Pity the poor starlets!  Every time they step out they are photographed, the photographs go online, and they are scrutinized instantaneously by a heartless, fashion-savvy public.  Most celebrities have professional stylists for support, but even so they once in a while end up wearing things that are very simply wrong.  Last Wednesday, just halfway through the festival, Huffington Post ran a slideshow of the worst-dressed celebrities at Sundance.  This event is tricky to dress for: it’s cold, it’s snowing, and there’s a self-conscious artsiness to the proceedings.  It’s a very particular brand of glamor that just about all of the starlets (and stars) miss; they tend to dress down completely rather than adjust their glamorous signature styles for the weather.

They might take a hint from New York City ladies, who don knee-high rubber rain boots at the first hint of any kind of precipitation, from an hour-long drizzle to a foot-high snowfall.  Along with a good coat and an umbrella, they’re all that’s really necessary to face the weather.  You just pull them on over your existing outfit and go.  Since the rage for dark olive Hunter boots five years ago the rubber rain boot has become, like the pea coat and the pashmina, a winter wardrobe staple.  Hunter makes them in all styles and colors, in metallics, and with a Jimmy Choo-designed croc imprint.  And there are good-looking copies everywhere that can be had for twenty dollars or so.  The tall boots look right paired with both jeans and skirts, with both trench coats and furs.  They’re practical, iconic, and have an anglo-aristocratic edge.  The Queen wears them at Balmoral, Kate Moss wears them to Glastonbury, and Kristin Dunst wears them in Melancholia.  Starlets at Sundance can wear them too.