Frugal Fashion: 'Friends with Benefits' star Mila Kunis in Balmain at the MTV movie awards

The MTV movie awards tend to deliver that certain wow factor every year with a musical performance or outrageous skit of some sort, but this year Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis stole the show. While the two "Friends with Benefits" stars announced the award for best male performance the two "friends" decided to prove their platonic status by, ahem, groping each other's private parts.

As I gasped in amazement at the utterly ridiculous yet hilarious spectacle, I became transfixed. Not because of the incessant groping, which seemed to go on forever, but because I suddenly -- and more importantly -- realized that I needed to get my hands on Kunis' uber sparkly, 1980s-flashback Balmain miniskirt, stat.

Kunis has been turning heads at awards shows with her fashion choices, such as the jaw-dropping red Alexander McQueen she wore to the SAG awards well before her "Black Swan" glory days. She's a pro at going uber glam with a gown for the Oscars or, as in this case, fun and flirty for an MTV event.

Last Sunday Kunis wasn't the only one wearing Balmain, but she did wear it best. "Twilight" saga star Kristen Stewart wore a red Balmain dress with frenzied safety pin embellishments and "Gossip Girl" vixen Leighton Meester went hyper glam in a Balmain long-sleeved dress that looked a little like a shiny, shattered mirror.

Mila Kunis rocked her Balmain jewel-bedazzled mini with a dolman sleeve classic black top and sky-high pale pink platform pumps.

For a look-at-me mini of your own, you can ditch the jewel embellished pieces. Sequins add just as much bling without the eye-popping price tag. Go for the LaRok flirty sequin camo skirt from Saksfifthavenue.com for $158.99, Tumbled sequin miniskirt from Neimanmarcus.com for $127, smoke sequin miniskirt from Victoriassecret.com for $79.50 or the sequin mini skirt from Express for $59.90.

Kunis' loose top transforms the mini from night club status to elegant-party-ready. For a similar top, snag the 3/4 sleeve tee by Juicy Couture for $24.97, 3/4 sleeve dolman from Alloy.com for $14.90 or the 3/4 dolman sleeve twist tee by C&C California for $24.90.

Kunis' pale shoes are a great color contrast to her skirt but it might be fun to play around with the shoes you might already own, so no need to splurge there. Any pair of solid-colored pumps in bright red or even black would work great with this look.

Happy shopping!

Have an outfit you're dying to buy but need a frugal alternative? Email us a picture. We're up for the challenge.

-- Jenn Harris
Twitter.com/Jenn_Harris_

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Photo: Mila Kunis on stage at the 2011 MTV Movie Awards at Universal Studios' Gibson Amphitheatre on June 5, 2011, in Universal City. Credit: Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic

Skirt photos: (From left) LaRok flirty sequin camo skirt. Credit: Saksfifthavenue.com; Tumbled sequin miniskirt. Credit: Neimanmarcus.com; Sequin miniskirt. Credit: Victoriassecret.com; Sequin miniskirt. Credit: Express.com

Shirt photos: (From left) 3/4 sleeve tee. Credit: Juicycouture.com; 3/4 sleeve dolman. Credit: Alloy.com; 3/4 sleeve dolman twist tee Credit: candccalifornia.com

Your Morning Fashion and Beauty Report: Princess Beatrice's hat sells for big bucks. Rihanna makes a classy entrance at the Billboard Awards. Jimmy Choo changes hands.

Jimmy Choo is being sold to Labelux GmbH, a German luxury goods holding company that also owns Bally shoes, clothier Derek Lam and jeweler Solange Azagury-Partridge. Choo, which was founded in 1996 and rose to fame when its stilettos were featured on HBO's "Sex and the City," has changed hands three times in seven years. [Wall Street Journal] (Subscription required)  

Rihanna looked sedate and elegant when she arrived at the Billboard Awards in Las Vegas on Sunday night, wearing a white blouse, white jacket, white trousers and nude Christian Louboutins. But it was a different story when she performed her hit "S&M" onstage with Britney Spears. Then the fishnets, thigh-high boots and leather corset came out. Still in white, though. [Telegraph]

We've got  more pictures from the awards over on The Envelope (including the one of Rihanna and Spears in their "S&M" costumes). 

  
The much-talked about Philip Treacy hat Princess Beatrice of York wore to the royal wedding, below, fetched $130,000 on eBay, sold to an anonymous buyer. Proceeds will go to benefit UNICEF and Children in Crisis. We think selling the hat shows that the princess has both a sense of humor and a heart. [People]

Balmain plans to launch a new diffusion line, Pierre Balmain, with a first collection scheduled for Spring/Summer  2012. The line will skew younger than the traditional Balmain brand. [Telegraph] 

It's worth watching Beyonce's new music video for "Run the World (Girls)" for the clothes alone. The singer wears seven different designer outfits, including Alexander McQueen, Gareth Pugh, John Paul Gaultier, Emilio Pucci and Normal Kamali. She even walks hyenas on a leash, clad in a cream couture gown by Givenchy.  [Telegraph]

Prada got the official go-ahead for its initial public stock offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, expected to take place June 23 or 24. The company plans to sell a 20% stake. [The Cut]  

--Susan Denley

Photo: Left, Rihanna looking elegant on Billboard Awards red carpet. Credit:  Reuters. Princess Beatrice, at the royal wedding, in the Philip Treacy hat that fetched a pretty penny at auction. Credit: Getty Images 

Your morning fashion and beauty report: Westminster Abbey turned into English country garden for royal wedding. New creative director named at Balmain.

Westminster Abbey is being turned into an indoor garden -- complete with a canopy of eight 20-foot-tall trees -- for Friday's royal wedding. Kate Middleton is working with garden artistic director Shane Connolly to re-create the feel of an English country garden. Eco-minded, she insisted that the trees be seasonal and replantable. [Daily Mail]

I don't know if this is spooky or sweet or just a coincidence: Middleton has taken to carrying Tod's "D Bag" -- named for the late Princess Diana who, had she lived, would have been Middleton's mother-in-law. [Telegraph]

Olivier Rousteing is taking over as creative director at Balmain, which announced just three weeks ago that it was parting ways with Christophe Decarnin. Rousteing joined the atelier in 2009 and had been in charge of the women's wear studio. [Telegraph] 

Ralph Lauren has mounted an exhibition of his vintage car collection at Paris' Les Arts Décoratifs. [WWD] (Subscription required.) 

A/X Armani Exchange marks its 20th year with a capsule collection, AXX. [WWD] (Subscription required.) 

Tali Lennox, the 18-year-old daughter of singer Annie Lennox, has been nominated for Scottish Model of the Year. [Telegraph] 

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen had another of their many dreams come true last week when First Lady Michelle Obama wore one of their pieces -- a skirt from The Row, which she donned for an appearance on "The View." [StyleList] 

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-- Susan Denley

Photo: Westminster Abbey, which is being turned into an indoor English country garden for the royal wedding. Credit: Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times 

Your Morning Fashion and Beauty Report: Christophe Decarnin out at Balmain, CFDA auction aids Japan and Elle Macpherson lands a hosting gig

Christophe Decarnin is leaving Balmain after five years as creative director. When Decarnin was absent from the line's runway shows during Paris fashion week in March, the label said he was tired and resting. The news release Balmain issued this morning was terse and gave no reason for the departure. But there's speculation now that Decarnin and Balmain owner M. Alain Hivelin just didn't see eye-to-eye about the future of the brand. [Telegraph]

Sara Rue, host of "Shedding for the Wedding," has lost 50 pounds, dropped four dress sizes and taken the bold fashion step of wearing a bikini for, she says,  the first time in her life. [People]

The Council of Fashion Designers of America has started an online  auction, “Fashion & Friends for Japan,” to benefit earthquake and tsunami victims. The auction is taking place at charitybuzz.com and includes donations from Diane von Furstenberg, Tom Ford, Tory Burch, Rachel Zoe and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olson, among others. [Vogue Daily]  

Elle Macpherson is to host NBC's planned fashion-reality show, "Fashion Star." [Styleite]

Jane Birkin, the actress and fashion muse for whom Hermès named the Birkin bag back in 1984, thinks the iconic accessory could use a little update. She's been encouraging the label to diversify, to "make it out of plastic or, even more fun, make it out of cardboard. Then it wouldn't be so heavy." [Telegraph]

Madewell's collection for this fall was shown off on Tuesday. Seventies-inspired, it's full of sweater dresses, ponchos, soft pleated skirts and floral maxi dresses and seems to be designed with a more grown-up girl in mind -- one who is ready for her first fashion internship, say. [FabSugar]

Cover Girl has introduced animal-print limited editions of its Clean pressed-powder compact that will sell for around $7 each and help benefit nonprofit Children's Safe Drinking Water. For each compact purchased, one week's worth of clean drinking water will be donated to a needy child in countries including Nigeria, Malawi, Sudan and Kenya. Cover Girl has pledged $50,000 to the cause. [BellaSugar]

-- Susan Denley

Photo: Sara Rue, host of "Shedding for the Wedding," has lost 50 pounds and is wearing bikinis for the first time ever, she says.  Credit: JSquared / The CW

Paris Fashion Week: Balmain is a glam rock rerun

It seems like the bubble may have burst on the over-hyped Balmain collection, which reached the height of fashion about a year or so ago, with its 1980s redux style, and hyper-embellished, Michael Jackson-esque jackets.

This collection tried to move forward, taking the glam rock 1970s as the starting point. But not much had changed. The glitzy catsuits were still here, as well as the embroidered jackets, slightly more boxy and less exaggerated at the shoulder line, than in past seasons.

Cuffed, cropped trousers, Lurex blouses and metallic leather blazers didn't advance the Balmain aesthetic much either.

Rumors began to swirl that designer Christophe Decarnin could be on his way out, when he was not at the show to take his bow. But representatives said it was doctor's orders, that he was simply not feeling well, and that he would return to work soon.

Whatever the situation may be, it's time for Balmain to move on to the next chapter.

--Booth Moore in Paris

PHOTOS:

Balmain fall-winter 2011 runway collection photo gallery

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Photos: Looks from the Balmain fall-winter 2011 runway collection shown during Paris Fashion Week. Credit: Jonas Gustavsson and Peter Stigter / For The Times.

Your Morning Fashion and Beauty Report: The show goes on at Dior, Lady Gaga says 'I do,' Christophe Decarnin says he's not feeling well and Blake Lively says yes to a White Swan-looking dress

Just days after termination proceedings against its designer John Galliano commenced, the much-anticipated Christian Dior show took place -- as scheduled -- at Paris Fashion Week. Our fashion critic Booth Moore has all the details fresh off the runway. All The Rage

Lady Gaga said "I do" to a CNN camera operator. Thoughts of what the wedding dress would look like won't stop running through my mind. CNN

Balmain designer Christophe Decarnin was absent from the label’s recent runway show and is reportedly undergoing treatment at a mental hospital where he's apparently been since January. Fashionology

Blake Lively attended a Chanel dinner looking like the White Swan. She didn't wear Chanel on her feet however, the Gossip Girl is loyal to Louboutin after the designer recently named a pair of shoes after her. Daily Mail

Carla Bruni Sarkozy, France's first lady, paired trendy lacy (and a tad racy) black tights with her cocktail dress for a state dinner at the Elysee Palace in Paris last night, raising quite a few eyebrows. I think she looks chic, but it would be nice to see her out of ballet flats once in a while. Stylelist

Louis Vuitton has settled a lawsuit in which a man who purchased Takashi Murakami pieces from MOCA sued the French luxury house after learning the artwork was not limited edition as advertised, but made of the same material used for LV's coveted bags. Los Angeles Times

UGG Australia steps up its game and adds a luxury line of shoes and bags to the otherwise casual collection that until now has been a perfect fit for the college crowd and Snooki, who has in the past name the brand as one of her favorite "designers." WWD

-- Melissa Magsaysay

Photo: Blake Lively, the new face of Chanel's Mademoiselle handbag, in New York on Wednesday. Credit: Billy Farrell, Chanel

 

Paris Fashion Week: Rebel yells at Balenciaga and Balmain

The runway met the street at Paris Fashion Week when Balenciaga designer Nicolas Ghesquiere brought punk rock into the mix for spring.

Presented in the gilded ballroom of the Hotel de Crillon, the same place debutantes are presented to society every year, Ghesquiere's desmoiselles had a baroque grandeur all their own, right down to the silver studs on the soles of their shoes.

Ghesquiere said backstage that he had wanted to explore different ideals of beauty, so he cast a wider net for models than usual, recruiting thirtysomethings (what passes for older in this business), including Stella Tennant, and even a few unknowns from the street. All wore their hair swept into short styles, which practically rendered them genderless.

The collection was a clashing of masculine and feminine, real and faux, old and new. Soft lavender, bubblegum pink, lemon yellow and cornflower blue shared the runway with rebel-rousing red, white and black.

And as always, the fabrics were unreal, including laces that looked as if they had been singed, or embroidered with Silly String.

Opening the show were cocoon coats after Cristobal Balenciaga's originals, except that these were plasticky-looking with supersized red-and-black houndstooth checks. They morphed into zip-front vests with Peter Pan collars in the same pattern, and matching miniskirts with zigzag hems.

Then came the menswear -- a black tailcoat with satin lapels worn with red bubble shorts and a white button-down with silver metal collar tips. (That's right, we're really going back there.)

But the sleeveless button-down shirts were the biggest hit -- assemblages of pastel patterns and prints (modern art, really), worn with black pants that fastened at the side with silver hardware. Of course, there were biker jackets too, in both real and fake leather -- sometimes on the same piece.

Digitized metallic houndstooth tops were paired with see-through knit jersey lace skirts that had printed underskirts to give them structure. And one-shouldered dresses covered with sequins sewn inside out, glinted like fireworks.

After two weeks of soft and 1970s-inspired on the runways in Milan and New York, it was time for something with a harder edge. Ghesquiere delivered without relying on all the safety-pinned, Sex Pistols cliches that made Christophe Decarnin's punk rock-themed Balmain collection, shown just hours later, so forgettable.

--Booth Moore in Paris

Balenciaga spring-summer 2011 runway collection photo gallery

Balmain spring-summer 2011 runway collection photo gallery

Photos: Looks from the Balenciaga spring-summer 2011 runway collection shown during Paris Fashion Week. Credit: Jonas Gustavsson & Peter Stigter.

Paris Fashion Week: For Balenciaga, Balmain and Rick Owens, it's all in the packaging

It's probably no coincidence that for his first runway collection since the launch of the Balenciaga Paris fragrance last month, house designer Nicolas Ghesquiere let his imagination run wild with the concept of packaging. Packaging is of paramount importance in the competitive perfume industry and was reflected in the collection he showed on the Paris runways last week.

Because really, what is fashion, if not packaging in every sense of the word?

Ghesquiere worked with a combination of natural and synthetic materials, including nylon, polyamide, cashmere, silk and camel hair, mixing the ordinary and the extraordinary.

The result was like a trip to the 99 Cents Only Store and Andy Warhol's Factory rolled into one. The boxy, mixed-media jackets and dresses that opened the show were incredibly tactile, as if they had been constructed using packing materials such as cardboard, tape and paper. Plasticky striped tops in sorbet colors, cinching models' waists like wrappers cinch pieces of hard candy, were paired with cropped pants and sandals with modular-looking block heels.

A Balmain accessory for $595? You heard right.

You might not be able to afford Balmain's signature military jackets that can cost about $11,000, but now you can wear a spring accessory from the Paris fashion house for a fraction of that price: $595.

Christophe Decarnin, who led a revival of the 65-year-old name by foisting a broad-shouldered silhouette that had Beyonce and Rihanna rocking his epaulets last spring, collaborated with local eyewear company Oliver Peoples for two limited-edition unisex sunglasses. The first style, the Balmain I, is out in April and available at Oliver Peoples' boutiques.* The Balmain II is slated to drop in June.

“I was thrilled at the opportunity to work with such a talented designer," says Oliver Peoples founder Larry Leight. "Christophe’s visionary designs and his progressive, bold styling has revamped the concept of rock 'n' roll chic. I swear that guy could send a mullet down the runway and make it look sexy as hell.”

The Balmain I features a metal top-bar wrap in a 1980s retro-wrap style that resembles specs worn by "Rio"-era Duran Duran. The Balmain II is an interpretation of a double-bridge aviator in gold or silver. 

-- Max Padilla

* An earlier version of the post said the Balmain I glasses would be available in late March. A company rep said the sunglasses would be available in Oliver Peoples stores in April.

Photo: The Balmain I. Credit: Oliver Peoples

Premium denim brand Hudson debuts a higher-priced collection. Are we ready?

L.A. denim brand Hudson has always been one of the more sophisticated "premium" labels -- putting more effort into its subtle design details than its trend chasing. 

And now it's vying for a bigger piece of the market with the introduction of Hudson Collection, a fashion-forward denim-and-twill line priced even higher than its signature denim line -- from $215 to $995.

$995 jeans? It's an interesting move, considering the ongoing recession and moderating of prices on the part of Hudson's contemporaries, including Joe's Jeans and Seven for All Mankind. But then, nothing could keep die-hard fashion girls from buying $1,000 Balmain jeans last year -- suggesting that women just may be willing to spend big on denim with true cache.

But does Hudson -- a low-key brand in the world of high-end denim -- have enough panache to carry off the sky-high prices?

The collection is certainly trend-right. Jeans boast accents including cut-off waistbands, exposed zippers and hardware darting. There's a cool harem pant jean (right) and a pair with zippers running up the back of each leg (left); a tough-girl take on seamed pantyhose.

The collection breaks down into four categories: Minimalist (simple, well-tailored bottoms); Resurrection (one-of-a-kind jeans that use previously damaged denim to re-engineer fabric in a patchwork fashion); DIY (offering distressed washes, rough details, cut-out waistbands and custom zippers); and Subversion (which combines military-inspired details with modern silhouettes). The collection will debut in L.A. at Barneys New York on Feb. 15.

What do you think? Are you ready to invest in high-end jeans again? What's your price ceiling for denim? Let us know in the comments section below.

-- Emili Vesilind

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Photos: Looks from the new Hudson Collection. Credit: Hudson