by Florence Pugh is a true master of the art of fashion.
Take the Dunne: Part Two premiere in New York on Sunday night. The actress wore an ethereal dove gray pleated Valentino couture dress, taken to the next level by a futuristic eye shadow-finishing look and slicked back hair, placing her diamond earrings and ear cuffs in the center of the scene.
It’s a stunning look in its own right, which more than held its own alongside Zendaya (in Stéphane Rolland), Anya Taylor-Joy (in Margiela couture), Timothée Chalamet and Austin Butler – perhaps the most interesting red carpet dressers and ours is stylish. time. But it’s even more extraordinary when you realize it’s part of an epic fashion puzzle Dunne: Part Two visit the world of premieres.
It’s clear that the film’s marketing team has tried to have the lead actors reflect its themes and aesthetic in their red carpet looks. This “dressing method” is an increasingly popular strategy that Margot Robbie used for Barbie.
All of it sand dunesThe stars’ appearance will have to be coordinated with the appearance of the other actors, so that there is a nice cast photo at each stop. Multiply that coordination by the number of first calls and photocalls (London, New York, Paris, Seoul and Mexico City so far) and it becomes very attractive. All this is happening during awards season, when other celebrity stylists are calling the latest catwalk looks “bagsie”.
You do not need to know, to enjoy this sartorial spectacle, that the sand dunes The franchise is based on a 1965 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert about a far future world, where all “thinking machines”, such as robots and AI, are banned. Nor is the landscape bleak and desert-like, although these factors are the main sources of inspiration for the stylists involved in the coordination of these famous associations.
Safe to say, the brief has been well and truly served by all parties. And the likely goal – to convince people who haven’t gone out of their way to see a sci-fi movie, that this one is worth their time – is fully achieved.
Planning for this has been going on for quite some time, says celebrity stylist Rachel Davis, who works with Sharon Horgan and Edith Bowman and has dressed many stars for red carpets and press junkets. She says there is always an element of coordination.
“Normally, as a stylist, you’d be doing this alone,” she says. “Say, I want Florence to wear this wonderful Harris Reed, but of course it can’t be too similar to what she did last time…
“I styled a presenter for BAFTA once and it had to match what the male presenter was wearing. I spoke to her stylist and of course, we liaise and coordinate, but this is on another level, you would have to show so much flexibility that you wouldn’t normally have to. This time they are working as a collective group.”
Davis is too polite to point out that there are probably a lot of egos to navigate as well, of which celebrity is probably the least of them. At this level, even the hair and makeup artists will have an industry reputation – and their creative input is valuable too.
At London Dunne: Part Two At the premiere, Zendaya’s stylist Law Roach even walked the red carpet alongside her. Given that she was dressed in a silver robot suit first seen in Thierry Mugler’s Fall-Winter 1995-6 collection, which quickly went viral, he probably wanted to channel some of his self-inflicted humor. each other.
Alex Babsky, the makeup artist behind Pugh’s silver eye make-up, is the best of the best, says Davis: “He’s an artist. It really is. He shows every look before he does it.”
And he’ll be working overtime, too: “Here’s the other thing,” she says. “It’s the hair and makeup and everything that goes with it. This is a huge task. Everything that Florence is wearing, there are probably about three or four other options.
“Then Alex and [hair stylist] Evanie Frausto will have to come up with ideas for each option. So say, three or four dress options, then you have jewellery, then you have shoes. Then you have hair and makeup, and then it has to match what Zendaya is wearing or what Timothée is wearing.”
Then there are the advertising or ambassador markets, according to which the stars are obliged to wear certain labels, which limits the possible options. Pugh works so closely with Valentino, his Rebecca Corbin-Murray styles probably have Pierpaolo Piccioli himself on speed dial.
And she would spend; although Pugh wears couture like she was born to do it, she doesn’t have traditional model proportions so Corbin-Murray has to commission each of Pugh’s looks to be custom fitted.
“Her entire look will be custom designed, which makes the overall coordination even more difficult,” says Davis. “Because it’s not a case of ‘Oh, pull it off the pile’ – even though everyone wants to dress Florence – she’s probably been inundated with offers.
“But they’ll be planning for a long time, and I think the nature of the film is kind of sci-fi, they probably all wanted to push it, as they can, because there’s always that little aspect of the clothes there. premiere many times,” says Davis.
And then there is the art of knowing when not to be OTT. When Zendaya wore the archive Mugler couture robot clothes to the Dunne: Part Two The London premiere, “it could be a little greasy and’Bride Wars‘” to try to make her better, says Davis.
Instead, Corbin-Murray channeled Pugh’s style in a pretty sequined brown Valentino dress with a hood. “I think on this occasion, [Corbin-Murray] they knew that Florence could still look fierce but be cool and calm,” says Davis.
That’s because Pugh has her own superpower: “She knew she could be Florence. Even if you put her in a little black dress – she would still be Florentine.” No need for sci-fi plots.
More from the press tour…
