Lily Collins and the overplayed red carpet crop top trend
With the global marketing blitzes for films these days, it’s not uncommon to see celebrities walking dozens of red carpets in dozens of high-profile looks in so many days.
While it’s fun for style watchers, today’s never-ending red carpet means a fashion trend can go from a “do” to a “don’t” in a heartbeat.
Exhibit A: The crop top.
It looked edgy back in September 2011 when Gwyneth Paltrow wore a jet black beaded top and skirt by Emilio Pucci to the Emmy Awards, and was chic in a different, more sleek way in November 2012, when Kristen Stewart wore a cropped white Balenciaga bustier top and black trousers to the “On the Road” premiere.
By then, several designers had picked up on the trend, with Balenciaga’s Nicolas Ghesquiere, Rochas’ Marco Zanini and Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing all showing versions of the crop top in their spring 2013 collections on the Paris runways.
Still, midriff-baring was mostly the stuff of Hollywood’s resident exhibitionists (Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Miley Cyrus) until this summer’s onslaught.
On Aug. 12 at the Teen Choice Awards, there was a crop-top pileup with Lily Collins, Lucy Hale, Chelsea Kane, Cher Lloyd and Ashley Benson all exposing their midriffs.
Collins seems to have developed somewhat of an addiction to crop; the 21-year-old star of the upcoming film “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones” has been parading her fab abs for more than a month now.
On July 19, at a “City of Bones” Comic-Con appearance, she wore a Paper London black-and-white basket-weave cropped top and short skirt.
On Aug. 6 at the Seventeen magazine September issue party in New York, she wore a black leather Celine skirt and cropped tank top.
On Aug. 14 at a Flaunt magazine party in L.A., Collins opted for a white cropped top and black skirt by Roland Mouret.
And on Wednesday, at the “City of Bones” premiere in Berlin, she wore a Paper London cropped top and Halston Heritage skirt.
It’s not that Collins doesn’t look good, or that her abs aren’t fab. And I’m all for actresses finding a style signature. But at this point, so many crop tops in so many days just looks fashion-victimy.
I guess that’s the price of the spotlight.
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