The Little Black Dress is an eternal fashion staple. When in doubt, your favorite LBD will always look flattering, sophisticated and classic. Typically, you can dress a great black dress up (with pearls and stilettos) or down (with opaque tights and a cardigan) for almost any occasion. But as elegant and versatile as the LBD can be, there are a few drawbacks to the perfect one, and that is the tendency to feel boring or redundant when reaching for your black frock for what feels like the hundredth time in one season. Amazingly, one of our favorite fashion offenders, Paula Abdul, shocked stylish fans when she appeared on David Letterman’s show looking flawless and fresh in a perfect LBD.

For her January 3 appearance on the iconic “Late Show,” Paula chose a strapless and simple black satin cocktail dress. She’s currently making the talk show rounds to promote her answer to American Idol, aptly titled “Live to Dance,” and is evidently making a style transformation in conjunction with her biggest career move to date. The former Idol judge is often snapped looking more crazy than cool, in too-bright colors, and too-teased hair. Her silly style has been the butt of fashion jokes for years, but her Letterman LBD was fabulous.

For starters, Paula’s LBD featured rouching throughout the bodice, which is universally figure flattering. Not that the former Laker Girl needs the help – her body is still flawless at the age of 48 – but the detail certainly hugged her curves perfectly. Instead of opting for colorful and juvenile accessories, Paula went with a classic black clutch with gold piping. Her black satin platform pumps were the perfect finishing touch to an already gorgeous ensemble – and for once her style critics were left speechless. Paula may no longer be our “American Idol”, but she’s certainly morphing into a darn good fashion idol! Keep up the good work, Paula!

After 8 seasons of helping the labor of some great stars, Paula Abdul finally bowed out of American Idol. She announced her resignation via Twitter earlier this month.

“With sadness in my heart, I’ve decided not to return to ‘Idol. I’ll miss nurturing all the new talent, but most of all being a part of a show that I helped from day one become an international phenomenon.”

Speculations of her resignation have been flying around the entertainment world since the last season of Idol, where new judge, Kara DioGuardi was added to the cast, joining Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell. Paula have been an American Idol judge since the show’s premiere in 2002.

FOX, the Idol broadcaster had nice things to say about Paula’s departure:

“Paula Abdul has been an important part of the ‘American Idol’ family over the last eight seasons and we are saddened that she has decided not to return to the show.”

Word is Paula sought $12 million, a significant jump from her previous $4 contract price.

That might be bad news for the Idol ratings, but good news to us all, who love Paula Abdul’s Forever Your Girl jewelry line, because her resignation means she can be more productive in designing her successful line at HSN.com. Here are some of the gorgeous new creations from Paula Abdul’s Forever Your Girl:

Paula Abdul FYG My Favorite Iridescent Dome Ring, $59.95

Paula Abdul FYG Pavé Lucky Star Couture Cluster Crystal Earrings, $49.95

Paula Abdul FYG Inspirational Angel Wing Crystal Ring, $24.95

And here’s Paula Abdul talking about her jewelry that’s apparently inspired by Idol contestants over the years.

Why hasn’t Paula place her product on Idols sooner?  That’s our only question.  In case you’re wondering, here’s the ring she gave to Ms. Del Toro.

The great news is, you don’t have to be on American Idols to get one.  This Paula Abdul “Reach For The Stars” ring is actually available for purchase on the Home Shopping Network and it’s on sale for only $12.95.

We heart the ring, Paula!

See more Paula Abdul creations!

From the fab bunch, we have Carrie Underwood leading the way with her golden sparkly dress.

While we love Jennifer Hudson’s red carpet dress, we also had our eyes set on her stagewear.  She looked amazing!

British star, Estelle, rocked a sparkly number which complemented Kanye’s… err… blazer.  Okay, now we have a question: could it be Estelle has serious insecurity issues about her hips?  She keeps on wearing dresses with fake hips!  Or was it Kanye’s idea?  We’ll never know.  Note to Yeezy: while we love your boldness, glittery stuff is really girls’ domain.

Fantasia looked fantastic with her embellished dress.  We’re just not really feelin’ the shoes.

We absolutely love Gwyneth Paltrow’s metallic strapless mini dress!  And for the dress’ sake, we’ll forget her ‘British’ word-drop: “…the utterly brilliant Radiohead”.  Why don’t we just leave the British thing to Madonna for now.

To tell you the truth, we’re kinda down and out with celebrities wearing those Herve Leger bandage dress.  But Tiny rocked the metallic version this time.  She grew a sense of style!  We’re not really with TI this time, ‘coz we prefer his undone tuxedo look when he performed with the “Rap Pack” onstage.

Paula Abdul tried to get on board the metallic glam trend, but she boarded the fashion trainwreck instead.  Nice try, Paula.

And so did Katy Perry, who puts rhinestones on her ‘fruity’ getup.  Thank God it’s just for show.  She actually looked much better on the red carpet.

Any thoughts on this looming trend, people?

We’ve mentioned Paula Abdul’s “Innergy” jewelry line that have apparently gone into the eBay jungle, but today we’re proud to say that we found out that the American Idol judge released her new jewelry line called “Forever Your Girl” on the Home Shopping Network. Good thing she released it very close to the holidays because she gave us a ton of ideas, at very reasonable prices.  And although we hated the necklace she wore in that picture above, we love her designs for “Forever Your Girl”.  Check ‘em out.

Paula Abdul FYG velvet cord enamel flower necklace

Paula Abdul FYG Signature Classy Bling Earring

Paula Abdul FYG Reach For The Stars Bracelet.

So which one are you feelin’?

It’s almost time for American Idol again and we still hope to see lovely Paula Abdul on the judges stand this year.  This -sometimes- eccentric diva has a jewelry line called Innergy that many people don’t really know.  We wonder why because it has cute things.  Today we ransacked eBay and found a rather masculine piece from Innergy by Paula Abdul. Check it out.

Go here to start bidding now, or we’ll outbid you!

See more of Innergy By Paula Abdul