Who will win in the celebrity style showdown?

Blake Lively, Emma Watson and Jennifer Lawrence are among the celebs whose style reigns supreme. Photo: Stratraks Photo (left); Reuters (center); WireImage (right)

Let’s face it, fame is a grueling game.
Consciously or not, celebrities are in perpetual competition with each other, and nowhere does the battle rage more fiercely than on the red carpet.
These ladies fight a particularly close battle because their shticks are so similar. But in the oversaturated celebrity arena there can only be one winner — who will it be?

The critically-acclaimed pixies

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Before Jennifer Lawrence began growing out her famous pixie cut, she and Shailene Woodley were more or less the same person. Both are tall, critic-approved franchise stars with generally likeable, “offbeat” personalities. Where they do diverge is fashion. While J.Law’s Dior addiction is certainly annoying, it works. So until Woodley finds what best suits her (so far it’s not girly dresses, like this Preen number), then the odds are ever in Lawrence’s favor.
Winner: Jennifer Lawrence

The over-the-top pop stars

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In need of a globetrotting, social media-whoring singer of questionable taste and talent? Take your pick. Rihanna and Rita Ora were cut from the same millennial cloth — accents, entourages, bra tops et al. However, having played the game longer, RiRi has a competitive edge. She’s slightly more convincing as someone in possession of herself, instead of a girl tacking on anything a showroom will give her. Sometimes she even softens the act and allows herself to look cute, as she does here in Dior.
Ora’s Jean Paul Gaultier is typical try-hard fare.
Winner: Rihanna

The entertainers-turned-designers

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In the realm of celebrity second wins, the only ones to have passed fashion’s fortified gates are Victoria Beckham and the Olsen twins. After years and efforts to relinquish their flashy pasts, we now have two successful, credible clothing lines from three smartly-dressed ladies. The former Spice Girl will always be “Posh,” and looks it here wearing a dress from her eponymous collection. But nothing can top the beyond-their-years sophistication of “The Row” founders MK and Ash, swathed in vintage Gianfranco Ferré and Chanel, respectively.
Winners: Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen

The well-heeled C-list actresses

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For Jessica Alba and Zoe Saldana, looking good isn’t just in the job description, it’s the whole shebang. Both stars make bad movies on a sporadic basis and are really just riding low-pitch buzz generated in the early aughts. Years of quasi-relevance and countless red carpets later they get more attention than Meryl Streep. More power to them.
Although Alba, here in Mary Katrantzou, is a tough one to beat given her roach-like adaptability to trends, Saldana, in Jason Wu, simply wears her clothes just a little bit better.
Winner: Zoe Saldana

The Emmas

Photo: Stratraks Photo (left); Reuters (right)

“Emma” is an especially popular name in Hollywood among people we call “starlets.” Fashion-wise, Emma Roberts takes the bronze metal, but milky-white waifs Emma Stone and Emma Watson are vying for gold. Admittedly, Stone has given us some rather stunning sartorial moments of late. Case in point: this ethereal Valentino business. But considering her options — Stone is one of the fine few who has her pick of designer patronage — the impression is that she merely cleans up nicely. This puts her second string to Watson, here in Ralph Lauren, who isn’t afraid to take risks and try new things, yet always hits the mark.
Winner: Emma Watson

The Aussie BFFs

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Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts have famously been best friends for decades. These Oscar-bait actresses from Down Under share more than blond hair, though. Both maintain a polished flair that marries contemporary style and Old Hollywood glamour. But who does it best? This modestly beautiful Altuzarra dress is exemplary of Kidman’s grace, but in it she looks stiffer than her face after a Botox injection. Watts, like Emma Watson, will occasionally try something different. It’s just like her to wear a classic Calvin Klein dress and shake it up with a big, DGAF diamond necklace.
Winner: Naomi Watts

The ‘Gossip Girls’

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Blake Lively and Leighton Meester played pretty-girl frenemies on TV, so it’s easy to assume the same dynamic lives off-screen. We love a blonde-versus-brunette brawl, after all. They keep it pretty tasteful in the style department, each presumably wary of post-adolescent Mischa Barton-type pitfalls. Meester looks good in this Emilio Pucci dress, but she lacks the innate over-confidence that her former co-star brings to her Chanel ensemble. Lively will vamp until the last camera flashes, and in this game, only the hungriest survive.
Winner: Blake Lively

Bring it on!

Photo: Getty Images (left); Startraks Photo (right)

This one is a match 14 years in the making. Since “Bring It On” first pitted Kirsten Dunst against Gabrielle Union, the two have been cultivating different approaches to style, each with mixed results. Being a Sofia Coppola blonde, Dunst lends herself to the dreamy/girly/quirky template of Rodarte’s Kate and Laura Mulleavy. Like the designers’ collections themselves, sometimes it’s marvelous, sometimes it’s messy. Here it’s somewhere in between.
Union hasn’t kept a high profile, yet is paradoxically ubiquitous, popping up randomly at events seemingly just to “bring it.” Here outfitted in Prada, she certainly did.
Winner: Gabrielle Union