May 14, 2019

"Does this dress make me look guilty?"


The linked article isn't just about Sorokin but about various celebrities making questionable courtroom fashion choices. Excerpt:
And in 2011, during her trial for felony grand theft in Los Angeles, Lindsay Lohan garnered more attention for what she wore on her way to court — very short, clingy dresses, often in white or beige — than for the reasons she was in court, which may not have helped with her legal troubles, but made a different kind of case for her own fame in the public eye. “She walks into court like a movie star,” the lawyer Gloria Allred told The Times during the trial. “Apparently she hopes to be one.”

Ms. Allred also said then that her own general approach was to advise clients to dress for court as though they were dressing for church.
Some people get attention, some grab attention, and some — these are the ones you need to look out for — garner attention. It's not enough for them to have the attention right there in the moment. They need to amass it — to pile it up as if in a storehouse or granary.

ADDED: My all-time favorite celebrity courtroom look was Anna Nicole:



She won — in the Supreme Court, on a jurisdiction issue — and then she died and then she lost.

AND: To my eye, the look Anna Sorokin conjures up is the persecuted innocent:

66 comments:

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I see a nightgown. Is she wearing fluffy bunny slippers?

Ann Althouse said...

When I was clerking for a federal judge, we had one trial where the plaintiff represented herself and she wore fluffy slippers.

Shouting Thomas said...

People seldom dress for church nowadays. They dress more as if they are going to the grocery store.

I’m the only one who dudes himself up. But, it’s my job.

rehajm said...

was to advise clients to dress for court as though they were dressing for church

Since they've never been there they're gonna need some help with that..

Ann Althouse said...

By the way, I'm the only law professor who wrote a law review article with the words "fluffy slippers" in the title.

Lucid-Ideas said...

After reading about what she got away with, there are a bunch of people that should also be on trial for raw Darwin-award-level stupidity. Who lends a stranger $60k for a weekend in Morocco after meeting them one time over bottle service at a night-club?

I'm in the wrong business. I should move to NY and grift.

Ray - SoCal said...

There is also the theory of how color affects the impression you create.

Just like for job interviews.

What image do you want to project?

Lance said...

"Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast garnered?"

Luke 12:20 (one word slightly reinterpreted)

Mattman26 said...

“She walks into court like a movie star,” the lawyer Gloria Allred told The Times during the trial. “Apparently she hopes to be one.”

I’m not a big Gloria Allred fan, but that is one fine bitchy put-down.

buwaya said...

She may have been going for the "I deserve leniency because I am insane" look.
Or maybe she really is rather mad. I assume so, given the facts. A sane person would have known she would be caught eventually.

Michel said...

"On July 27, 1970, I went to the Magnin-HiShop on the third floor of I. Magnin in Beverly Hills and picked out, at Linda Kasabian's request, the dress in which she began her testimony about the murders at Sharon Tate's Polanski's house on Cielo Drive. 'Size 9 Petite,' her instructions read. 'Mini but not extremely mini. In velvet if possible. Emerald green or gold. Or: A Mexican peasant-style dress, smocked or embroidered.' She needed a dress that morning because the district attorney, Vincent Bugliosi, had expressed doubts about the dress she planned to wear, a long white homespun shift. 'Long is for evening,' he had advised her." From "The White Album" by Joan Didion Section #12

Shouting Thomas said...

I like the innocent little girl dress.

It’s sorta porn-ish. Miss Bo Peep. Short skirt, and sheer material. Miss Bo Peep is a gangbang in the world of porn.

So, she’s conveying a deflowering the poor little girl image.

Tom T. said...

I've seen plenty of women dress like that at church, but always young teenagers acting out.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

but did she literally garner? Like, literally?

Fluffy slippers = just too cute to be guilty. right? It's like the popular vote.

tim in vermont said...

That dress makes me wonder if I have a $50 in my pocket and if there is a readily accessible but still private space somewhere nearby.

tim in vermont said...

I don’t see how scamming society types is a real crime that should take up the time of investigators.

Tom T. said...

Okay, maybe dresses that short but not that see-through.

Henry said...

Just like Lohan, Sorokin has an eye out for her next job after prison. Four years, then reality TV.

The giant glasses weird me out.

Bay Area Guy said...

She seems like the type of ditzy chick who watched "50 Shades of Grey" a few too many times, then tried to kinda sorta live it.

donald said...

I read an article about this in Vanity Fair. She was throwing huge wads of cash around and seemed to know everybody to her marks. She had a helluva ride.

Leland said...

White typically suggest innocence. Not knowing anything else, I would suggest the dress makes her look innocent. The black choker neck tie makes her look guilty as sin. Oh, I suppose the short fall of the dress exposing a bit of thigh makes her look sinful too, but is that her or the person looking down there?

For sentencing, her dress was black and actually a bit more conservative and simple. Vanity Fair talked about it. Sad that the NY news spends so much time judging a woman based on her looks.

Ann Althouse said...

"She may have been going for the "I deserve leniency because I am insane" look."

I am vulnerable, it would be rapist to put me in prison.

Ann Althouse said...

"Okay, maybe dresses that short but not that see-through."

To be technically precise, it is see-through in the final 4 inches of length. That is a design gimmick to make a short skirt look shorter while preserving some modesty. It's also quite functional in that you need enough fabric to sit on without having to pull at the skirt when you sit down.

Fernandinande said...

They need to amass it — to pile it up as if in a storehouse or granary.

Your link, which doesn't use the words "amass" or "pile", clearly indicates that the MSM scribblers are using the word correctly (collect, gather, pull together) when it has nothing to do with granaries.

Wince said...

Let's be practical here, shall we?

Do the sentencing guidelines call for being thrown into a volcano or being offered to a giant ape as his wife?

stevew said...

She chose to wear that with a specific purpose in mind, of that I have no doubt.

What gender and age is the judge?

stevew said...

Are her hands behind her back because they are in cuffs, or is that a pose?

buwaya said...

Imprisonment is a dreary punishment. There is no spectacle in it and it is invisible to potential criminals. Out of sight, out of mind, the malefactor just disappears from the lives of those who may take a lesson from it.

There has to be something better.

tim maguire said...

She looks like a sex kitten. If I'm on the jury, am I supposed to think, "maybe, if I vote not guilty..."?

buwaya said...

Volcanos are impractical. They are generally just a cliff-face up close, where one would be tossing people in, and I have looked into live volcanos. One might as well drop the condemned into the Grand Canyon. When they are active and interesting, they are far too dangerous to the functionaries and spectators. And the business end tends to be obscured by ash and cloud.

Giant apes of the proper sort are hard to come by, and moreover come with their own well known problems.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

there should have been a subway grate with a blast of air
as she walked into the courtroom.

Marc in Eugene said...

Stocks and public shaming.

flophouse philosopher said...

When Bob Guccione, publisher of Penthouse magazine, testified on his own behalf in the Miss Wyoming libel case, he wore to court a purple velvet jumpsuit unbuttoned at the top to reveal his hairy chest, and two large gold chains. I read the summation by Gerry Spence, Miss Wyoming's lawyer, to the Wyoming jury, and he must have referred to the jumpsuit and chains a half dozen times, on his way to winning an enormous verdict for his client.

Kay said...

She seems cool. I can easily see her story being turned into a Lifetime movie.

Kay said...

Honestly, very few people embody the spirit of the American Dream as well as Anna Nicole Smith did. R.I.P.

walter said...

stevew said... She chose to wear that with a specific purpose in mind, of that I have no doubt. What gender and age is the judge?
--
Or...
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-da-ken-kratzs-law-license-suspended-in-sexting-scandal/

William said...

Marie Antoinette has come into some fair criticism for her elaborate hairdos and expensive jewels, but her sense of style was impeccable when it came to beheadings. She made sure to keep a simple white dress tucked away for the occasion. The white set off the arterial blood nicely and enhanced her martyrdom.

Earnest Prole said...

If you knew anything about this case you’d know the question is not whether she’s guilty but what sentence she deserves. Dressing like a high-functioning professional woman would practically guarantee the maximum sentence. Dressing inappropriately like everyone’s teenage daughter, on the other hand . . .

Shouting Thomas said...

And I didn’t mention the choker, which suggests an asphyxiation kink. Choking to the point of unconsciousness to fire up her orgasm.

Fun date!

madAsHell said...

Is this the other side of the slut walk??

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

It's a look that says “I’d be lying to you and to everyone else and to myself if I said I was sorry for anything. I regret the way I went about certain things... I was power hungry... I'm not a good person."

Ann Althouse said...

"Your link, which doesn't use the words "amass" or "pile", clearly indicates that the MSM scribblers are using the word correctly (collect, gather, pull together) when it has nothing to do with granaries."

The story of "garner" begins with a real place, a garner, a storehouse for grain. If you don't want a storage connotation, stay away from this word. My problem is not that it is understood to mean "get," it is that people use it as if they don't believe "get" is a good word, as if it's lowly or slang. I noticed this problem when Jeb Bush was running for President. He said the word a lot and, for me, it epitomized why Trump was able to destroy him.

Ann Althouse said...

Click on my "garner, the word" tag for the full effect of my war against this word. Keep in mind, I am trying to help. This word shouldn't be bumbled into without consciousness of how bad it is and how wrong it is to try not to say "get."

Get serious. Get smart.

Only a Jeb would think, I need to garner seriousness. I need to garner acute intelligence.

Brian said...

I know of one (civil) trial I personally witnessed where one of the jurors found for the plaintiff because one of the female attorneys for the defense had too big of a wedding ring. She stated it in a post trial interview.

Also, the jurors in that trial all got together on the next to last day of the trial and wore the same customized tee shirt. Nobody knew what that would mean for the verdict, but nobody thought it was a good thing.

daskol said...

A sane person would have known she would be caught eventually.

She and Michael Avenatti apparently share a similar psychopathy.

daskol said...

Say what you will about Mr. Low Energy, but Jeb garnered donations from the donor class like that was his job.

William said...

Re martyrdom: Will anyone sleep safer at night knowing that Felicity Huffman is in prison. I have a win win solution for the problem of just punishment for white collar crimes and the sad state of our public restrooms.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

"... they don't believe "get" is a good word, as if it's lowly or slang"

because 'get' is just a 3-letter word, like 'jobs'

Danno said...

No dear, it makes you look fat!

buwaya said...

Urban chain-gangs might work.
Actually, they don't need to work at all, as in breaking rocks.
The spectacle would suffice.
Parade them through the main streets, chained, daily at rush hours, and at other times through the more difficult neighborhoods.

buwaya said...

A persecuted innocent would have worn a longer skirt, maybe.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

The last pic looks more like Maria Butina.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

the Nicole Smith "talk-to-the-hand" look kinda works tho.

but why the gloves? No prints?

Sam L. said...

"Ms. Allred also said then that her own general approach was to advise clients to dress for court as though they were dressing for church." I have the expectation that her clients don't go to church, and wouldn't know how to dress for it.

Big Mike said...

To my eye, the look Anna Sorokin conjures up is the persecuted innocent:

To my eye she looks as though she makes her living on her back. Fortunately for her I am not on her jury.

Big Mike said...

If I can tell at a quick glance what color her bra and panties are — or if I think I can — then the dress is too diaphanous.

SeanF said...

buwaya: Parade them through the main streets, chained, daily at rush hours, and at other times through the more difficult neighborhoods.

You going to have a stern-looking woman ringing a bell and shouting "Shame!" while they walk?

Gospace said...

What Anna Sorokin proves is that some people have more money then sense. And she was good at locating those people.

tcrosse said...

An orange jumpsuit would be a poor choice.

tim in vermont said...

Lindsey Lohan is a great actress, gifted. Try and watch The Parent Trap without crying.

PM said...

She's hot.

rhhardin said...

The Anna Nichole pic looks like Sandra Bullock.

Bilwick said...

Saint Joan was smokin' hot!

Leland said...

New York has a crime called "Society Scammer"? How does that work in relation to AOC?

Nichevo said...

If I can see your bewbs, you're guilty. NTTAWWT.

chorister said...

When I was in law school three decades ago, I worked arraignments in Municipal Court. The defendants had been arrested the night before and usually appeared in the clothing they wore when arrested. Everyone looked terrible. One defendant had on a T-shirt that read in big letters: "SHIT HAPPENS."

When it was his turn to plead, the Judge looked at him, saw the T-shirt, started to say something, but stopped himself, and just went on with the business of taking the plea. I have never forgot that moment of kindness.