盛會上越穿越少的紅毯明星

To the Billboard Music Awards a week ago, Jennifer Lopez bared most of her stomach and the undersides of her breasts in a creation by … hmm, let me look that up.

一週前，在《公告牌》(Billboard)音樂獎的頒獎禮上，詹妮弗·洛佩茲(Jennifer Lopez)露出腹部的大半以及乳房的下側，這件禮服的設計者是……呃，讓我查查。

At the Met Gala on May 4, Ms. Lopez, Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian West were the three fanny-flaunting Furies, in gowns whose designers don’t immediately spring to mind, though I do remember the violent hitching gesture with which Ms. Lopez adjusted hers in the Temple of Dendur before dinner, as if to ensure those few parts of hers still private remained so.

在5月4日的大都會藝術博物館慈善晚宴(Met Gala)上，洛佩茲、碧昂斯(Beyoncé)和金·卡戴珊·韋斯特(Kim Kardashian West)穿得像是妖嬈的復仇女神三姐妹。人們一下子想不起這些禮服的設計者，不過我的確記得，在丹鐸神廟參加晚宴前洛佩茲猛拉衣服的動作，好像是爲了確保她身上僅有的幾處隱私部位沒有走光。

And at the annual awards presentation of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, to take place Monday, June 1, at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center (O tempora! O mores!), we can surely expect more, or less, of same.

6月1日（週一），美國時裝設計師協會(Council of Fashion Designers of America)在林肯中心的愛麗絲·杜莉音樂廳(Alice Tully Hall)舉辦年度頒獎禮。我們肯定能看到類似的禮服（略微保守或更暴露一點的）。

It was there, a year ago, that Rihanna started the current rage for the so-called “naked look,” with a body stocking noted more for the manufacturer of the crystals that adorned it, the inescapable Swarovski, than its designer, Adam Selman.

一年前，就是在那裏，蕾哈娜(Rihanna)掀起了目前所謂的“透視裝”狂潮。她的禮服像一條全身長筒襪，禮服上裝飾的施華洛世奇水晶（這個品牌簡直無處不在）比禮服的設計者亞當·塞爾曼(Adam Selman)更引人注目。

At least one stylist, Anita Patrickson, who has worked with the model Chanel Iman and the actress Julianne Hough, decried this new standard. “It’s great if you’re doing a theatrical live show and the dancers are wearing it, but when you think back to Grace Kelly waltzing along the red carpet, it seems such a shame,” Ms. Parkinson said in a telephone interview.

至少有一位造型師譴責了這種新標準，那就是安妮塔·帕特里克森(Anita Patrickson)。她曾擔任模特夏奈爾·伊曼(Chanel Iman)和女演員朱莉安娜·霍夫(Julianne Hough)的造型師。“如果是在一場誇張的現場表演中，舞者們穿這樣的戲服，那是很棒的選擇，但是如果回想一下格蕾絲·凱利(Grace Kelly)輕盈走過紅毯的情景，你會覺得現在這種潮流真是可恥，”帕特里克森在電話採訪中說。

Even she, though, recently put Michelle Rodriguez in a black tentacled back-barer by Zuhair Murad, a specialist in such things, for the “Mad Max: Fury Road” premiere at Cannes, where actresses have long simulated Venus emerging naked from the half-shell.

不過，就連她前不久也讓米歇爾·羅德里格斯(Michelle Rodriguez)在參加《瘋狂的麥克斯：狂暴之路》(Mad Max: Fury Road)的戛納首映時穿上祖海爾·穆拉德(Zuhair Murad)設計的黑色緊身露背裝。穆拉德是設計這類服裝的專家。長久以來，很多女演員都曾在戛納模仿過從半邊貝殼中出現的裸體維納斯。

By encasing themselves in such creations — I wouldn’t go so far as to call them dresses — in the more formal, urban precincts of museums and concert halls, these celebrities are flaunting their bodies, to state the obvious (most impressively so in the case of those older than 40).

顯而易見，這些名人在正式的城市場所裏（比如博物館和音樂廳）穿這樣的東西（我不想稱它們爲服裝）是在炫耀自己的身體（對40歲以上的人來說，更是如此）。

They are also neatly subverting the product placement that has dominated the red carpet for the last 20 years or so, since screams and flashbulbs drown out all of the now-automatic branding burps.

她們還徹底顛覆了20年來主導紅毯的植入性廣告，因爲尖叫聲和閃光燈淹沒了所有如今人們習以爲常的品牌宣傳。

They are obviating the automatic question, “Who are you wearing?” Indeed, they are obviating speech. Silent, statue-like, the semi-clad are taking back the night from the global conglomerates that have so voraciously seized parties and galas as prime marketing opportunities.

她們避開了那個常見的問題：“你穿的是誰設計的禮服？”她們實際上避開了交談。她們如雕塑一般，不言不語，半裸着身體。她們把派對和晚宴從國際集團的手中奪了回來，那些集團貪婪地把這些活動視爲市場推廣的絕佳機會。

And they are seeking to place themselves in a bombshell pantheon led not by Ms. Kelly but by Marilyn Monroe, who sang “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” in a basted-on stretch of illusion fabric that few could tell you was made by the costume designer Jean Louis, though it sold for $1.15 million plus commission at auction in 1999.

她們努力在性感尤物的殿堂裏佔據一席之地，這個殿堂的領袖不是格蕾絲·凱利，而是瑪麗蓮·夢露(Marilyn Monroe)。她演唱“生日快樂，總統先生”時，身穿一件完全貼合身體曲線的禮服，禮服的質地容易讓人產生錯覺。幾乎無人知道那件禮服的設計者是讓·路易斯(Jean Louis)，不過在1999年的一次拍賣會上，那件衣服以115萬美元的價格售出（不含佣金）。

Ms. Monroe certainly loved the camera and was known to pore carefully over portrait proof sheets. But one cannot imagine her indulging, as Ms. West did recently, in a 445-page book consisting entirely of selfies and distributed (I wouldn’t go so far as to call it “published”) by Rizzoli.

夢露當然很喜歡相機，衆所周知，她總是仔細查看自己照片的校樣。不過，你很難想象她會沉迷其中，就像卡戴珊不久前做的那樣，通過裏佐利出版社(Rizzoli)發行（我不想稱之爲“出版”）了一本全是自拍照的長達445頁的影集。

This book, titled “Selfish,” has been heralded as “riveting” by Laura Bennett at Slate; Jerry Saltz of New York magazine compared it with apparent sincerity to Karl Ove Knausgaard’s “My Struggle.”

那本影集名爲《自私》(Selfish)。《紀事》雜誌(Slate)的勞拉·貝內特(Laura Bennett)在新書預告中稱讚它“引人入勝”。《紐約》雜誌(New York)的傑裏·薩爾茲(Jerry Saltz)真心誠意地將它與卡爾·奧韋·諾斯加德(Karl Ove Knausgaard)的《我的奮鬥》(My Struggle)相提並論。

With all due respect to such critics, this is poppycock.

儘管我對這些批評家很是敬重，但我還是得說，簡直是胡扯。

“Selfish” may as well be called “Surface.” Like Madonna’s “Sex” more than 20 years ago, which came quaintly wrapped in Mylar (and at least featured someone who went through the motions of dancing, singing and acting rather than just posing), it is a feat of packaging and persistence, nothing more. It does not so much suggest Venus as Narcissus, drowning in his Photo Stream. And it is about as engrossing, and as meritorious, as the accountant’s spreadsheet it is enriching.

《自私》可以改名爲《膚淺》(Surface)。就像20多年前麥當娜(Madonna)的《性》(Sex)一樣——那本影集很奇怪地裹着聚酯薄膜（至少她是在跳舞、唱歌、表演，而不僅僅是擺姿勢）——它是包裝和執着的傑作，僅此而已。它不是把維納斯比作顧影自憐的那喀索斯(Narcissus)，淹死在自己的照片流裏，而是在表現這些照片像會計師的電子表格一樣引人入勝，值得讚揚，寓意豐富。