The fall 2015 Dolce & Gabbana collection had a lot of dresses that looked like very advanced children’s drawings, and as much as something like that can look cohesive coming down a runway, it seemed like a stretch to imagine it on a red carpet. And I did NOT anticipate seeing it on Dame Helen Mirren:

Granted, it’s a very CHEERFUL piece of juvenile art, so that helps. The collection as a whole was a bit twee for me, but something about Dame Helen in it works. Perhaps because it’s so discordant — a snowy-haired seventy-year old goddess matched with a six-year old’s magnum opus — that it comes back around to making sense? Would this have worked on any other person at any other age level? Too on-the-nose for a Kiernan Shipka, too cutesy on on a Selena Gomez or an Emma Stone, too hilarious on Kate Hudson… but perhaps just right on La Mirren, who also paired it with perfect orange shoes and the right shade of lippy. It’s amazing that this not only holds together but manages to make sense, and yet, it does. Helen Mirren is possibly a genius.

[Photo: Getty]