Obsessed! Ali and Beyonce -How They're Dressed

First and foremost - a million thanks and hugs to my peeps for following this new blog! :) I appreciate it!

Okay, I normally don't cop so easily to falling prey to guilty-pleasure movies like this, but I have now ordered Obsessed (Idris Elba, Ali Larter, and Beyonce) no fewer than three times on free On-Demand. My lovely friend Nadine, who can get down with any movie, would be proud of me. (I knew an awful boy at Wesleyan who used to get up on his soap-box to spew miserable condescension at any "mainstream" entertainment. Luckily, everybody hates him.)

movies.sulekha.com/.../obsessed/pictures/1.htm

I'd like to say that I was impervious to this film's heavy-handed manipulation of the audience's emotions, that I sniffed with disdain at its thinly-veiled, technicolored mantasy (because what guy wouldn't want these two gals bangin' it out over him?), and that I found the screenplay trite and predictable. After all, this was a movie that last year's 8th graders were planning to see in groups as large as 15. I know, because I confiscated at least 3 phones being used to text evening plans during class. The explanation? "But Miss, Beyonce's gonna fight in that movie, Miss!!!"

But all I can say is that I was totally titillated. I actually pumped my fists during the fight scene, hooting and hollering for all the world like a 12-year-old as Ali delivered a fierce face kick and Beyonce used her head (literally - sick head-butt!) to teach white girl what was up. Plus Elba (sexy) is always great. (He's from television's The Wire, which I highly recommend if you haven't seen it. Great HBO police-crime-drug drama set in Baltimore. There's a whole season about kids who get into the game, how they fall through the cracks, and how they interact with their school system. My talented work mentor taught at a KIPP charter middle school in Baltimore - the show is dead realistic and true to life. A little boy who played a hard-core baby gangster on the show also did a wonderful, thought-provoking play last year at the Hartford Stage called Resurrection, all about men in the African-American community and issues that they face. The Wire itself is killer - incredible.)

Source: http://static.tvguide.com/MediaBin/Galleries/Movies/M_R/Oa_Oh/Obsessed/1/obsessed3.jpg
Back to Obsessed: Some ideas for us ordinary girls in the workplace grind! Ali's corporate-friendly, put-together warddrobe as psycho-temp temptress Lisa gives cause to laud the movie's stylist. For the work day, my own tastes as a teacher definitely run, like this look, on the more conservative-classic side. Not as sexy, but then I'm no Ali Larter. (Once I made the sad mistake of trotting in to work in some Kate-Moss-esque wannabe rock-get-up and caught my crazy-funky chains on the handle of a door as I was yelling about demerits and chasing down a student who had pushed another kid into the milk cart. Chaos ensued.) Ali's outfits were, I thought, simple, gorgeous and powerfully streamlined. Comfortable enough for the copy room, and sassy enough for the hardcore stalking she did. Most of us don't do that second part so openly. I mean, what is Facebook for? No, I'm kidding. Kind of.

It's hard to go wrong in a crisp, classic palette of blacks, whites, and strong primary colors. In the top frame, Beyonce's getting her hatorade on when meeting her husband's super-cute new temp. You can't see the whole outfit, but Ali's wearing high-waisted, slim black pants cropped at the ankle and some solid black heels. The perfect white button-down, gamine-like black vest (I love any nods to menswear), and sleek, ironed blonde hair come together in a picture of competent decorum. The next frame is my go-to ensemble when I want to feel like I can present myself to the world with confidence: again, a flawless, ironed white button-down, and then the piece de resistance, a beautifully tailored black pencil skirt. Everyone should own one. Nothing could be easier or more classically elegant. It seems obvious, but I so believe in this look. When a girl pays attention to the details and is impeccably groomed, it is perfection. Later, as Lisa starts to feel more comfortable at the scene of her stalking, she dons more body-conscious threads like the vibrant, curve-loving teal sweater at the upper right. Some days, color stands out as its own statement, without the fuss and frill of any accessories whatsover. I was told that if you put something on and don't feel the need for much blush or other adornment, then the hue adores you. Ali's working that concept here.

Beyonce doesn't look too shabby, herself. I'm a fan of the black jersey dress she wears to dinner with Derek (Elba), cinched in Sasha-Fierce style with an uber-wide, just-shiny-enough belt. This wouldn't be a bad choice for work, either. I'm trying to work belts more often into my weekly rotation ... they're smashing.

The focus of this blog is really more about accessible, day-to-day style, but I had to give the ladies props (I'm sure they spend lots of their time in L.A. stressing about my opinion...) for their GORGEOUS red-carpet looks for an opening of their movie. We can all take cues here for the holiday season - nothin' wrong with a skimpy lil' black or white mini, architectural and pure hot, with accordion folds, sweetheart necks, shiny hair, and strappy heels. (You can always make yourself some would-be Louboutins by, as the designer himself did before he got legit, painting the soles with red nail polish. What a pain, but they look *sort of* real ... kind of ... not at all.)

I read once, either in Vogue or Harper's, an ascerbic, cutting, highly entertaining interview with Karl Lagerfeld. He said - and I'm paraphrasing, but the idea is intact - that women should more often than not rock a tight, tiny, spare and ferocious mini - but we must work so that "the legs are flawless." He also feels that an appropriate reaction to the recession is to stop buying new clothes and just intelligently combine your old, as well as to join a health club and work our tubby butts into sculpted works of art.

I don't know that I can fit that bill ... but I'll definitely try to work the combination of sleek and powerful like the girls in Obsessed. But no cat-fights, please. My aim is to be a put-together pacifist. In pumps and a pencil skirt.

xo - MSW