To me, an ornate primping station seems a little, well, vain: delovely in theory but, like a certain over-the-top sequined dress that hangs unworn in my closet, hard to pull off in practice.

WSJ: The Un-Vain Vanity Table

Kim, dressed in a black sequined mini-dress, posed for the cameras with an arm around sister Kourtney, also in a little black dress.

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The festival is like a swan -- all elegance and beauty above the water as the Angelinas, Gwyneths and Mischas reward the photographic phalanx with a dazzling dress and a sequined smile -- and beneath the waterline there is a flailing and scurrying of limbs as press and publicists beat each other over the head with whatever weapons they can muster.

CNN: Behind the red carpet at Cannes

Fashionista.com editor Abby Gardner has always appreciated a well-cut asymmetrical dress, but the be-sequined everything that ran rampant in 2009 took some getting used to, she admitted.

CNN: The good and bad of 2009 celebrity style

The suggestion to dress in 1930s style is studiously followed: theatregoers mill about in sequined headbands, fascinators and suspenders.

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