When it comes to rating Shania Twain's personal style, our judges sing an unhappy refrain: That Don't Impress Us Much. The three-time Grammy winner crossed over from country to pop without a hitch, but she still has to find her way down the prickly path of fashion. The 5'5" Twain, 34, has "a lot to work with—great posture, a great smile," says Audrey Style author Pamela Keogh, "but she's verging on a Barbie doll. Costumey. Uninspired." Twain rarely shows off her assets to their best advantage. "She has an amazing figure, but she always seems to cover up her lovely neck," laments British designer Samantha Shaw. And 3rd Rock costumer Melina Root points out that Twain's clothes are "overlong" and generally "not flattering." All the judges, however, hold out hope for the beautiful Shania, whose name means "I'm on my way" in Ojibwa. "She could be a fashion icon," declares designer Pamela Dennis. "She has all the tools to be right, and she just dresses wrong. She needs a total makeover."
1. Twain didn't sing "80's Ladies," but she looked like one in this Marc Bouwer at the Grammys in February. "Horrible," declares Pamela Dennis, objecting to "the all-over sequins" for which the last decade was famous. Pamela Keogh adds, "She looks uncomfortable." Suggests Melina Root: "Maybe a different purse."
2, At Cosmopolitan magazine's Fun, Fearless Female luncheon last winter, Twain, in Marc Bouwer, looked neither fun nor fearless. "Frumpy," says Star Wars' Trisha Biggar. "The skirt is too big," notes Pamela Dennis, while Samantha Shaw says, "The boots may be modern, but they make the suit seem heavy." Carps Melina Root: "The whole thing seems overscaled for her face and body."
3. The Marc Bouwer that Twain wore to December's Billboard Music Awards has Pamela Keogh asking, "What's with this peephole thing on the chest?" Trisha Biggar thinks the cutout adds interest to the simple sheath, but says, "It's too big." And Melina Root is distracted by "too many fabrics and too many details."
4. "This feels a little Guineverish," says 3rd Rock's Root of the Bouwer that Twain wore for her Billboard Awards performance. "She looks like she's in some medieval play," agrees Trisha Biggar. Pamela Dennis deems the outfit simply "horrendous. The hair is too long. The color is wrong. The fabric is wrong."
5. The judges were unsettled by the oddly proportioned outfit Twain chose for a New York City Christmas concert. "It makes her neck look as thick as her waist," says Trisha Biggar, while Pamela Dennis warns, "She doesn't need to chop herself off." To Samantha Shaw, the problem is the leather vest, which "should be banished to the dressing-up box."
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