I did not foresee Blake Lively deviating from her floral It Ends With Us wardrobe, much less doing so by going vintage. She is full of surprises. Apparently, she is a huge Britney Spears fan and had bought and stashed this vintage Versace dress that Brit wore in 2002. Blake told Extra that she pulled it out to pay tribute to how badass she thought Britney was when she was younger, and how badass she knows Britney is NOW after everything she’s been through and the way she stood up for herself in her autobiography. It’s a very nice sentiment, and also, a great dress. Apologies to Britney for the fact that, when I first heard what Blake had done but hadn’t seen the pics yet, I was like, “OH NO THIS COULD GO IN A WEIRD DIRECTION.” And more apologies to Britney for tmy immediate thought AFTER seeing the dress, which was, “Wow, I don’t remember Britney ever dressing this well!!!” But she did:
Turns out she was at a Versace fashion show — the lighting was weird; my choices were “dark” or “hella blown out” — and Donatella probably handpicked it for her. This may seem silly given that she’s a very famous designer, but I think Donatella is underrated in her ability to pick stuff for celebs that really, really fits them, and certainly not all fashion houses can say the same. Anyway, both women looked super in this. Blake is doing it sensational justice. I only wish she’d fully replicated Britney’s curls, simply because she COULD have. But it was also apparently rainy on this night, so maybe it’s for the best. One doesn’t want frizz when one has a new hair-care line.
As a side note, on the subject of theme dressing, Blake gave People a good comment about it:
“I’m so excited method dressing is such a thing now because years ago when I did A Simple Favor, people were like, ‘Why are you dressing like your character? Why are you in suits?’” Lively said, referencing her 2018 promo tour for the Paul Feig movie for which she just filmed an upcoming sequel. “And I was like, because we have no marketing money to promote this movie. It’s a small movie and the only thing people really pay attention to at these junket interviews is the photos of fashion so if I just wear men’s suits, people are going to go, ‘Why is she just wearing suits?’ And then they’re going to go, ‘Oh, because she’s in a movie and she’s wearing men’s suits.’ It’s a marketing hack to try to get people to pay attention to our movie. And it worked.”
Pretty savvy! She’s not wrong. It doesn’t explain ALL of the choices, some of which were wacky, but as free advertising goes she certainly did her job and then some.
