Here’s the thing: I genuinely like Julie Bowen as a person. In interviews, she’s smart and cool and she never gets all Mother-Mafia like so many Hollywood moms. I also think Julie – when she’s at her best – is very, very pretty. I know a lot of guys who think she’s hot – I think it’s a combination of “cuteness” and accessibility. Like, she looks like a MILF most dudes would actually run into.

Here’s the other thing: Julie Bowen is a train wreck on the red carpet. She wears too much makeup, she doesn’t know what colors flatter her skin tone and hair, she doesn’t get stuff tailored for her body, and her default style is just… bad. These are photos of Julie last night at a David Yurman event in LA. It’s not that the dress and shoes are bad – CB thinks the outfit is really cute, and I think it would have been good on someone with different coloring. It really is that Julie Bowen simply doesn’t know how to dress herself. Does she have a stylist? If she does, she needs a new one. This dress looks like an airy, neon pillowcase on Julie’s too-slender frame.

By the way, what do you think of the new season of Modern Family? I LOVED the second episode of the season, where Lily kept saying “I’m gonna kill the baby.” I’m still laughing over that. But I dislike the direction for Claire – she was already so manic and scattered, and they’re really turning her into such a shrew, right? And I’m not sure what to think about Claire’s housewife-to-politician career path. Hopefully the writing will get stronger for Claire. Fingers crossed.

Photos courtesy of WENN.