Girl, That’s Not Your Dress: Christina Hendricks

Let’s acknowledge that hair and makeup are far better than usual!  It’s a good lip color and a good soft curl on her.  Going back to what you guys always say about Christina always being vamped out on photoshoots?  The hair and makeup don’t excessively sexualize her, which is a nice change.  I feel like you can see the softness and strength shining through.  The dress is sort of like throwing a scarf on a lamp, however…

I actually like the waist up on her; I think the sleeves are flattering.  Had the dress gone to the floor and not flared out so much, I think this could have been decent.  Don’t love her in black though.  Christina, have you met my friend Royal Blue?  He loves redheads.

I think black is too harsh for her; she does better in colors. 

Hair is STUNNING.  Makeup is good.  Dress at least semi-fits her proportions even it makes her look like Death from The Sandman comics.

Her stylist hates her.

well…i know what you are saying but there are elements that are working. 
I don’t love this look at all, but it’s OK. I don’t think she look that bad. Don’t like the length and the nightgown effect. She is always struggling with what  she ‘likes’ and what really looks great on her. And the woman can look phenomenal! 
I still bow down to  her.

At least the bodice fits well.  It’s a good deal better than some of her other efforts, so I give her a pass on this one. 

Your character, Joan, always looks slamming. Why? Because Joan is always dressed with clean lines, and few details. You would do well to follow her lead.

Not to grade on a curve but this is better than most of her outfits so I hesitate to judge her too harshly. Then again, if we don’t, how will she learn. 

She’s kind of a GTNYD queen, isn’t she? How many has she had already?
In any case, I love the way she exudes self-confidence no matter what she’s wearing, but she really does need some help. This thing is ugly and unflattering and it fits her horribly. That sheer part is killing me; it’s all crooked and pulling all over the place. Girl, get yourself together! 

It’s hard to dress a short waisted body with giant boobs, but on her show and in that recent magazine shoot she looks perfect. What can be so hard about replicating those looks? Here, in spite of her beautiful face and her soft flattering hairstyle, she looks ridiculous.

seriously, does she really pay someone to pick out her clothes?  she is so pretty, i just dont get it.

I think that unless Janie Bryant put her in it, it’s never her dress.  She chooses all wrong for herself.

I don’t know.  I thinks she’s pulling it off.  And her girls look better than they have in a long time.  

Is the term “negligee” still in use? Because that’s what immediately came to mind when I saw this dress.
Pls, TLo, fly to Hollywood & save this gorgeous woman like the fashion superheroes that you are. Your Bitter Kittens & Unborn Fauns would gladly take up a collection to fund it. 

I actually kinda like it. She looks pretty good. It’s a little… black and funereal, but I love the top of the dress and her hair. She looks cute. She’s done much, much worse than this.

Way too much frippery.  And even I can’t believe I wrote “frippery.”

I don’t think the bustline of this dress flatters her, it’s very dowdy (read: grandma).  I don’t mean she has to be be bare, but there’s too much going on all over, and the top is straight-up nightgown.  Even if the intended look was vintage, her body needs more structure and a sleeker look, less frou-frou.  She needs to have her clothes custom-made. — her body is quite exceptional, and worth it — by someone who understands her, poor thing.

Beautiful, glowing, happy.  I think she looks wonderful even with the it’s-not-that-bad dress.  

If I stop scrolling down just at about knee level, the dress is not so bad (certainly far better than if I look at the whole picture). It still seems a little severe, perhaps, but it isn’t terrible. Oddly, in spite of the fact that her chest is more covered up than in a lot of her preferred looks, I actually think that, in some respects, the dress makes her look bustier – albeit not in the immediate look-at-these sort of way.

I have to disagree with those who say she should dress like Joan in real life, both because I dislike Joan* (there, I said it and I don’t regret saying it) and because I dislike that era of clothing (there, I also said that and don’t regret saying it). But, beyond my personal preferences, I think that Joan, frankly, looks quite a bit older than Christina Hendricks does and is (part of why I don’t care for that era of clothing). Indeed, I recall an interview with Christina Hendricks wherein she mentioned people saying the same thing to her – so there’s one more reason why she doesn’t dress like Joan. Which is not to say, however, that there aren’t style lessons about what works for body type that she could learn from how her character is dressed. In any case, I think, as an actor, it would probably be best for her not to look like her character, especially since so much of the attention paid her already has nothing to do with her acting.

* Note: I think that she’s an interesting character and to the show’s benefit, but I find the general fondness for Joan almost embarrassing. Incidentally, in part given the show’s fondness for parallelisms in character development, people often compare Joan to other secretaries of importance or to Peggy, but I actually think her mirror on the show in many ways is Pete. Bearing in mind, though, that I haven’t seen Season 5.

Why can’t she just dress like she does on Mad Men???

She has looked a lot worse- I give her points for wrangling the baby heads and the pretty makeup. 

Ooof.  What this gives in terms of fit, comfort and flattery it totally takes away in ‘oh honey – that’s a nightie.’

From the thumbnail I was thinking “What do they mean?  Not her dress?  But she looks great” and then the rest revealed itself…

She’s looked WAY worse.  At least the girls are covered and supported.

Gives me a great desire to see C-Hen as some sort of TV-movie pirate queen, but otherwise:no.