Rosamund Pike, wearing Givenchy Haute Couture, was very nearly my best-dressed of the night. By rights, she should be. Look at what is happening here.
First of all, her black dress made me care about black dresses, which I never do. It is perfectly tailored, it is the perfect black matte fabric, it is dramatic without being cloying or desperate. It shows skin… ‘but make it fashion’. The solid miniskirt above the full black open gauze isn’t confused about what it’s trying to do – it commits. There are a lot of things you would say about this dress, but calling it “sexy” isn’t one of them.
It is then topped by a goddamn perfect sequined jacket. Technically I think this is a ‘bolero’ – a word which makes me reflexively recoil – but what it looks like is the impossible: a metallic/sequined/studded motorcycle jacket that doesn’t feel like it’s in a ‘Senior Jazz, 12 and up’ Dance Competition number.
The only reason Rosamund Pike isn’t my best dressed? This is child’s play for her. It’s so easy. She consistently out-dresses anyone in her vicinity, and she looks effortless. This is what Rooney Mara wants to look like on each carpet, and ends up instead like a terrified visitor from a land where textiles are actually a form of currency so she wears them all at once. Or, put another way, the vibe Rosamund has, every time, is the visual representation of the vibe Blake Lively tries to describe to each designer of every outfit she ever wears… and rarely quite lands, definitely never with this level of badass.
She’s above us, frankly. She’s operating at a higher level – and of course I have to wonder if there’s a link between being less accessible and being the least-household-name of almost anyone we’ll write about tonight. She didn’t win the Globe, but could still snag an Oscar nomination, voting opens today.
For our sartorial sakes I hope she does, that this dress inspired people to vote for her – otherwise it’ll be a long wait until the press tour for Marjane Satrapi’s Radioactive, where she plays Marie Curie. Can you IMAGINE what she’ll get to wear for that movie, let alone, get to do?
Rosamund Pike deserves to be more to us than just Amazing Amy – and perhaps we don’t deserve Rosamund Pike.
