Beijing Second International Film Festival Red Carpet

The red carpet area at the Beijing International Film Festival was HUGE with enough space to land a 747 without disturbing things. Fan Bingbing looked magnificent in a blood red, floor length gown with a beaded lace insert along with kitschy (but very expensive) Judith Leiber pagoda evening bag.

Dennis Lee has a stack of FBB images from this event.

Zhang Jingchu looked great in a strapless dress--or would have if the designer hadn't gone nuts and included a the biggest bow of the season.

The only thing bigger was Nicky Wu's pompadour.

Getting prepped backstage.

Zhang Xin Yi brightened things up in a color block halter dress and electric hair.

Huo Siyan in a gorgeous floral print gown--floral designs can be chancy, either too fussy or too much like granny's living room curtains but when the designer hits it right (which D&G did here) it really works. The jeweled maroon belt was a perfect accessory.

Yahoo China; Zimbio; One Asian World; Judith Leiber

The gang heads to the Jean Paul Gaultier show

Paris Fashion Week is drawing to a close; one of the last shows was the high profile Jean Paul Gaultier runway extravaganza. Some of the usual suspects dropped in.

Angelababy flanked by JPM and the least impressed assistant in the world.

This is not as daring an outfit as it seemed on first glance; it is lace patterns over some not very transparent (or "clairvoyant" in machine translation from Chinese to English) material. Nice look for someone who is young, slim and pretty.

Huo Siyan looked great in a striped blouse with an asymmetrical collar and sleeves made to be rolled up. Her hair and make-up were perfect as was the case in all of her appearances in Paris.

Lin Peng took a bit of a chance and succeeded only because she didn't crash and burn, with a dress much like the one made famous by Marilyn Monroe in "The Seven Year Itch", a costume featured in one of the most famous and iconic scenes in American movies.

The dress on Marilyn:

The dress wasn't a copy since it had bat-wing sleeves with cutouts and a mega belt but referred to and recalled the earlier outfit. Since Lin Peng stayed away from subway gratings it worked:

Sina; Cozy

Huo Siyan wears a hat, Paris Fashion Week

Huo Siyan was at the Dior ready to wear Fall/Winter Show in Paris and turned some heads in a Dior trouser suit topped with an ornate hat. While not up to royal wedding guest standards it was a brilliant choice.

Lovely suit, well tailored and a perfect fit:

One wonders when (or if) Chinese celebrities will tire of holding Sina's logo during photo ops.

With Dior CEO Sidney Toledano who isn't holding a logo. Lin Peng and Gan LuLu (who invited her?) wait in line.

Her hat could have been a cross of vintage Carabinieri headgear

and a Cavalier hat from Frans Hals:

Yahoo China; Sina

Huo Siyan still in Berlin, still looking great

The unstoppable juggernaut of publicity for "Joyful Reunion" (or "Eat, Drink, Man, Woman 2012), a remake of an unremakeable movie, clanks on at the Berlin International Film Festival with its premier festival screening. It was a crowd favorite with lots of sustained applause as the final credits rolled.

Huo Siyan was moved by the response and signed everything in sight. Love the fan earrings. I wonder if it odd to sign a picture of yourself taken a day or two earlier. At least there is an explanation for the using the dullest street corner in Berlin as the backdrop for a photoshoot--make sure there would be plenty of pics to autograph.

Looking kind of tuned-out here--she might be hearing the spiel from the guy with the mike for the twentieth time--but impeccably gorgeous.

The crowd at the screening went mildly wild:

The white guy (European?) on the right doesn't seem to belong in this picture--he might want to lay off the Pilsner before he wanders into his next photo op.

Xinhua

Huo Siyan in boring photoshoot, Berlin

Huo Siyan was put in a BIFF-logoed BMW, driven to a dull, featureless Berlin street and handed a bouquet. The result was this photoshoot, both dull and pointless. Included were the prices at a local bar and grill:

and part of the festival supplied car. She is lumbered with her handbag, clearly not supposed to part of the shot.

Huo Siyan must have been goin' out tonight since she is wearing her high-heeled sneakers.

Sina

Huo Siyan vamped it up in freezing Berlin

This has been the coldest winter in decades in Europe. The temperature in Berlin on February 9 was minus 15 degrees Celsius (five degrees Fahrenheit) but Huo Siyan managed to look hot on the red carpet for the Berlin International Film Festival. She was in town in support of "Joyful Reunion" a remake of a "Eat Drink Man Woman" Ang Lee's luminous portrait of family life around the dinner table. Note the contrast between Huo Siyan and the crowd behind the velvet rope who are dressed for an Arctic expedition.

Plenty of flimsy material in her gown but not much to keep her from getting frostbite.

Must have been a bit of a relief to put on her short feathered jacket.

Much more practical when departing from Beijing.

I couldn't resist this picture of Diane Kruger and some guy with a BIFF bear logo pinned to his hat; not a ringing endorsement of the post-modern idea of fluid or multiple gender identities.

Ifeng; Ifeng; CRI

Sun Fei-Fei's clothing ripped off onstage; the show goes on

"Esquire" magazine had its annual bash in Beijing at Tsinghua University. Sun Fei-Fei suffered from a living nightmare as her dress was stepped on as she was walking on stage. The stepper, identified only as "the host" (as far as I could tell) looked a bit too maliciously gleeful in some of the pictures from the event. As you can imagine they are everywhere in the Chinese entertainment press.
It looks as if she decided to keep standing on Sun Fei-Fei's dress until it fell off.

The final result.

The way she looked before the mishap.

Her assistant earned an entire year's salary, moving quickly with a blanket--and having one close at hand or knowing where one gets a blanket backstage at a big event.

Award shows stop for no one, though. The parade of singers, TV and movie stars and the occasional accused fraudster continued. Dresses stayed on; the only really odd thing was that it looked as if everyone decided to wear the same nude platform pumps, no matter if they matched their outfit which they generally did not.
Gorgeous Zhang Jing Chu in a purple beaded velvet number with, oddly enough, a matching watchband.

TV actress Sung Ning in an outfit possibly inspired by this fall's big success, the Stella McCartney hourglass (or illusion) dress.

Liv Tyler in the real thing.

Huo Siyan is a knockout in a backless dress and long strings of pearls.

Singer Coco Lee in a lot of sequins.

Zhang Mi and her daughter (whoever she is) in a look somewhere between Cleopatra and the Kardashians.

Gallen Lo and his wife Sophie Su Yan go for a controlled wardrobe malfunction but couldn't compete with the real thing.

Ifeng has lots of pictures; Yahoo China has two articles, one of Sun Fei-Fei and one covering everyone else. Also CRI, Xinhau and lots more.