We enjoy Zoe Saldana as much as the next obsessed totally rational Center Stage fan, so we were stoked when she got her biggest break to date: playing Uhura in this weekend’s Star Trek relaunch. But promotional tours for a summer blockbuster can be intense, even when you’re sunburned from the limelight; it must be doubly so when your star’s ascent more or less has been stuck in neutral for nine years, despite turns in plenty of movies we’ve all caught on USA on a rainy Sunday afternoon. (Don’t pretend you’ve never seen Drumline.) Naturally, we were curious to see how Saldana would handle the stress of dressing for multi-city press junkets at this make-or-break point in her career — especially since, at her highest-profile event to date, the Vanity Fair Oscar party, she paired a limp camisole with a giant leopard-print skirt that we suspect was once Sharon Stone’s shower curtain. Would she embrace her potential new status as a household name and face in an appropriately killer wardrobe, or would she show up looking like a starlet whose best days were playing second fiddle to Britney Spears in Crossroads? Let’s take a look.
From left: Frocks worn in Paris, Madrid, and London. Photos: Getty Images, WireImage (center)
Apparently Zoe got the memo that gray is back on everyone’s radar. Although these dresses are objectively super-cute, none of them would be as noteworthy if each weren’t paired with the kind of shoes that send us to eBay at midnight in a frenzied search for our own crazy-hot Fendi peep toes, like the ones she paired with her gray Giambattista Valli in Paris. The adorable belted Loewe dress Zoe whipped out in Madrid would’ve been very easy to wear with your basic black slingbacks — but those Jimmy Choos keep her from looking like she’s just off to another day at the office. And her head-to-toe Alaïa ensemble from London avoids twee-ville thanks to sexy peekaboo booties. Flattering frocks plus super-hot shoes? We saw a lot of Zoe at the two most recent New York Fashion Weeks, but we had no idea she was actually paying attention — until now. And it gets better.
From left: Berlin and L.A. premieres. Photos: Getty Images
Hello, lovers. These two pairs of heels rock so hard, we want to bring them home and place them on a velvet pedestal under a spotlight. Both the red Prabal Gurung from the Berlin premiere and the Emilio Pucci that Saldana wore in Los Angeles are fantastic on their own, and could’ve landed her on best-dressed lists even with less eye-catching footwear. But we love that she went bold with Pucci and Brian Atwood stilettos, respectively, giving the whole enterprise — no hideous Star Trek pun intended — a sexy amount of edge. We always knew the right pair of shoes could brighten our mood; we just didn’t know it would happen when someone else was wearing them.
In fact, while we’re used to bitching and moaning about how wretched everyone looks all the time, we’ve got to give the would-be Eva Rodriguez a round of applause. This gig is probably her shot at the big leagues, and so far, she’s played it perfectly. She looks classy but not staid; youthful but not half-baked; trendy without being a trend whore. So, well done, Zoe — you ran the gauntlet, emerged with nary a hair out of place, and made us want to throw out every tired old thing in our closets and start from scratch. Our bank accounts don’t thank you, but we do.
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