Let’s face it, there were a lot of great gowns at the Emmy’s last night – Olivia Wilde in Marchesa, Kyra Segwick in red Versace. It’s hard to say that anyone looked particularly wrong or bad – even Drew Barrymore, in a frothy Monique L’hullier – really got it together. We are trying to find something bad to say about SOMEONE, but so far – we can’t. Quelle disappointment! But you cannot dispute the amazing just total CHIC of January Jones in the corseted strapless Versace gown. It’s in that icy cool pale shade of the night – in this case, a very pale green, that you can only really spot in the lines of the deco corsetry of the peplum top. The design of the bodice looks like some Viennese art deco from the age of Klimt or Shiele. And it’s also so simple. January was so smart to wear no necklace, one tiny bracelet, and small earrings – and even light makeup and a simple chignon. She let the dress so the talking – and talk it does. It speaks CHIC. International language that it is.

“Mad Men” star January Jones was seen hovering around New York Fashion Week – but was not spotted at any shows. What that says to us at Fashionrules is: she came to New York to do a magazine cover (we don’t know which one), and that she also came to New York to do a fitting for her Emmy gown. January has no stylist, and works with her publicists at Wolf Kasteler to find her own clothes – and last year, she wore an amazing gown by French designer Andrew Gn. This Emmy’s, it would appear she’s wearing an American designer – someone like Zac Posen would be our guess, or perhaps Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton. Or it could be Narciso Rodriguez, who dressed Kate Winslet for a lot of awards season last year. Either way, we’ll find out on Sunday, and no doubt, Ms. Jones will be the belle of the ball – she’s probably the actress most designers want to dress the most this year.

We just received the August issue of Interview Magazine, with an absolutely gorgeous January Jones on the cover (“Mad Men” season three kicks off in August), and the cover line reads, “January Jones: Confessions of TV’s Hottest Housewife” by Jack Nicholson.
THE JACK NICHOLSON???
Seems yes, that Jack Nicholson, met the lovely Miss Jones on the set of 2003’s “Anger Management,” in which she played a lesbian porn star, and they became friends. Jones was photographed by the great team of Inez Van Lansweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, and she models a mesh Marc Jacobs bodysuit to perfection.

Okay, here at FR, we aren’t going to go on at giant length on the all the looks of the models and the celebs at the Met Ball in NYC – it’s a New York-centric event. But we do think it’s interesting to go over the trends and how they might affect real life and what this do to trends in evening looks overall.  Here’s what we noted:

MINI’S AT NIGHT ARE HOT: Gwyneth started this trend, and now it’s everyone – mini for black tie events. Anne Hathaway did a Marc Jacobs purple poufy mini, and while she was ever so slightly Minnie Mouse with her big hair, it got looks – and was cute and young. Kate Moss also did a short metallic Marc Jacobs with an assymetrical cape, Jessica Alba did a blue crystal short dress, January Jones did a gold Michael Kors long sleeved mini, and Giselle wore a very tiny blue Versace dress in crystals that made everyone else nearly irrelevant. And of course, Madonna’s LV mini and headdress made a statement – and not necessarily a good one. What does all this shortness mean? If you want to turn heads at a dressy event – and you have great legs – AND you’re under 50 – or even 40 – go for a colorful or metallic mini. And have good legs.

COLOR IS THE STATEMENT: No one who wore a black dress – and there weren’t many women who did – got that much attention, except for Rihanna in a Dolce & Gabbana sleek tux (the boy look is always a grabber.) Jessica Biel’s orange long tiered Versace gown was vibrant, so was Kate Hudson’ s backless Stella McCartney gold dress – a bit of a body-conscious cliche, but pretty. We also loved Marion Cottilard in her pale peach Dior , and Cindy Crawford and Blake Lively both wore bright Versace blue. As did Donatella – at least you never forgot whose dresses were hers. However, neither Cindy nor Blake look like their dresses fit them well. Sample sizes aren’t always flattering on real bodies.

BIG BIG DRESSES: Heidi Klum stole the night in her deep blue strapless J. Mendel dress, that needed a whole city block to walk on. This woman knows how to grab the eye. Elizabeth Hurley’s ecru Elie Saab confection and Kate Beckinsale’s giant Marchesa also were impossible to avoid. Jessica Biel’s orange Versace was pretty big, too. So that’s another option – if you’re going to wear a gown, were a gown with a LOT of fabric!!

We at Fashion Rules are NOT label whores.

Well, okay – maybe we are!

Look, a great dress is a great dress – but for fifteen years, we’ve heard very little on a major red carpet outside of “Valentino,” “Chanel,” and “Dior.” So it’s really nice and even refreshing to hear OTHER names, particularly those that rarely show up on a red carpet – and have beautiful things.

Hats off to Katie Holmes, who looked JUST HOT in a tight Jil Sander spring 09 dress to the knee – with her short hair, slim cut sheath, and cool label, you could tell she’d lived in New York for the last few months. Jil Sander’s spring collection is one of the hottest ones of spring 09.

January Jones’s dress was lovely – a black halter gown with a hard gold breast place that surrounded her neck and waist – it was simple and dramatic at the same time. And who’s EVER worn Paris designer Andrew Gn on the red carpet?  His clothes are beautiful – and expensive – but they never get on red carpets because he has no Hollywood pr.

Kyra Sedgwick, not exactly known for her fashion forwardness – although she always looks good – donned a strapless vintage Chanel, with a white bustier top and simple black bottom. All Chanel is good – but vintage Chanel is even BETTER – because you can’t identify what collection it’s from. Plus black and white is so hot right now.

Penelope Cruz in her couture Azzedine Alaia was just scalding – have you EVER seen a dress fit like that? Not only that – this was NOT an easy dress to procure. Azzendine’s people just don’t care about red carpets.

Laura Dern wore Burberry – and we are big fans of Burberry designer Christopher Bailey. He rarely does dressy clothes, but his cocktail dresses are always first rate – this was a very interesting way to go.

And Jennifer Morrison wore Paris designer Anne Valerie Hache, who is another great designer who flies below the radar – hopefully now her name will be – maybe not household – but at least, livingroom. – Merle Ginsberg

SO – scorekeepers – what was the total tally of how it broke down on who-dressed-who at the Golden Globes? Since every designer and big fashion house was hustling nominees to dress them, who won the red carpet sweepstakes – the second biggest one outside of the Oscars?

Here’s the breakdown, according to the information received from Fashion Rules:

THE BIG WINNER OF THE NIGHT WAS: OSCAR DE LA RENTA,  who dressed Kyra Sedgwick, Amy Adams, Jennifer Morrison and Marisa Tomei. He had FOUR great women in his gowns.

After that, it breaks down like this:

JOHN GALLIANO FOR CHRISTIAN DIOR: Drew Barrymore, Eva Mendes, Sandra Bullock

ROBERTO CAVALLI: Rita Wilson, Christina Applegate, Jessica Lange

J MENDEL: Taraji P. Hensen, Kate Beckinsale, Elizabeth Banks

REEM ACRA: Rumer Willis, Eva Longoria, Olivia Wilde

ARMANI PRIVE: Penelope Cruz, Anne Hathaway

ATELIER VERSACE: Angelina Jolie, January Jones

LANVIN: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kristin Scott Thomas

ELIE SAAB: Beyonce’, Laura Linney, Evan Rachel Wood

YSL: Kate Winslet

MARCHESA: Jennifer Lopez, Miley Cyrus

VINTAGE FROM DECADES: Heidi Klum in vintage Galanos, Sophie Dahl in vintage Ceil Chapman

CHRISTIAN LACROIX: Freida Pinto

NINA RICCI: Blake Lively

CHADO RALPH RUCCI: Rachel Griffiths

BOTTEGA VENETA: Salma Hayek

HUGO BOSS: Susan Sarandon

GIANFRANCO FERRE:  Hayden Panettiere

HERVE LAROUX: Anna Pacquin

LOUIS VUITTON: Laura Dern

CAROLINA HERRERA: Renee Zellwegger

VERA WANG: Debra Messing

           It’s interesting to note that black was veritably missing from the Golden Globes red carpet. Sure, some women did wear it – but in its place, we saw deep blues, a lot of white, gold, champagne – which are neutrals – and then, for the brave, red, coral, mustard, purple and blue. Here are some of the rainbow coalition of the Golden Globe fashion tribe: we applaud their diversity!!

January Jones doesn’t have a stylist, believe it or not – and she always looks quite chic. She works with her publicists, Evelyn and Samantha, at WKT pr, and this weekend, they happened upon the ice blue Atelier Versace gown in satin with ribbon details – the perfect color for Ms. Jones, and a great throwback to old Hollywood. However, Versace was ALREADY dressing Angelina Jolie, and had a contract to dress ONLY Angelina Jolie. But when Donatella Versace heard that January, star of “Mad Men,” one of her favorite shows, wanted to wear her dress, she changed the rules, and let the chic “Mad Men” star obtain the dress. And we’re happy she did!!! Thank you, Donatella.

Well, it’s exciting to know the Golden Globes will go on as planned this year, on January 11, 2009 – since they were pre-empted last year by the WGA Strike. We’ll get to see  everyone from film – drama and comedy, and television – drama and comedy – and made for tv network and cable films. And that’s a LOT of ladies going down the carpet all on the same night.

This is who we can expect to see in some amazing fashion creation that night, who the great designers like Armani, Versace, Dior, Chanel, Valentino, Lanvin, Givenchy, Zac Posen and Dolce & Gabbana will be pursuing to dress: Anne Hathaway (nominated for Best Actress in a Drama for “Rachel Getting Married”),  Angelina Jolie (Best Actress, “The Changeling”), Kate Winslet (Best Actress in a Drama for “Revolutionary Road” and Best Supporting Actress for “The Reader”), Robin Wright Penn (who we assume will be accompanying her husband Sean Penn, nominated for Best Actor in a Drama for “Milk”), Rebecca Hall (nominated for Best Actress for a Comedy, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” – interesting because her co-star Scarlett Johanssen did NOT), Sally Hawkins for Best Actress for “Happy Go Lucky”), and Amy Adams (“Doubt”), Penelope Cruz (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”), Marisa Tomei (“The Wrestler”) and Kate Winslet again, for Best Supporting Actress.

In the tv area, January Jones (“Mad Men”), Anna Pacquin (“True Blood”), Kyra Sedgwick (“The Closer”) and Mariska Hargitay (“SVU”) were nominated for drama; Tina Fey (“30 Rock”), Christina Applegate (“Samantha Who”), Debra Messing (“The Starter Wife”), America Ferrera (“Ugly Betty”) and Mary-Louise Parker for “Weeds” for comedy, and for tv movies, Laura Linney (“John Adams”), Catherine Keener (“An American Crime”) and Susan Sarandon (“Bernard and Doris”) are in the lead category, and Rachel Griffiths (“Btothers and Sisters”), Laura Dern (“Recount”) and Melissa George (“In Treatment”) were nominated for over all Best Supporting Actress in tv.

Scandolously missing from the nominee list: Cate Blanchett for “Benjamin Button” and Scarlett Johanssen for “Vicky Christina Barcelona.” But then again, you can’t get nominated every year.

This is NOT the full nominee list: Meryl Streep, Judi Dench, Shirley MacLaine, Sally Field, etc were all nominated for Globes: but the Fashion Rules list is the list designers will be using to see which actresses will make their gowns look good and help them with their branding. And it’s no secret anymore that many of these fashion houses will pay nominees to wear their clothes, jewelry, even shoes and bags.

The big fashion machine is already gearing up. For instance, NY reps for JP Tod’s are heading to LA the first week of January to show stylists new clutch bags specific to the Golden Globes, and new Roger Vivier shoes from spring that will be available. Let the games begin!!