Fashion Victim: Criticise Katie and you’re Cruising for a bruising

Mar 13 2008 by Emma Johnson, Liverpool Daily Post

I MUST admit that this is not something I ever expected to find myself doing, but I think it is time to come out in defence of Katie Holmes.

For, like her BFF one Victoria Beckham, Katie – although lauded by the fashion elite for her trend awareness – appears to have become a bit of a whipping girl for certain other sections of the press. As if it were not enough for them to allege all sorts of things about her marriage to Mr Hollywood himself (none of which I will go into here because I have no wish to find myself in court) now she is being called too thin, too bony, too pale – and her biggest crime of all? She is dressing too old for her age.

Now, while I am not going to condone Katie’s current Lego-head hairstyle for one minute, she was definitely prettier before she hacked all her hair off and I wonder how Posh really feels about her mate copying her hairstyle (I would hate that), the “dressing too old” criticism is completely unwarranted.

One pundit claimed this week that the former Dawson’s Creek star’s new Armani and Christian Louboutin-stuffed wardrobe was all down to her need to dress herself older for her husband, who is 16 years her senior, as apparently all younger women have to do in the end.

What nonsense. Younger women do not have to dress older for their husbands.

You don’t see the Girls from the Playboy Mansion dressing like octogenarian Hugh Hefner, do you? That said, he is never seen in anything other than monogrammed silk pyjamas and they would probably look hot in those anyway.

My husband is 11 years older than me, and I think he would be horrified if I suddenly started shopping at Jacques Vert and Jaeger (although, to be fair, Jaeger is seriously upping its cool credentials these days), especially when his own style is more Roberto Cavalli than Country Casuals.

Anyway, for movie mogul types, isn’t the whole point of having a younger woman on your arm the fact that they look fashionable and young and sexy?

The irony is that the same people castigating Katie Holmes for her couture gowns and elegant tailoring are the ones who point and laugh at Paris Hilton’s non-stop wardrobe mistakes, be they Hello Kitty T-shirts, French maid’s outfits or going out sans knickers.

I suspect the reason for Katie’s image transformation is three-fold.

Firstly, as I said, she is hanging around with the fashion magnet that is Posh Spice, who knows better than anyone how to get the paparazzi’s attention. And paparazzi attention is something Katie is clearly in need of, seeing as her acting career hasn’t exactly been bothering the Academy judges lately.

Secondly, she presumably has access to the biggest joint account in Hollywood, so no wonder she is apparently regularly spotted spending upwards of $1,000 on dresses at her favourite boutique.

Which leads me on to the third reason – Katie is married to Tom Cruise and, given everything that comes along with that union, who can blame the girl if she needs a little retail therapy?