara from Fashion Star would design. I kinda like it, although I have no idea how I’d deploy it.
  - erinbinek
    
    That was my first thought, too!
- Lori
  
  Seriously. What the heck is that thing and why on earth did anyone think that it would improve that dress?
Scarlet39

Stella McCartney really is a menace to the world of fashion. She did some really well cut trousers a few years ago, but everything since then has been (for lack of a better word) crap.
NatalieD28

Without that neck ornament, I actually really, REALLY like this on her. If I had the chance, I’d even rock it myself….please do not take my Bitter Kitten Card! I beg!
http://twitter.com/bredalot Bridget Smith

I wish they hadn’t airbrushed all the planes out of her face. But DAMN, Cobie. The dress and the neck thing and the hair and the photoshop are all working against you, but you still look smashing. Well played, girl.
- http://twitter.com/bredalot Bridget Smith
  
  Also, if no one does a punny “Cobie SMOLDERS” headline in the run-up/fallout for Avengers, I will be very disappointed in the magazine world.
- kimmeister
  
  I know, I was like “good face? You can barely tell that she has any facial features.”
  - http://profiles.google.com/sara.e.munoz Sara Munoz
    
    She’s like Disney’s Pocahontas- she basically has no nose.
beebee10

SO TRUE, every last word. Thank you, lovelies.
HomeOfficeGirl

I think you pretty much summed it up on this one. She’s gorgeous, though – has a really strong presence. Love her!
http://www.facebook.com/smpflueger Sean McArdle Pflueger

Poor Colbie, her face has been photoshopped to oblivion.
- MilaXX
  
  Reminds me of the episode of Doctor Who w/ the doplangers. Cobie look like one of the half formed. ‘gangers
- Larkin21
  
  Seriously, can someone give face when it’s photoshopped away?
http://www.thatwasdramatic.tumblr.com/ Anya

I look forward to day when I will never have to see that dress ever again.
http://twitter.com/#!/Space_Kitty Space Kitty

Damn. Girl’s wearing an impossibly hideous dress with ‘The Comedy Issue’ and ‘Beauty Rejects’ floating around her head and she’s still crazy working it.

Well done.
Sobaika Mirza

Just plain ugly – the dress, not Cobie.
amf0001

just near her lady bits is the line – men and porn, why you’ll never be enough
Why I’ll never read this magazine…
- AthenaJ
  
  Ugh, I just went back and read that tagline for myself. How blatant can they be in drumming up business based on women’s insecurities? I wouldn’t be suprised if the ads surrounding that story are for plastic surgery and ‘miracle’ $100 antiaging creams. ‘C’mon ladies, you can never be enough, but you can go broke trying!’
  - http://profiles.google.com/sara.e.munoz Sara Munoz
    
    Yes. This is the industry in a nutshell.
TieDye64

Can we burn this freaking dress now? Stella and her bad taste need to go away.
TropiCarla

I heart the red, black, and white color combo so much that I kinda love this awful dress. It’s time to seek help … Fellow bitter kittens, please jot down your suggestion for rehab locations on the sign-in sheet I’m passing around.
choco

sometimes I think a dress is so ugly, that it makes the wearer look beautiful by comparison. This is one of those dresses.
Clueless_Jock

That is one trashy dress.
DCSheehan

Not only would I volunteer, I would vow to never rest or eat until every single one of theses dressed are burning in a huge bonfire. Plus, she looks plastic here. Odd cover and not in a good way that would make me pick it up.
TheOriginalLulu

Enh, I don’t think the dress is all that bad. My issue with it is that the sort of wavy trim is white on the top half and black on the bottom half. She should have picked one or the other and stuck with it. That thing on Cobie’s neck makes no sense. You don’t need anything around your neck with a dress this busy.
poggi

This the equivalent of a fashion arms race. It’s like starlets are all saying, yeah anyone can look pretty in a pretty dress, but can you look pretty in an ugly dress? Cobie has upped the ante. I really don’t want to see who takes it to the next level and what hideous Stella McCartney dress she will wear.
- kimmeister
  
  Ha, this is the current “potato sack” (as in, “she would even look good in a potato sack.”)
Pants_are_a_must

No, I’m sorry, but none of this is working for me. She’s definitely not letting the dress wear her, but the make up, yegods! She looks like Benedict Cumberbatch! (don’t get me wrong, I love him, but you guys, not on anyone else’s face)
- MilaXX
  
  *snort* And now I can’t unsee it.
NurseEllen

Jesus, it’s THAT DRESS. AGAIN. It wasn’t something I liked the first time, and the subsequent 50 viewings have done nothing to change my mind. Don’t like it in any length, color, fabric, or combination of fabrics; don’t like it on a cover on on a runway; don’t like it with stilettos, platforms, boots, or sandals; don’t like it when worn by a blonde, brunette, bluette, or redhead. This is the Green Eggs and Ham of dresses.

Bless her for not caring and giving her best face anyway, that Ms. Smulders.
carolynmo

Completely cracktastic. Stella has produced another head-scratcher of a dress.
http://www.filmsbyneptune.com/ Dani Colman

Smulders smoulders.

Sorry. Had to.
http://twitter.com/OracleKath Kathrine Marlow

So many prettier dresses in that collection, why do they drag this one around?
Kolo_Ol

But it’s the “Comedy Issue”! That’s why they put this laughably unattractive dress on the cover and added a bowtie-cage to it. No one in their right mind would ever seriously commit such a crime!
BrooklynBomber

Good lord, what IS that thing on her neck???

And, TLo, far be it from me to criticize, but when you said, “hunt down every single dress from Stella’s spring collection,” didn’t you mean “hunt down every single dress from Stella’s spring collection, and after you’ve done that, BUILD A BONFIRE. . . “?
- MilaXX
  
  I’ll bring the matches & the kerosine!
  - BrooklynBomber
    
    I’ll bring the moonshine!
- MilaXX
  
  I’ll bring the matches & the kerosine!
Kayceed

This is almost astonishingly bad. Any kid who tried to get into a design school with this in his/her portfolio would get laughed right out the door. Stella, you’re killing me.
http://twitter.com/foodycatAlicia foodycatAlicia

I think I hate this the least of this dress’s iterations. It’s got a Chinoiserie feel this time that I like. Does Cobie usually have these beautiful eyes? I’ve never noticed before and can’t tell if it’s just photoshop.
DebB_Rocker

i never understood McCartney’s fabric choice here. It always ALWAYS reminds me of men’s flannel pajamas. And that, to me, is not synonymous with couture dressing.
SpcilK

She looks beautiful, but this dress is something that one would fashion if they were a castaway on a deserted island. It’s just wrong!
LaurelTrz

I saw this dress in person a few days ago and I wanted to rip it to shreds right there. But I think they frown on that sort of behavior in Liberty of London.
LaurelTrz

I saw this dress in person a few days ago and I wanted to rip it to shreds right there. But I think they frown on that sort of behavior in Liberty of London.
http://twitter.com/stopENtalk Brittany Johnstone

I don’t like her hair. Face is great but rest is eh.
http://twitter.com/stopENtalk Brittany Johnstone

I don’t like her hair. Face is great but rest is eh.
Lochery

That thing around her neck looks like the neck brace I had to wear when I broke my neck.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Karen-Stephens-Bassett/1503492602 Karen Stephens Bassett

It is a good thing her last name is McCartney. Otherwise, this crap wouldn’t fly.
AthenaJ

WTF is around her neck??
lifetime_student

Project Runway Challenge: Make a couture dress out of scraps retrieved from Mood’s dumpster. You have 15 minutes.
- alyce1213
  
  Yes indeed, out of the dumpster, only I would delete the word “couture.”
Terri Smith

I can’t help but be mesmerized by Miss Cobie’s fantastic bitch face!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Sarah-Adams/1143985903 Sarah Adams

I can’t take anyone seriously whose screen name is Cobie Smulders. Reminds me of Finn Smolders from The Guild.
http://twitter.com/jaythenerdkid Aaminah Khan

What have they done to her face? She’s a gorgeous woman, and they’ve turned her into a plastic doll.
Christina Hidek

Good lord- they airbrushed her face so flat her cheekbones disappeared. And the neck thing? Its like a bangle bracelet for your neck with a Colonel Sanders bow tie tacked on to it. Weird.
CatherineRhodes

The cover blurb says “The Comedy Issue” so maybe the dress is part of the joke.
http://twitter.com/herong Heron

That collar REALLY brings it. I love it.
http://twitter.com/BMoke28 Bernadette Moke

Wow what a photoshop job…. they made her look skinnier than the runway model! Also they made her hips look funny. At first I thought it was the way she was standing… but the more I looked at it the funnier it looked.
holdmewhileimnaked

im-tired-o, it’s not a beautiful dress by any means but it has been flattering on some of the entirely too large number of people who have worn it. it has to be–as far as i can tell at least part of it’s made of powernet & powernet is the most flattering fabric in the world. i could be wrong about that, heaven knows i have been wrong many times in my life, but it seems to be an unusually patterned version of this stuff, which is like a very thick & textured spandex. works like a fancy girdle, way way better than the somewhat disreputable fancydance spanx, lifts & molds & does all kinds of wonderful things for the figure.

thats also the only reason i can imagine these dresses so repeatedly featured. no name, even if it belonged to an archangel, would get them there w/o some other going for them.
- MilaXX
  
  I’ve only liked it on Nicole Kidman and someone who had the sense to ear an all black version of it. Everyone else has looked a hot mess.
  - holdmewhileimnaked
    
    it’s such a weird dress. almost like she fell asleep in a roomful of notions & decided to apply as many as she could to the first thing she saw as soon as she woke up. agree w/ most of the critiques, only the fit keeps it from being a consistent disaster…..
- MilaXX
  
  I’ve only liked it on Nicole Kidman and someone who had the sense to ear an all black version of it. Everyone else has looked a hot mess.
- minnye
  
  I was wondering about the fabric. I don’t mind the dress in a garments-on-celebrities-that-nobody-in-real-life-would-wear way, but the trim is ugly on every version. The fabric itself is kinda cool.
guest2visits

THANKYOU! Mostly for understanding some things are just not meant to live outside the runway.
VioletFem

Stella McCartney can (and does) design pretty and elegant dresses, this just isn’t one of them. If this dress had a simpler pattern for the fabric or even just used plain colors I would like this dress more.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_F73LIJ3SJGI5AJQMXMWXCKILHI Pamela

People on PR have gotten auf’d for better stuff than this.
MilaXX

UGH! This thing again? And whoever thought adding that weird tie thing to neck, needs their butt kicked. HARD!
ChiKat67

It’s the hiddy that just keeps on giving…even though Nicole Kidman, Leanne Rimes, Elizabeth Banks, Rumor Willis, Sienna Miller, Brooklyn Decker & Gwyneth Paltrow have all failed wearing some version of this dress it just won’t go away!
marilyn

Another butt-ugly Stella McCartney dress.
Dan_In_NYC

Ugly. And where did the other “L” in Elle go?
Dan_In_NYC

Ugly. And where did the other “L” in Elle go?
IMNAngryLiberal

This is what happens when you don’t feed children enough meat.
demidaemon

Why won’t this dress just die? If Nicole Kidman can’t make it look good, why do stylists think someone else will?
http://eclectictsunami.blogspot.com/ Cassie

You WERQ that face, girl!!

She’s even WERQing that utterly hideous dress. Way to be, Robin. Way to be.
sk8tfan

How sweet. One of her friends tied a pretty ribbon to her neck brace to cheer her spirits during her convalescence.
howdoilook

ugh, this dress again. but Robin Sparkles is killin’ it, still!
DominoEstella

NOPE. That dress is still fucking ugly.
http://twitter.com/londonpenguin Teresa M.

A Frankendress only Wilma Flinstone could love.
http://twitter.com/cornekopia Shawn EH

Stella, why do you hate all other women?
dschubba

I do not understand this dress and its Greendale Community College print.
Toto Maya

I disagree, I don’t think even her fierceness can save it. Maybe if she wasn’t airbrushed to oblivion it would work.
- Anathema_Device
  
  Totally agree.
  - Pennymac
    
    I agree as well.
ccm800

Dogpatch hooker. I HATE STELLA!
alyce1213

As soon as I saw the thumbnail on your main page, I knew I didn’t want to look any further — other than to beg you to stop showing the endless variations of this putrid Stella McCartney print. Pleeeeeease make it stop.
Derek_anny

Now I want to see TLo go back into their archives for a “What were we THINKING” post.
PRFan

Will someone please kill that dress – it is so appallingly ugly.
Judy_S

I actually think the neck thing is helping. Otherwise, right on and LOL.
bellafigura1

This is eerily reminiscent of the recent Ivanka hillbilly/dominatrix/cross hatch moment, no??
Louise Bryan

I’ve cringed at every version of this McCartney dress for the last, what, 4 weeks? 6 weeks? How do these keep popping up?
SewingSiren

Uggles
Peeve

Did Stella really think this fug was attractive? Or is she laughing all the way to the bank?
annamiklo

I like this dress, and the others like it. I think they’re interesting and exciting and ridiculous and fun and sort of dreamlike. Apparently I’m crazy, but I would LOVE to wear this dress.
BigWhiteGrannyPanties

Someone needs to stop Stella. STOP HER!
Thathoodwink

Haha, I’ve seen this dress so many times on Fashion Police that I can’t believe I’m looking at it yet again!!
crash1212

Stella McCartney must be stopped. Does she actually pay off all these stylists to use her hiddy clothes? It’s the only thing I can think of, cuz they sure aren’t using them because they’re cute and their clients look good in them. Stella…STEP AWAY FROM THE SEWING MACHINE!
Rebecca Jay

She has no nose. Only nostrils. This is an awful picture.

If I stare at the dress long enough, the spots begin to undulate.
minnye

The dress seems perfectly attention-grabbing for a magazine cover and she is wearing it nicely but the open collar Colonel Sanders neck thingy is inexplicable.
http://vhanna26.typepad.com Vera

WHY is Stella McCartney so popular among the glitterati? Most of her creations are pedestrian and best and hideous (like this dress) at worst. Cobie is working it, though, but what is that thing around her neck.
hmariec19

She certainly fills it out nicely, but what in the HELL have they done to her face?
mochajava13

Grown up version of Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas, minus the blue skin and stitches.
http://profile.yahoo.com/C5DHGDPX5J7BENE4HI6TBQUZHM Kathryn

This is dress is hideous but I have nothing but affection for Colbie. Did you know that she was Joss Whedon’s #1 for Wonder Woman back when that movie was a thing?
- http://profile.yahoo.com/C5DHGDPX5J7BENE4HI6TBQUZHM Kathryn
  
  ACK! Cobie…COBIE…damn my finger’s natural reflexes!
MissAnnieRN

yeah – what the hell is it with these Stella dresses? Did she pay the stylists to put them all over Hollywood? Gwynnie, LeeAnn Rimes, Nicole Kidman, Brooklyn Decker, Rumer Willis, and now the cover of Elle Canada. WTF?
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000060490093 Anita Freiler Palmer

When is this dress & its’ ugly stepsisters going to go away?
http://profiles.google.com/sara.e.munoz Sara Munoz

Weird. Do the pictures inside look like that? Because she is gorgeous but that retouching is shameful.
Lina_bee

There’s plenty of edgy and interesting stuff out there that isn’t Stella. Plenty. This reeks of Payola or something all too like it. As for the cover itself, all that shrieking bold black and red text is utterly blinding. What an atrocious cover.
KathKo

I’m dying to know what kind of dirty secret that good old Stella holds against the fashion world that make her able to throw her most hideous garments on red carpets and magazine covers.
It has to be HUGE !
sleah_in_norcal

does every person in the freakin’ world have to wear this dress? it was ugly in the first place.
http://www.facebook.com/izzzyy Dixie Murphy Ross

I am totally distracted by the “why men like porn and you’ll never be enough” tag.

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Cobie Smulders for ELLE Canada

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