Jennifer Lopez knows how to do dangerous glamour, and Lady Gaga has taken dressing to stand out from the crowd to a whole new level. But one woman has captured the ground in between those two areas – Rihanna. Her style is crazy theatrical, but she doesn’t go as far as Gaga’s avant histrionics in that she maintains feminine glamour and always looks sexy – whereas Gaga pushes the envelope into just plain weird and not attractive. Gaga was recently quoted as saying, “I’d rather look interesting than good.” We applaud the bravery, but we also like to see really beautiful clothes as these shows. Rihanna really handled the task of the American Music Awards well. On the red carpet for arrivals, she chose an amazing strapless full-skirted Marchese dress with a longer dipping hemline in the back, and a fabric stiff enough for cut outs and bunching at the bustline. Her jewelry here is by Neil Lane and her shoes are by Alexandre Vaulthier. This is what you call A LOOK. For performance, she changed into a total white burn-out striped latex catsuit. It’s extreme and theatrical, sure – but she’s got the body for it, and she still looks gorgeous. You’ve got to hand it to this girl. She has fashion in her blood.

The picture at the American Music Awards on Sunday night was a very shiney one. For once in a blue moon at an awards show, there was a very clear trend in what the ladies wore: silver and gold cocktail dresses. Put all the pictures of the looks together, like we have here, and it’s obvious: it’s a seriously flashy metallic moment.

Whether it’s all about the color of coin in this economic meltdown moment -  or it’s shine in time for the holidays – gold and silver are a lot more festive than dour black, but somewhat safer than bright hues, so they’re a good choice to stand out in. Metallics work on skintones fair and dark, and they always seem to make hair colors look shinier. Everyone from Christina Aguilera in her Elie Saab couture silver vavoom full length gown to Pink in her gunmetal fishtail gown – Leona Lewis in her pale silver tiered mini, Miley Cyrus in a black and gold mini dress, Ashley Tisdale in her silver mini, and Queen Latifah in a gunmetal satin one shoulder sheath – molten lightning definitely struck several times throughout the evening. Rihanna’s short tired assymetrical dress was a shade of pale champagne gold, and Taylor Swift’s tight silver lurex dress had one shoulder detail.

How does this bode for the aptly named Golden Globes?  It might mean more metallic gowns – but it also might mean celebrities are now in meltdown mode over metal. – Merle Ginsberg