We are very relieved that beautiful actresses have finally stopped dressing like porn stars. The see-through-I-show-you-all look that was so de rigeur during the last award season seems to finally have gone where it belongs: in the closet or back on the window as the sheer curtain it was always meant to be. Or maybe it is just that Europe has always had more sense of style than America and the motto here has never been ‘if you got it, flaunt it’. This year’s Venice Festival proves the point. Understated elegance and a gorgeous sense of style ruled the red carpet.
Jurors Diane Kruger and Elizabeth Banks set the tone. Kruger wore a white lace Prada gown on opening night and an opulent, off-the-shoulder burgundy velvet Hugo Boss design two days later.

Photo credit: Andrea Muehlwisch
Elizabeth Banks stunned in a black Dolce & Gabbana at the Everest premiere, wore a statement-making Andrew Gn gown to Black Mass, and a white Marchesa with applique flower stitching to A Bigger Splash

Photo credit: Andrea Muehlwisch
The flowing Elie Saab gown, made of thin chiffon that she put on to the Beasts of No Nation premiere was the only one critics could not agree on. In her defense: that day was by far the hottest and most humid and she would have fainted in brocade!
Tilda Swinton is a true fashion icon for a reason. Her style is always unique and the talented actress has never gone wrong. Her favorite designers are Viktor & Rolf, Lanvin’s Alber Elbaz, Yves Saint Laurent’s Stefano Pilati, Céline’s Phoebe Philo and Jil Sanders’s Raf­Simons. In Venice she stunned in her absolute favorite: Haider Ackerman’s ladylike, lemon-hued design for her A Bigger Splash premiere.

Photo credit: Andrea Muehlwisch
Amber Heard wore a black Stella McCartney dress while accompanying her husband
Johnny Depp to his Black Mass premiere last Friday. A day later: a role reversal when Johnny played arm candy for Amber to her own premiere of The Danish Girl where she stepped out in a dark floral Alexander McQueen ruffle gown, a designer also favored that night by Eddie Redmayne’s lovely wife Hannah.

Photo credit: Andrea Muehlwisch
This year’s breakout star Alicia Vikander (who plays Eddie’s wife in The Danish Girl)
was gorgeous in a Victorian-inspired Louis Vuitton.

Photo credit: Andrea Muehlwisch
Fellow young actress Dakota Johnson wore a simple light pink Prada chiffon dress to her Black Mass event and days later, when she hit the red carpet for the A Bigger Splash premiere, a geometric Marc Jacobs design. Her modern take on fashion plus her very cool hairdo made positive headlines everywhere.

Photo credit: Andrea Muehlwisch
Stacy Martin proved that you can be fashionable even during a stressful day of promotion: the actress stepped out in a vibrant geometric print Miu Miu dress at The Childhood of a Leader photo call. 

Photo credit: Andrea Muehlwisch
Kristen Stewart was the belle of the ball and trés chic while promoting
her film Equals on the red carpet in Chanel Couture. 

Photo credit: Andrea Muehlwisch
And Paz Vega wowed the fans in a pearly white Ralph & Russo.

Photo credit: Andrea Muehlwisch
Unlike Cannes, where you can’t help but wonder why are there more models than actresses, posing aimlessly at every opening of an envelope, in Venice Alessandra d’Ambrosio was one of only three. Her black and white fashion statements were questionable at best compared to actresses with a purpose.

Photo credit: Andrea Muehlwisch
So all in all there was the very good and the downright weird:
the following pictures definitely belong to the latter category, led among a lot of unknowns by a local Italian celeb called Marina Ripa de Meana, who – according to Wikipedia – is an Italian writer, actress, director, stylist and TV personality, best known for two autobiographical books, that were made into two movies with the same titles, both starring (aging supermodel) Carol Alt. Easy enough to understand. What is difficult to explain, however, is this headpiece she wore on the red carpet: a huge spider adorned with several baby spiders. Say what?!
The best that can be said for the rest of them? Well, they did attract attention whether it was the showing of a side boob or an over-the-hill Miss Whatever:

Photo credit: Elisabeth Sereda/HFPA

Photo credit: Elisabeth Sereda/HFPA

Photo credit: Elisabeth Sereda/HFPA
Marina Ripa Di Meana

Photo credit: loudvision
Elisabeth Sereda