As I discussed last week, despite the troubling and distracting events in Israel and the Gaza Strip, I will be posting a once-a-week update on all things Emmy leading up to the Emmy awards, which will be held August 25th.
Last week, I discussed how we had chosen a very unusual color for the dress, which I will not be telling anyone about before you see it on the red carpet. I also discussed how the dress is very simple, but has some crazy sleeves and sparkly action.
All of that is still true.
Something nice that happened at my first Emmy fitting last week was that the sample dress that the designer made was too big all around! Unlike for most of human history, not being plump is a very good thing in Hollywood, especially when it comes to fitting your Emmy dress and being a Hollywood actress. It’s ridiculous, I know, but that’s my industry for you.
The sample dress that was used for the fitting is made of a black material with minimal lining, which is simply used as a guide to see how close the designer got to understanding my body based on the measurements she was given. For your information, the measurements you give a designer vary depending on the type of dress and the proclivities of the designer. Last year, for example, Oliver Tolentino measured pretty much every square inch of my body and every possible dimension of it as well, including measurements such as elbow-to-wrist, elbow-to-base-of-thumb, lower-, mid-, and upper-butt, natural waist, upper and lower ribcage, and other such measurements I never knew existed or were important.
The designer this year was given my waist size, a few hip and tush measurements (the fact that there is more than one measurement of my hips and tush makes me kind of sad, but oh well), my bra size, and important tidbits from stylist Ali Kahn such as, “She’s curvy,” “She’s built like a real person, not a mannequin,” and, “She wants to be able to walk without falling over.”
The designer is going to make some new sketches this week in order to have the dress hopefully flatter my “normal woman body” in the waist and hips department. Even though I can wear tight, flat-front dresses, considering the 12 hours I will be wearing this dress, I will be infinitely more comfortable in a dress that has a little more movement in the waist and hips. The sleeves had a little too much fabric to them so we made note of that and now we wait for the new sketches, which will be followed by the construction of the dress in the final fabric.
After that, a seamstress will come and fit it and Ali gets to start looking for shoes and jewelry and a clutch. A clutch, for those of you not in the know, is the name for a purse so tiny that it barely fits an OB tampon. I always rally for a purse big enough to fit my HTC smartphone, but that often means it’s not hip/trendy enough to carry down the red carpet because apparently what’s hip/trendy is a purse so tiny that it barely fits an OB tampon. Anyway. Ali will decide if I am going to have a decorative clutch or a real big girl purse for the evening. Either is fine with me.
A lot about this process for me involves invoking the principles of the Serenity Prayer. I really have to pick and choose what things I can change and what things I can’t about this whole process and hope that serenity awaits me… at the end of the red carpet, if not at the beginning.
Onward.
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