Was Cate Blanchett’s Cannes dress a pro-Palestinian protest – or an optical illusion? | Cate Blanchett

For some, the message that Cate Blanchett carried on the Cannes red carpet on Monday rang loud and clear. At first, her fitted, off-the-shoulder Jean Paul Gaultier dress – designed by Colombian-born French designer Haider Ackermann – looked like a simple black dress. But when Blanchett moved, the cameras captured the back of the dress, which appeared white. When she lifted her hem, they also captured her green inner lining. On the red carpet, Blanchett seemed like a walking tribute to the Palestinian flag.

This wouldn’t be out of character for the Australian actor. Last November, amid a wave of silencing of Hollywood figures who had spoken out against the atrocities of Israel’s war on Gaza, Blanchett called for a ceasefire and support for refugees in the European Parliament.

“I don’t come from Israel or Palestine. I am not a politician. I’m not even an expert,” she said. “But I am a witness, and having witnessed the human cost of war, violence and persecution while visiting refugees from around the world, I cannot look away. »

Blanchett was also one of the first Hollywood actors to sign Artists4Ceasefire’s open letter to Joe Biden calling for an end to the war.

So, many took this dress because Blanchett was once again showing solidarity. “When I grow up, I want to be Cate Blanchett and have the subtlety to think that the carpet is already red, so I can just wear a black and white dress with green lining to make that strong point,” Dr. Zahira Jaser, an associate professor at the University of Sussex Business School, of Palestinian origin, wrote about

Not so fast, others said.

Although the back of Blanchett’s dress appeared white in many photos, others showed a soft pink hue, a color not found on the Palestinian flag. Meanwhile, Blanchett, an ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency since 2016, has not made a public statement about her Cannes dress (she spoke about her jewelry with Women’s Wear Daily). Neither her stylist Elizabeth Stewart, who has spoken out about social issues, nor Ackermann – even though, on International Women’s Day, the designer published a lengthy Instagram post about intersectional feminism that included a call for ” women of Gaza.

Was this a secret declaration of support for Palestinian liberation or an optical illusion?

Blanchett styled the dress very differently for the Cannes premiere of Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice than she did for her original iteration for Jean Paul Gaultier’s couture offering. “The garment doesn’t look like it did initially when it walked the runway,” said Freya Drohan, a New York-based fashion writer. “The previously all-black dress is now two-tone, resembling more than a moment the Palestinian flag. »

Blanchett is also a proponent of repurposing fashion and wearing couture pieces – a practice she says “should be totally mundane.” For Drohan, this means “putting more thought into what she wears and why, both by her and her team.” For me, it’s really the intention of lifting the dress to draw even more attention to the green lining which is the most revealing.

The potentially hidden meaning of the dress reminded Wafa Ghnaim, a Palestinian-American clothing historian and researcher, of a tradition born from the first Intifada, which began in 1987.

After Palestinians protested the Israeli government through sustained actions and civil disobedience, Israeli authorities banned their flag and arrested everyone who carried it. To get around the ban, women embroidered its colors on their dresses, in order to reclaim their identity. (This law was repealed after the Oslo Accords in 1993, although Benjamin Netanyahu’s government again banned the use of the flag in public spaces last year.)

“Blanchett’s dress is reminiscent of this approach taken by Palestinian women during the first Intifada,” Ghnaim said. “Palestinian women used their bodies to express their history, and this dress reminds me of that.

“Even in the way Blanchett holds the train, with just a pinch of her finger, she gets her message across,” she continued.

Suzy Tamimi, a Palestinian-American fashion designer based in Brooklyn, saw Blanchett’s dress as a “clever and clear symbol of solidarity.”

Blanchett’s perhaps statement dress came to the carpet at a time when some fans are rethinking their relationship to celebrity culture. Many commentators and fashion enthusiasts were furious at the glaring lack of mention of Gaza at the Met Gala earlier this month: although stars such as Billie Eilish, Mark Ruffalo and Ava DuVernay wore Artists4Ceasefire pins to the Oscars, it didn’t There were no red pins visible. at the Met Gala, even though some attendees had signed the Artists4Ceasefire letter. (Gilded Age actor Morgan Spector wore a suit with poppy applications, referencing a symbol of Palestine.)

In response, some Instagram users organized to block celebrities who attended the event to reduce their status and purchasing power on the app, in what is known as a “digital guillotine.”

“Many celebrities attend the Met as guests of major fashion houses, which may prohibit them from making public statements while representing the brand,” Drohan said. “I think it’s acceptable for the public to expect you to wear the pin and show your support at these very visible times, if you signed the letter.”

Representatives for Blanchett, Stewart, Ackermann and Jean Paul Gaultier did not respond to a request for comment.

Last week in Cannes, a survivor of the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7 wore on the red carpet a yellow dress showing the faces of the hostages and a scarf with the inscription “Bring them home.” There were few other political demonstrations – apparently intentional. THE Festival president Iris Knobloch told Variety that organizers were “very careful not to choose films or festival recipients where we knew there might be an issue or situation that could become a controversy, because our goal is always to keep cinema in the spotlight.” “. A screening of a film about the October 7 attacks, which features graphic scenes of real-life violence, was canceled due to what organizers called a “serious security risk.”

Cannes also adheres to a strict dress code, especially when it comes to shoes. Although current rules only require guests to wear “elegant shoes, with or without heels,” a group of women told the media in 2015 that they were not allowed to attend a screening of Carol (starring Blanchett by chance) due to a heel height problem… or lack of. In recent years, Julia Roberts and Kristen Stewart have insisted on walking the carpet barefoot, in defiance of this rule.

When it comes to clothes for Cannes, Blanchett isn’t usually one to be subtle. Last year, she attended a party in Cannes barefoot – many assumed she was sticking to the shoe rule, as a show of support for Iranian women. Presenting an award to Iranian actor Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Blanchett held the trophy like a knife and said: “It’s about stabbing everyone who stands in the way of women’s rights – vajayjay.” » In 2018, she led 82 women on the Cannes red carpet to protest gender inequality in the film industry.

Why wouldn’t Blanchett say more about her black, green and almost white dress on the Cannes red carpet? “She understands that Cannes is a big platform that millions of people will see,” Tamimi said, “and to continue to be part of that big platform, you have to be innovative in how you show solidarity.”