Forget the Golden Globe shoes and the Amy Winehouse hair for just a minute and let's think about Helena Bonham Carter's singular style. Thankfully since making the Vanity Fair best dressed list, 2010, HBC seems to have ditched the Victorian bloomers for Vivienne Westwood's cleavage-enhancing corset dresses and Lulu Guinness' bags. And wait for it.... on days when she doesn't look too eccentric or contrived, or like she's walked into a jumble sale and come out wearing all the clothes, at once, I actually quite like the HBC look. It's very English. Vanity Fair admired her 'exquisite self-expression' and even if the mismatched shoes were a step too far, it is refreshing to see someone who doesn't do Botox, or Marchesa. Oh and HBC is a splendid actor too; brilliant as Nigel Slater's chain-smoking stepmother in Toast, perfectly cast as Enid Blyton in the BBC biopic and - it goes without saying - superb as the Queen Mum in The King's Speech. Not to mention Fight Club, Sweeney Todd, A Room With A View.
The 44-year-old has an excellent pedigree, she's the great great grandaughter of Prime Minister, Herbert H Asquith and has an incredibly stylish mother:
Helena Bonham Carter, bonkers-tastic or badly dressed? What do you think?
Photos: Contact Music. Toast photo: Julieta Sans