Maggie Alderson August 12, 2012
Confidence is key ... Melissa George. Photo: Reuters
Have you had your gomo yet? You know, your golden moment. I believe everyone has a time in their life when they feel, ''Yes, this is it. It's all happening. I've got it today. I love me.''
I think Melissa George might be having her gomo here. OK, so she's never been poked with the ugly stick, but this picture just jumped out at me and I thought, wow, she's perfect.
Then I analysed it with my picky fashion head on and decided I didn't really like the shoes. I'm not a great fan of the ankle strap. They foreshorten and enfatten all but the most twigletty legs, creating cankles where there are really quite lovely ankles.
So I don't like the shoes and the blackness of them, and the dress is a bit unrelieved - although I do love the feature bag. And wouldn't it have been a fun idea to do a feature colour on the nails? (although not in obvious red). But then I decided, so flipping what? She still looks perfect to me.
I love her hair. I'm not a fan of centre parting as a genre and she should have had her roots done - plus it's rather a retro You've Got Mail look - but may I repeat:
I love her hair.
And I really, really love her understated lip and her overstated eye. The make-up is brilliant. The temptation to go to a matt scarlet lippie with this dress and her blonde hair would have overwhelmed a lesser make-up artist. Whoever did George's face deserves a gold medal for restraint.
The slightly smoky eye makes her eyes look quite small and squinty. I'm mad about it.
I want this hair and this eye make-up myself, forever. It makes her look like a naughty rock chick in a tailored dress, which is so much more powerful than a naughty rock chick in a leather mini-skirt and a crop top.
Imagine how boring this frock could have looked. With an updo, an arm bag, pumps and, worst of all, a pearl necklace, it would have been the most boring dress in the world.
In this understated look, with the tousled hair and the rock-chick eyes, it is sensational.
I want this dress.
So there's a lot to learn here about playing against the expected with whatever you choose as the anchor piece of your outfit - but there is something more profound as well.
I think George knows exactly how good she looks here. Not in an up-herself way, but in a quiet internal way. Because she's not all done up like an Easter bonnet, she isn't feeling self-conscious; she's completely relaxed in this dress.
And although I may not particularly care for her shoes, they do look eminently walkable, so she hasn't got any of the potential physical injury and personal humiliation issues that come with the more extreme shoes currently in ''fashion''.
In short, she's not a fashion victim, she's a fashion victor.
She looks to me like someone who is feeling completely comfortable in her clothes and her skin - and there's nothing more attractive than that.
So rather than knocking ourselves out, going to great lengths to get a ''Look'' (with a capital L), we'd all do far better to put our energies into finding what we feel really good in, because that's what you project - how you feel.
And if you feel as good as Melissa George clearly does, you're going to look good too.
So go get yourself a gomo.