Of all the awards shows season wardrobes we’ve revisited so far, Cate Blanchett’s is arguably the most interesting (along with Michelle Yeoh and Angela Bassett). It’s definitely the most sustainable, as several of these looks are rewears, or have been repurposed. It’s also the largest, in part because some of Tar’s premiere events overlapped with awards season –and taken as a piece, it really does feel like Blanchett was gunning for this Oscar, at least until it became clear that the tides might be turning Yeoh-ways. In retrospect, I wonder if Cate’s Critics Choice Awards acceptance speech about how awards are meaningless turned said tide on her a bit. She won at the BAFTAs and gave a real “aw shucks” of a thank you, but the BAFTAs are notorious homers (Kerry Condon also won the BAFTA, for example), and Cate didn’t take home another Best Actress prize after that. Yeoh is obviously hugely deserving of her accolades and I’d have voted for her, too — but sometimes the momentum in these things twists on the slightest moment.
ANYWAY! That’s all water under the bridge. As usual, Cate and her longtime stylist Elizabeth Stewart did some extremely thoughtful work. Stewart also styles Viola Davis, Julia Roberts, Jessica Chastain, and Amanda Seyfried; she is about as A-list a stylist as there is, and was named Stylist of the Year by The Hollywood Reporter this year. There’s considerably more Louis Vuitton than I would have guessed.
