We thought we could trust Adele and Helen Mirren to do us Brits proud in the style awards, but this year they let us down writes Anna Hunter
In general, the GTG girls preach the 'If it's working for you, then leave it well alone' mantra. Sure, we may swipe on a fluorescent lip or attach a misjudged hair extension or five from time to time, but we will probably not leave the office like that or at least we won't be going anywhere important if we do.
The supermarket won't mind our overly enthusiastic smokey eye. The bus stop won't scrutinise our self-tan splotches. We're not superstars (yet) and we weren't invited to the BAFTAs or the Grammys (our time will come). However, we're pretty sure that if we were to be nominated, we would be on our best sartorial behaviour. No grooming gambles or cosmetic chances on our part; we'd stick to what we do best. Which is why, lamentably, we have a beauty bone to pick with two of our very own national treasures.
Firstly, on home soil, we have Dame Helen Mirren playing the English Rose card very literally with her newly dyed pink hair. Initially we thought it might be the lighting - perhaps the sodden red carpet reflecting softly on her chic blonde crop? Alas no, as it soon emerged that Dame Helen was for real.
Like Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry and um... Perrie before her, Dame Helen Mirren has gone totally bubblegum. She may famously have played the Queen, but these days she's more of a princess in pink, picking up style tips from America's Next Top Model no less, as she admitted when she revealed the inspiration behind her new do; namely the pink-haired British winner of cycle 18 Sophie Sumner. We think that this assertion was perhaps even more unexpected than the hair itself. High brow Helen has gone a bit Gaga and we are most definitely concerned.
Proudly representing in the fearsome female category across the Atlantic was Adele, winner of Best Pop Solo Performance and our favourite down-to-earth yet stratospherically famous British songstress of recent times. It's just a shame that she chose last night to break out of her walk-in-wardrobe of chic LBDs into what has been described by the Twitterati as a tea cosy/tablecloth/artfully put together pair of curtains. It's not often that a superstar chooses to wear an actual red carpet on the red carpet, and while her upholstered creation was indeed crafted by the King of Red Valentino himself, did she really have to leap out of her fashion comfort zone so forcibly?
By all means rock some colour or go vintage, but not so brash or retro that you look like a try-hard teen or a piece of the furniture; because really, that is the last thing that these two ladies represent.