I have a second style personality that I admire. I have a love/hate relationship with Christina Hendricks/Joan Holloway. I am almost infatuated with Joan’s clothing on Mad Men. I often find myself forgetting what her story line is because I’m distracted by her clothes. Looking at Joan, I often feel as though I’ve been born in the wrong generation. If I could walk around in these clothes, how could I not feel like the sexiest woman on the planet? These outfits are classic, sophisticated and fit her bust perfectly.
I have also seen Christina Hendricks give full on glamour in photographs.
Now we come to the problems I have with Christina. How in the world can she look so amazing, her body and breasts so perfectly put together as Joan, and then show up on the red carpet looking like this? Honestly this seems painful! I can’t even blame her stylist. This is not just a wardrobe malfunction, this is just all the way wrong! You can’t tell me she didn’t know that bra was too small and that dress was ill fitting. Â This painfully shoved-up look shows up again…
And again…
And again…
Can we please just stop the madness?! Â I have tried to figure this out for years and still have not come up with one way she benefits by doing this. Â They don’t even bother talking about how awful it looks anymore because it’s no longer a story, so it can’t be the “Any press is good press” school of thought. Â It happens far too many times, and she’s wearing dresses obviously tailored in the exact same manner so it cannot be accidental. Â She doesn’t “present” her breasts this way in any photos I’ve seen of her in her “daily life”. Â I was still at a loss–until I thought, maybe she just likes it. Perhaps, on special occasions, when she wants to look her absolute best, Christina Hendricks likes this look.
I would love to say I’d found the answer. Â That this no longer takes up space in my mind. But I cannot. Â She will not let me. Â And do you know why you hear that sound?
Tick…
Tick…
Tick…
That BOOM you heard was the sound of my head exploding when I looked at this!
On the one day she wanted to look her most beautiful, she chose to look like this. Â Gorgeous! Â Breasts perfectly propped.
The saga continues.
I’m so relieved to see someone finally being honest about this. It drives me crazy too. It just feeds the whole “big boobs are hard to dress”/”cheerios fall into your cleavage so the only answer is a reduction” school of insanity. I feel like she is the WORST boob role model because she makes it seem like such a struggle to just exist with big boobs. In contrast, other large-busted celebrities just dress in normal, well-fitting clothes and live their lives, but she is the one who is first thought of as “large busted” because of such images as you have posted. It has frustrated me for years.
She actually answered the question to why she dresses the way she does on the red carpet in an article I read a while back. Many designers will not lend her dresses for the red carpet because she is too big. Since celebrities don’t actually buy their own dresses they borrow them. She has to work with the designers that will actually her garments, none of which are actually tailored to her curves.
I’m sorry to say that I just don’t buy that excuse. I call bullshit. Lol. She does not have to only wear a dress that is borrowed. I know for a fact that there are designers begging to make custom gowns for her. That statement is the same as her saying that she has to buy off the rack. Oh the lies we tell Ms. Hendricks…smh
I cannot understand why she wears the things she does on the red carpet either.
The only thing I can come up with is that a tailor either makes (or extremely alters) larger size clothes that fit her bust for her television character. And for the red carpet she decides to get a “designer” dress.
And you know how designers don’t want to be bothered to make their clothes fit a body, they’d rather the body fit their clothes. So she just kind of squishes, squeezes and shoves her body into those dresses.
It looks awfully painful to me though! I couldn’t sit around in those dresses for any length of time!
Karen, if she was just an average woman working a 9-5, perhaps I’d give her a pass. But simply because she’s known for these disasters gives many designers the desire to be known as her savior. Also, looking at her wedding gown, how difficult would it be to ask that designer to make a red carpet gown for her ?
@Ada, I was thinking that is probably why. Still, you’d think that a sash, some pinning, or some temporary stitches could get a dress that fits her bust to also fit her curves.
Here’s my $0.02 on CH’s Boobages. I will apologize in advance for my vehement defense of CH’s boobs. This has been brewing a while…
1) She has worn custom gowns on the red carpet that look fabulous on her: http://www.redcarpet-fashionawards.com/2011/09/19/christina-hendricks-in-johanna-johnson-2011-emmy-awards/
2) CH may (I strongly suspect this) have a totally different fashion aesthetic than her character, Joan Holloway. I think many people expect to see her permanently attired as Joan. It is undeniable that many full-bust/figured clothing brands have trended retro – and this does NOT appear to be CH’s style. I believe her Mad Men costumes are custom pieces, and she wears a good deal of support structure under the dresses.
3) CH is NOT a tiny woman. In fact, she’s much larger of frame than *most* popular actresses of our time. You can’t alter what isn’t there… When designers stop producing clothes to fit your maximum dimensions (both formal and casual clothes), you can’t even buy larger sizes and cut/nip/tuck. This is true for both big-boobed clothing companies as well as ‘regular’ designers.
Want examples of what she’s up against?: http://amysrobot.com/files/sag_fey.JPG. She’s bigger than some of the MEN in the images.
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3700133376/nm0376716?ref_=nmmd_md_nxt
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1838910976/nm0376716?ref_=nmmi_mi_all_pbl_313
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm520724480/nm0376716?ref_=nmmi_mi_all_evt_33
CH’s breasts appear to be full on top – so she’s probably going to achieve the pillow effect easily. She’s also short waisted and probably high set. Coupled with her average to larger frame size (not fat, bone) she’s up against the wall. I’d imagine she has difficulty finding bras that fit her well, also. And that includes bras to wear under those red carpet gowns.
Must CH have every clothing item custom-made for her? I think that’s an unreasonable financial expectation. We make assumptions about the income/budgets of celebrities. I’ve heard more than one actress remark on the expense of the red carpet look – and have stated they are thankful the gowns and jewelry are loaned to them since they can’t afford to purchase 5+ custom designer gowns/year.
On top of the inconvenience and expense of wearing only custom clothing – a closet of custom clothes is very limited, fashion-wise. The minute CH isn’t fashionable, people will start talking about that v. her boobs. Some already give her grief over wearing “the same basic cut of dress”. This criticism has been made towards another busty and curvy babe – Sofia Vergara, as well.
The woman (and her boobs) simply can’t win.