Friday, November 6, 2009

Gong Li for Aimer Lingerie at China Fashion Week event--How a superstar deals with a wardrobe malfunction

There have been plenty of pictures on the web of Gong Li in a knoockout beaded dress at a packed press conference for Aimer Lingerie--the one in which she was asked at least twice what her bust size is. Here are a few more that were picked up by AdmiringGongLi largely from the the entertainment news site Yoka which show how to deal with a recalcitrant train on a dress and still remain calm and on message.

It all starts here, with Gong Li, flanked by according to Yoka "dozens of security guards" plus a few well wishers and fans, making her way to the stage for the press conference. Very practically she is holding the train of her dress which is fine backstage but hardly the way to make an entrance before the gathered fashion press. Incidentally the train looks like a disaster waiting to happen, a very light material that might simply fall straight down and become just a bunch of cloth waiting to trip the unwary wearer.

Which it does. This looks like the first mishap backstage Gong Li and everyone else stop in their tracks to get things sorted out. Clearly she stepped on her train.

She makes it on stage with a bunch of people without mishap although with a lot of people standing around trying not to make things worse:

but then gets tangled up again in the dress from hell.

So now she has to deal with questions while a helpful woman from Aimer tries to keep the train straight:

She really has her work cut out for her--this is a good illustration of both how flimsy and light the skirt and train are and how now matter what happens, it seems, any movement finds it under Gong Li's feet again:

By now she was probably thinking: "This is the last time I let the client pick out the dress" plus maybe "How much am I getting paid for this campaign?" but also "It beats getting strapped into those insane corsets every day for Curse of the Golden Flower", but playing things off with a laugh:

Everything works out, of course, the gathered hounds of the press don't get to report on a pratfall by a major star and she has the perfect self-deprecating, ruefully sexy look at the end.

The opening shot of the campaign. They might be selling underwear but it looks like something from a Roland Emmerich movie.

6 comments:

  1. Do you remember a few years ago when Gong Li came ou on top of some poll of Mainland Chinese about who they hated -- or least liked Chinese?

    I don't know why she is so hated as she is amazing to me. I can't bring myself to watch Geisha or Miami Vice but her performances in To Live and Red Sorghum and Shanghai Triad are much loved by this fan.

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  2. Glenn--
    I caught about 40 minutes of "Memoirs of a Geisha" when it came out--I walked out about 39 minutes too late. There might be circumstances that would cause me to see "Miami Vice"--being held at gunpoint for example--but, thankfully, they haven't happened yet.

    Your comment on Gong Li as the most hated celebrity in China, which she was out a field of 700 led me to this website which will led to several more on Chinese internet demographics and will eventually be another post.

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  3. I loved the pics from the press conference when I first saw them, and now after seeing your blow-by-blow account of what happened just seconds beforehand, I love them even more. I think it's pretty cool that Gong Li found some humor in the mishap.

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  4. duriandave--not only found some humor in almost tripping all over herself--not sure how many big stars in Hollywood might react--it would be worth having her get caught up in her dress just to see that lovely smile when she is caught just a bit off guard.

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  5. You were looking at the smile?!

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