WORN OUT: The Hollywood Life Style Awards

Planning outfits for a night on the town can tough, but during Fashion Week in LA, it's especially treacherous. You wanna look good and somewhat "on-trend," but not like you're trying too hard. If you do go for the gold -i.e. glam it out and stand out- ya better make sure you're pulling off whatever wild get-up you throw together, or you'll get noticed for being a victim not a vamp.

LBDs (more clubby than chic, but still cute) at The Hollywood Life Awards.
Best part about black? You can go nuts with the shoes!

Perhaps these concerns are the reason so many in fashion capitals like New York and Paris -and yes Los Angeles- opt for all black looks when attending shows. This season, we haven't been crowding into the "official" slew of runway presentations at Smashbox Studios so we don't know if that's been the case -that grueling task has gone to Gendy Alimurung, whose extensive coverage here on Style Council and in the paper has been fun and fascinating indeed- but we're guessing it was Back in Black as usual beyond the front row.

We've been checking out "out of the box" happenings (read all about two of the best in this week's Nightranger and see 'em -along with some Rocky Horrorific looks- in this week's slideshow) and the looks on both runway and in the crowds we've seen have been quite inspired. Though we must say, we are pretty sick of the still-lingering '80's references.

The outest lesbian from America's Next Top Model,
Kim Stolz, in a new wavey striped get-up, interviewing
Eve at the Hollywood Life Awards. (Nice MTV gig).

Surprisingly, (or maybe not) some of the more amusing looks on patrons was at a starlet-soaked event. The Hollywood Life Style Awards at Pacific Design Center gave out trophies to B-listers like Sophia Bush and Eve for their looks, as well as Ludacris (who got props for his "Green" lifestyle, to which he explained quite eloquently, "When you grow up in the hood, the idea of 'reuse and recycle' goes without saying.. the jelly jar becomes a juice glass, and the grease from your fried chicken cooks meals for the rest of the week.") We struggled growing up and he's so right on that one.

Anyway, the party had lots of sexy LBDs (like those on the hotties in first photo) but there were also some great splashes of color and high-end designer looks (loaned we're sure) floating around the after-party. Even some designers themselves came out, including sequin master to the stars Bob Mackie.

Cher & current Tina Turner tour designer Bob
Mackie gets his trophy from pal Mitzi Gaynor.

But our pick for cutest and quirkiest look goes to Jane Bryant (left) who won for her work as costume designer on the retro-cool cable show Mad Men. Her 80's (okay, in this case we liked it) meets 50's mini-gown fit her to a T, and definitely stood out in the crowd...in a good way. Unfortunately, this pic does not show the super-hot red shoes she wore, but take our word for it, the contrasty pops of color worked.

In fact we're thinking of copping the blue frock/red shoe thing tonight when we attend the Brian Lichtenberg show at Box Eight....

Or maybe we'll just wear a black.