Did Angelina Jolie commit an international fashion faux pas? Dress your best abroad, pt. 1

What a dress! Angelina and Brad on parade at the Cannes Film Festival

I am hardly a prude.

Still, after watching Angelina Jolie walk the Red Carpet in Cannes this past week in a nude colored, slit-to-nearly-the-hip, Versace Atelier gown, I have to think twice about her wardrobe choice.

So did many others when she started to move forward, her stride causing quite the stir as the dress separated from her body.  This evening gown left nothing to the imagination.

While Angelina could have gone topless on Cote d'Azur beaches without the fuss that this choice would make in, say, Malaysia, that's the norm in the South of France. But, exposing what she did by wearing the dress she picked for her husband's formal screening at the Cannes Film Festival lost the desired effect for some fans around the world who were left shocked after viewing the sexy spectacle. 

In her defense, Angelina is only one of millions who don't always pick what many seasoned travelers consider the right garments to don for certain occasions when sojourning abroad. 

Sometimes a wardrobe choice can make all the difference in the world -- literally.

Take what happened to my old friend Edward.

In Hong Kong for an important job interview, this assertive Brit was stressing out about what to wear to a meeting. Or should I say THE meeting. This appointment was a career-making or -breaking event in fashion-concious Hong Kong so all my English colleague could do was worry about which suit he should put on.

I told him not to worry since his taste has always been spot on --  sage words that fell on deaf ears.

Just before the big event, Edward went shopping in Hong Kong at the last minute. He came back to our hotel (The Kowloon Shangri-La)l carrying a very spiffy (and very loud) suit made of houndstooth wool, created by French designer Claude Montana.

Though my ability to instantly convert currency in what was then a British territory was less than par, I did come up with a figure well over two grand US. I gulped, thought to myself "what a debacle" but wished him well anyway, and then went about my day worrying about my friend's meeting.

Edward called about three hours later and was laughing.

Or at least it sounded like laughing.

In fact, this articulate man was a bit incoherent but I finally discerned that the meeting turned out to be a good one, despite a very uncomfortable first impression.

"Jane, he was wearing my suit," Edward sputtered. "The same Claude Montana houndstooth suit I know you didn't like the first time you saw it. You didn't say so but your eyes did."

All I could offer was a giggle even though my face showed an I-knew-it frown.

Apparently, both men were out to impress the other, and so Edward's future boss, a Chinese heavy hitter in the media arena, bought the only other version of my friend's new suit in all of Hong Kong. So, despite what happened when they first laid eyes on each other, at least there was a strange bonding point that allowed them to come through the odd experience with levity, if not a little embarrassment.

To be sure, the suit will permanently hang in Edward's very extensive closet.

And, yes, Edward did get the job -- by the skin of his houndstooth suit!

For part two of this series, click here