The American Mall premiered this past Monday, but my eyes were too glued to the Olympics in hopes of catching a Ryan Lochte sighting. Before I knew it, the clock struck midnight and American Mall was over. I was in too much of a swoony swimmer haze to care, and besides, it’s an MTV production – you know how they love their repeats.

If you haven’t caught it yet, take an hour or two from your weekend to watch it. The New York Times thinks it’s worthy of your time, too: “American Mall” is to “High School Musical” as “The Little Mermaid” is to “The Mickey Mouse Club”: older, wiser, marginally sexier — and pretty wonderful.

While I did get to stand on the red carpet and chat with the mall rats, these pictures are far more professional and pleasing to the eye than mine were.

Nina Dobrev’s dress was designed by the winner of Canada’s Project Runway; Autumn Reeser was wearing white ruffles with fuschia heels – kind of like a grown-up girl’s version of Barbie shoes.

These yellow peep-toes looked picture-perfect with Brooke Lyons’s subdued navy party dress; although the pink + ruffles was a little much, Bianca Collins was the cutest thing around. She literally bounced down the carpet.

Although this babydoll number doesn’t look quite as spectacular in the snapshot, it had a wonderful taffeta sheen and adorable pink sequined circles; speaking of sequins, this mauve dress shimmered in the L.A. sun.

-tf

Tags: red carpet, nina dobrev, bianca collins, project runway, taffeta