'09
Just so I get my Blanchett cred, let me just say that I love everything about Cate Blanchett. She’s one of the coolest ladies around, she’s an amazing actress, a great mom, a true artist, and before today, a nearly flawless style icon. Cate likes high-fashion – she likes to make an impact, and you can tell that she simply loves to dress. But this dress… oh, NO. Just no, honey.
This is Cate appearing as the “guest of honor” at an exhibition opening in Melbourne. This is her first public appearance since her Streetcar Named Desire costar accidently bashed in her head with an old-timey radio. So is this crocheted quilt dress a product of a traumatic head injury? Or was it just the one “freebie” bad call Cate gets after a lifetime of being flawless?
There have been some awful red carpet faux-pas over the years, but Cate Blanchett’s latest outing in Melbourne takes the biscuit.
The Australian actress, 40, was guest of honour at the opening of the new exhibition Screen Worlds: The Story of Film, Television and Digital Culture.
But all eyes were on her bizarre crocheted dress, which looked more like a nanna’s winter bed cover than something you’d actually wear.
The odd one-shoulder number left many of her waiting fans with confused and surprised looks on their faces.
She told reporters the exhibition was thrilling, although it was her bizarre choice of outfit that ended up stealing the show – for all the wrong reasons.
Cate appeared to have recovered from a recent head injury which she picked while acting in the stage production of A Streetcar Named Desire, in Sydney.
She was injured during a fight scene with her co-star, Joel Edgerton, when he accidentally struck her with a radio. An audience member described seeing blood streaming down the actress’ neck before the play was halted ‘due to technical difficulties’.
It is hoped the exhibition will help to confirm Melbourne as Australia’s home of screen culture.
Australian Premier John Brumby said the show, held at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, brings together ‘rarely seen footage, fascinating objects and interactive displays from cinema’s early beginnings to the rise of television, games, the internet and the dominance of the digital age’.
Cate was joined by Matrix actor Hugo Weaving at the opening of the exhbition, which includes a 1896 Lumiere Cinematographe camera/projector, the rocket clock from Play School, and costumes from Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge.
[From the Daily Mail]
Well, she got noticed. For all the wrong reasons. Did Cate think she wouldn’t make an impact at this event unless she wore something horrible? Or did she think this dress was just stunning. I can’t even justify this with a “maybe it just photographs horribly” – I’m pretty sure it sucked in person too. Oh, Cate. I just can’t hate you. This God awful dress has given me so much pleasure.
Written by Kaiser
Posted in Cate Blanchett, Fashion
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51 Responses to “Style icon Cate Blanchett wears crocheted nightmare dress”
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my mom knit a blanket EXACTLY like this… i’m not even kidding. at first i couldn’t believe my eyes and thought she had snactchd my mom’s blanket in the middle of the night… but, upon close inspection, there are a few differences…
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Granny squares! Nooooooooooooo
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Someone raided grannies couch.
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Uh..um.. wow!!
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That guy’s face in the background on the right-says it all. She does like to take chances with her style, and I guess she did so. I do like the fact that she tied it together well with her tights and shoes. Some people look like they simply cannot dress well, but you can see she does to stay on edge.
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That crocheted quilt doesn’t bother me, its all the black frills and tights that is fugly.
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Yeah she knew what she was doing LOL! I love this woman lol.
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See, this doubles as your blanket when you need to take a nap. She’s just wearing an updated Snuggie~I think it’s very practical. I also have a tablecloth that she would look fabulous in!
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Apparently somebody’s been raiding Helena Bonham-Carter’s closet.
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“This is Cate appearing as the “guest of honor” at an exhibition opening in Melbourne.”: I shall correct that sentence for you, Kaiser. “This is Cate appearing as the “guest of horror” blabla.”
She is usually such a cool cat when it comes to fashion having a perfect sense for keeping the balance between chic and higher edge fashion.
This is an unpleasant surprise…
Also, you can bet Lady Gaga’s going to be jealous and seek revenge. She’ll want the dress and will wear it with a pair of knitting needles in her hair and a TV remote serving as purse.
“Tea time at Grandma’s”, the new look for this fall.
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LOL!
Good eye MizzExpert!
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I’m going to go out on a limb here and say I don’t hate this dress. It’s kind of fun and colorful and reminds me of Pop Art. It’s like Frank Stella decided to take up crocheting. I can see how someone with a very adventurous sense of style would be attracted to it.
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Sunggie Couture!!
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She looks like a complete knitwit.
Sorry…..
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Heheheh, this makes me laugh soooo much, love it! Hey maybe a close friend crocheted it for her. Maybe she took up a new hobby herself. Maybe she just liked it and wanted to walk around in a cozy blanket-type outfit for a change. Whatever the reason, hehe, it’s a hoot. Thanks for the laugh.
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Paging Rachel Zoe.
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I’m going to go with Allie on this one – I want to hate it, but I don’t. Do I think it’s ugly? Yes. Would I wear it? No. But do I think it’s the nastiest thing to come down the red carpet recently? No. And thank God she stayed with the black tights and shoes and no jewelry – I think we all know of some celebs who would have chosen to accessorize this in a much, much worse fashion.
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I’m also in the not-hating it camp. I think it would have worked better with a second sleeve, but I have to say it is campy and fun. Also, with a second sleeve it sure would be warm
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:::odd::: like Cate too much to think less of her for wearing it = )
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So much for my thinking she does it better than Megan Fox. Now she has to redeem herself! I still love her.
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It’s a bad dress for sure, but she’s still awesome. You know you rock when you can wear a dress your memaw made and people still love you!
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WTF??! It makes me want to giggle like mad.
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I love it! I think it’s like an art piece – and it’s a cute dress. Not everything has to be 50 yards of black satin and bugle beads. I think it says something cool about textiles and handmade items. I think it’s fun. Of course, I also own a dozen granny-square afghans from my grandma’s, so there’s a little nostalgia in there, too.
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omg, this dress is INSANE! I’m a crochet fanatic and I’m about to start a granny afghan myself. But I’d never, ever use those colors and I think smaller squares in vivid, non-primary colors, though still bizarre for a dress, would’ve looked way better. And the top squares are off-center, which screws with my eyes.
hilarious! I’m also seeing $$$ in my head – maybe I can be a dress designer after all. LOL
I bet her kittycats want to lie all over her. HA!
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I actually don’t hate it either – Cate can do no wrong
– I think it would have looked better with slightlier vampier makeup and/or fewer frills and if it was either sleeveless or had two sleeves.
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I’m with Stephie–maybe a friend made it for her. The article doesn’t mention a designer. OTOH, maybe she hasn’t fully recovered from that head injury.
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I think it’s awesome. My friend has a blankie exactly like this that her cat comandeered. I have worn it as a poncho down the pub, and I would totally wear this on a red carpet. Oh Cate, you absolute treasure.
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Team Not-Hating-It! It’s fun, and definitely got her tons of photo ops. It looks like wearable art.
It would look better without the sleeve and the black fringe, tho. Seriously, don’t you all think it would be better sleeveless?
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I kind of like it, though I agree that the black tights kind of threw me off, but I’m a huge crochet fan. It is fun, plus it looks really comfy.
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I love crochet but it’s hit or miss – In fact I have a vintage 70s crochet pattern that would look great on Cate. I would love to send it to her!
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My grandma crochets what she calls “throws” that have this same pattern.
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My Grandma had this afgan and one with a chevron pattern in peach, green, and pink..Maybe Cate will wear that one next! Oh yeah, never say Rachel Zoe’s name three time in front of a mirror or she will appear and that’s even scarier than Cate’s snuggie!
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OMG,it’s just horrible:every thing in this dress is just horrible!
who is the dress designer?
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Gosh, I just had a childhood flashback. Now I’m craving milk and cookies.
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Cate’s dress is like a spoof from Saturday Night Live!
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She hit her head harder that I realized, apparently. She’s a lovely woman, but there is just nothing reedeming about this nightmare.
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oh dear.
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I actually find this dress so FUN!
Good for Cate. She has the daring – and the figure – to pull almost anything off. . .this dress proves it.
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Initial reaction: Oh. God. No.
Reaction after reading comments: This is not art. This is bad fashion. People who call this art probably think that everything Karl Lagerfeld does is genius or that taping a red string to the ceiling is art. You can say it’s ugly, It’s alright.
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Grandma Is that you?
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The dress would be so much better if it had both sleeves instead of just one.
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This is so awesomely bad that it transcends “bad” and ascends to the level of “awesomely outrageous” – so I vote to give Cate her props for being daring enough to wear it, and who else could look so divine while doing so?
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I bet it’s a personal joke – like this is actually something a relative crocheted and Cate had it turned into a dress to honor the relative. Why doesn’t someone just ask her rather than assume she’s lost it?
)
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The designer is “Romance Was Born” and they are Australian.
Originally my eyes popped out of my head on seeing it in the paper today. But now I think it’s kind of fun!
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Ahhh I love it! Go Cate!!
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If Cate wanted to make a fashion statement, then she did it very well — as usual.
Obviously it’s a daytime event and the event happened in Melbourne, not LA.
The dress is much more fun than those safe, goddess-like, big designer name, boring stuff. It’s funny — yes, funny could be style, too!
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The perfect dress for Susan Boyle!
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When I first saw this I thought What The?
But after a few minutes it grew on me, its fun and silly and blowing raspberries at the stupidity of the fashion world and all the blogs and media sites that worship a celeb in a new dress…..Cate Blanket is a fashion genius.
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This is exactly what I find annoying about these celebrities. They have uber bank accounts, and they can’t even dress for a basic event.
Cate…three words:
LITTLE BLACK DRESS.
The designer of the dress shouldn’t be in business.
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Well it’s cold in Australia, she just probably wanted to keep warm!
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eewwws..
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