by For some, the message Cate Blanchett brought to the Cannes red carpet on Monday rang loud and clear. At first, her form-fitting, off-the-shoulder Jean Paul Gaultier dress – designed by French-Colombian designer Haider Ackermann – looked like a simple black dress. But when Blanchett moved, cameras caught the back of the dress, which looked white. When she raised her hem, they took her inner green lining too. Against the red carpet, Blanchett appeared to be a walking tribute to the Palestinian flag.
It wouldn’t be out of character for the Australian actor. Last November, amid the silence of Hollywood figures who spoke out against the horrors of Israel’s war on Gaza, Blanchett called for a ceasefire and support for refugees at the European Parliament.
“I am not from Israel or Palestine. I am not a politician. I’m not even mental,” she said. “But I am a witness, and having seen the human cost of war, violence and persecution visited upon refugees around the globe, I cannot look away.”
Blanchett was also one of the original Hollywood actors who signed the Artists4Ceasefire open letter to Joe Biden calling for an end to the war.
Therefore, many accepted this dress as Blanchett coyly showing solidarity again. “When I grow up I want to be Cate Blanchett, and I have the subtlety to think that the carpet is already red, so I can wear a black and white dress with green lining to make such a strong point ,” Dr. Zahira Jaser, an associate professor at the University of Sussex Business School, who is of Palestinian descent, wrote on X. “CATE BLANCHETT YOU ARE KING,” echoes one account of the pop culture fan.
Not so fast, others said.
While the back of Blanchett’s dress appeared white in many photos, others pointed out that the color was soft pink, a color not found on the Palestinian flag. Meanwhile, Blanchett, a UN refugee agency ambassador since 2016, has not made a public statement about her Cannes dress (she did talk about her jewelry with Women’s Wear Daily). Stylist Elizabeth Stewart, who has spoken out about social issues, isn’t Ackermann either – but on International Women’s Day, the designer made a lengthy Instagram post about intersectional feminism that included calling out “the women of Gaza”.
Is this a secret statement of support for the liberation of Palestine or an optical illusion?
Blanchett wore the dress in a very different way for the Cannes premiere of the Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice than her original version for Jean Paul Gaultier’s couture offering. “The garment didn’t look like it first walked down the runway,” said Freya Drohan, a New York-based fashion writer. “The previous all-black dress is now two-tone, with more than a resemblance to the Palestinian flag.”
Blanchett is also an advocate of refashioning fashion and re-wearing couture pieces – a practice she said “should be absolutely incredible”. For Drohan, this means that “both she and her team are putting an extra level of thought into what she wears and why. To me, it’s really about elevating the dress to draw even more attention to the most prominent green lining.”
A possible hidden meaning of the dress reminded Wafa Ghnaim, an American historian and researcher of Palestinian dress, of a tradition born from the first intifada, which began in 1987.
After the Palestinians protested the Israeli government through continuous actions and civil disobedience, Israeli officials banned their flag, arresting anyone who carried it. To get around the ban, women embroidered their colors into their dresses, as a way of reclaiming their identity. (This law was set aside after the Oslo Accords in 1993, although the government of Benjamin Netanyahu again banned the use of the flag in public spaces last year.)
“Blanhett’s dress is reminiscent of this approach taken by Palestinian women during the first intifada,” Ghnaim said. “Palestinian women were using their bodies to tell their story, and this dress reminds me of that.”
“Even just in the way Blanchett holds the train, with the pinch of her finger, she clearly conveys her message,” she continued.
Suzy Tamimi, a Palestinian American fashion designer based in Brooklyn, saw Blanchett’s dress as a “clever and clear symbol of solidarity”.
Perhaps Blanchett’s statement dress hit the carpet at a time when some fans are rethinking their relationship with celebrity culture. Many commentators and fashionistas were outraged by the overwhelming lack of mention of Gaza during the Met Gala earlier this month: while stars such as Billie Eilish, Mark Ruffalo, and Ava DuVernay wore Artists4Ceasefire pins at the Oscars , no red pins were visible. at the Met Gala, although the Artists4Ceasefire letter was signed by some of the attendees. (The actress Morgan Spector wore a dress with poppy appliqués, referring to the symbol of Palestine.)
In response, some Instagram users organized to block celebrities who attended the event from lowering their status and earning power on the app, a so-called “digital guillotine”.
Related: ‘We’re leaving’: chef Fadi Kattan aims to keep Palestinian heritage alive through food
“Many celebrities attend the Met as guests of major fashion houses, which may prevent 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’ve signed the letter.”
Representatives for Blanchett, Stewart, Ackermann, and Jean Paul Gaultier did not respond to a request for comment.
Last week at Cannes, a survivor of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel wore a yellow dress depicting the faces of the hostages and a sash that read “Bring Them Home” on the red carpet. There was little else in the way of political protest – apparently. The festival’s president, Iris Knobloch, told Variety that the organizers were “very careful not to choose films or recipients for the festival where we knew an issue or situation could be controversial, because our aim is always than to keep the cinema in the spotlight”. A screening of a film about the October 7 attacks with graphic scenes of real-life violence has been canceled due to what organizers have called a “serious security risk”.
Cannes also adheres to a strict dress code – especially when it comes to footwear. Although current rules only require guests to wear “elegant shoes, with or without heels”, a group of women told outlets in 2015 that they were not allowed to enter a screening of Carol (which Blanchett also co-hosted) because due to an issue with her heel height … or lack thereof. In recent years, Julia Roberts and Kristen Stewart have made it a point to walk the carpet barefoot in defiance of this rule.
When it comes to clothes or Cannes, Blanchett isn’t usually one for subtlety. Last year, she attended the Cannes party barefoot – many assumed they would abide by the shoe rule, in 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: “This is to save all the people who stand in the way of women’s rights – up the vajayjay.” In 2018, she led 82 women to 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 will be seen by millions,” Tamimi said, “and to continue to be part of this big platform, you have to be innovative in how you show solidarity.”
