Cate pulled this one out of the 2018 archive, which is when she wore it to the BAFTA Britannia Awards. It was good then, and it’s good now, a real testament to the style staying power of a well-done dress. Not EVERYTHING has to be directional and Of An Era; it just needs to WORK.
I would like, and I know many of you would too, a deep-dive from someone on what exactly Cate’s archive IS. I watched the Celine Dion documentary, and she has an entire warehouse with everything packed up and stored to protect it from the elements, with photos on the outside of all the containers to identify what’s inside. Does Cate have a warehouse? Or does she return stuff to the designers and then call them years later and say, “So… still got that?” She wore a reasonable amount of Givenchy in that eera, like this rainbow skirt that she re-wore in 2023, and much of the 2016 awards season run. Notably, also, Givenchy just hired Sarah Burton to run it — Burton having just helmed McQueen, a Cate favorite — so perhaps Cate’s nostalgic rewears indicate support for Sarah, and are a sign she is coming back to play.
