Cheryl’s stage looks are growers. With hindsight, last year’s split harem pants worn with the military jacket wasn’t so bad. It was at least memorable. Last weekend’s Promise This look is harder to love. The white tux jacket and bustle-bottom leotard were passable and may even cause a flurry of lookalike interest at River Island, but, as ever with Cheryl, the bottom half sends the look into trauma. Why the zebra legs? Are they tights, straps – what exactly? As for the boots, they’re neither high-heeled hikers nor tough military numbers. Confusing. Photograph: Ken McKay/Rex Features/Talkback Ken McKay/Rex Features/Talkback Thames
Fingers firmly crossed this doesn’t catch on. Thankfully Paije ditched his shellsuit jacket after week one. Cher’s high-street grime look suits her but wouldn’t segue well into many non-teenage wardrobes. Most people wearing a liquid-look tracksuit top and baggy jeans will just end up looking like an extra from Byker Grove. Can’t help feeling that the stylist has been googling Tweedy-era Cheryl a little too enthusiastically. Photograph: Ken McKay/Rex Features
I have to agree with Louis here: the girl band is being seriously ignored. On the wardrobe front, this has resulted in Warehouse sale-rail chic. One-shouldered playsuits, jumpsuits, a bit of tame sparkle. Nothing to frighten the horses, nothing to cause a spike in the phone votes. Basically the sort of thing that twentysomethings might wear to the Christmas work do, not the sort of stage attire that cuts it in the post-Gaga light entertainment world. This week’s inclusion of what X Factor has officially termed the “Belle Amie braid” – hair woven in and out of some metal rings to look like the handle of a Chanel bag – has done nothing to reverse the trend wasteland here.
Photograph: Ken McKay/Rex Features
No one is denying that a little stage makeup goes a long way on ITV, but the false-lash one-upmanship is out of control this series. The principal offenders are, of course, Katie Waissel and Cher Lloyd, but it seems that no contestant’s lids are currently safe from tweezer-and-glue assault. Waissel’s worst offence was at the judges’ houses stage, when she wore monochrome bed-bug eyelashes. Meanwhile Lloyd’s have that synthetic Bratz doll quality each week. Who is to blame? Lady Gaga must shoulder some responsibility, but since one of Cheryl Cole’s pay cheques comes courtesy of makeup brand Rimmel, we’re guessing that she is the lashes tsar at X Factor Towers. Photograph: Ken McKay/Rex Features
Firstly, a caveat – Topman is great. But there is a danger that the Topman-by-numbers look is taking over the show. Witness One Direction: the long-line knitwear, the slim jeans, the cut-for-a teenage-frame suit jackets and the faux-insouciant scarf. Finished off with the high-top trainers with tucked-in jeans. It’s teenage boy chic to the letter. Please can they be just a little off-key one week? Photograph: Ken McKay/Rex Features
The default choice of those hoping to add some fashion drama to their look. Treyc Cohen went for a pair of exaggerated raven-feather shoulders to rev up her look last weekend, while Katie Waissel opted for a Bugsy Malone-style marabou cream stole. Fashion anoraks will argue that dramatic feathers are a much-diluted ode to Japanese Vogue’s Anna dello Russo. Expect this trend to continue and reach its peak if the producers slot in the usual diva week. Don’t expect anyone to pull it off, though. Photograph: Ken McKay/Rex Features
Yes minimalism is in, but Wagner will never become the poster boy for this pared-back look. A white shirt can only ever be a style statement in a scenario involving a Prada catwalk; otherwise they belong in the office. Worn with white rolled-up jeans, no socks and white shoes, his look last weekend was way too “cruise ship”. Here is a man whose natural style falls somewhere between John Galliano and Muskateer Porthos and yet the styling team thought to throw on the trend straightjacket that is minimalism. Couldn’t we at least be treated to the sight of Wagner wearing a frock coat and some pirate boots next week? Photograph: Ken McKay/Rex Features
The Nice ’n Easy look is spreading fast. First Storm, then Cheryl, now Rebecca and the short-haired member of Belle Amie. Red hair certainly has its fashion credentials at the moment – on the Mulberry catwalk for next season, every model sported a red wig. X Factor red is defiantly more Boots beauty counter than catwalk. This isn’t a problem in theory – Saturday-night TV and home dye kits dovetail brilliantly well – but the dubious-looking outcome stings. While we’re on duff tonsorial trends: what is it with Louis Walsh’s hair? Who told him that mousey brown dye is superior to natural grey? Photograph: Ken McKay/Rex Features
Props to Dannii for keeping the X Factor wardrobe dream alive. Thanks to an ink-blue Victoria Beckham sheath dress and a dozen cans of Elnett. Respect. Photograph: Ken McKay/Rex Features
