That dress is freaking fantastic. Yesterday was intense on a lot of levels; I can’t pretend I’m not scared and emotional about yet another mass shooting, and of course it always feels more real when it happens in your relative backyard (it’s 20 minutes up the freeway) and you know the places, and know people who know people who know the faces. I don’t know what to say, other than that if you believe our government needs to step up and find some answers that make guns harder to acquire, call your Congressperson and Senator — both outgoing and incoming, if that applies. And if you don’t, well, maybe donate some blood or find some random acts of kindness to bestow on your neighborhood, or something. Anything to try and restore some positivity and hope.

Cate Blanchett is therefore a very welcome beacon of gleaming calm today. That dress is aggressively fantastic — you can’t see it as well in this photo, but the bodice is very tightly, neatly pleated, to superb textural effect — and no offense to whatever this event in Shanghai was, but I wish this had been deployed at something less… fleeting, for lack of a better word? It feels major enough for any award show. And her head looks amazing. I wonder if she’s made makeup tweaks lately. Not like she was a disaster or anything before, but that’s just GOOD, and then look how super her head is here too:

Click on that little arrow on the right-middle of the photo, so you can see the whole suit, which I ALSO think is fantastic. I am enormously less enthused by the shoes, which look like orthopedic Keds. But at least we can see them. Our photo source didn’t even HAVE a full look at this outfit:

IWC photocall, Shanghai, China - 08 Nov 2018

It’s another RESPLENDENT makeup day for Cate the Great, and I really love that jacket. What I know from the full Getty picture is that she wore it with ankle-length leather pants and black shoes, and it felt like a bit of a bunchy, boring thud for a very pretty jacket (and you can also, when she shifts, see what looks like a stringy bra JUST peeking under it?). It’s not bad, at all, but it might be a bit of a scrolldown and so let’s just — for today — plead ignorance and leave it here and just marinate in sparkles and a great red lip.

[Photos: Getty, Rex/Shutterstock]