At Cate’s command
Mr Chanel himself springs to action to deliver outfits for Oscar-winner’s latest role
ASK any designer which celebrity they would most like to see wearing their clothes and you’ll probably get “Cate Blanchett” as the answer.
The Oscar-winning Aussie seems to have cast a spell over the fashion world, expertly sporting hard-to-wear pieces by Balenciaga, Givenchy and Armani Privé from red carpet to red carpet, never slipping up.
She brought a little bit of that magic to her latest film, the Woody Allen-directed Blue Jasmine, in which she plays the titular role of Birkin-toting Jasmine, a perfectly primped Upper East Side New Yorker, who loses everything and spirals into a breakdown.
The character called for some serious designer duds and, naturally, with the mere mention of Blanchett’s name, the designers came running.
“I called up Karl Lagerfeld and, I have to tell you, I was astounded,” costume designer Suzy Benzinger told Lucky magazine.
“I sent a note and in two days he shipped out two custom-made jackets for Cate Blanchett with the most beautiful note. And I just thought, ‘Oh my God,’ and he said, ‘For Cate, I’d do anything’ ”.
“When the jackets arrived, I said, ‘How could he do this?’ It was right during the fashion shows and everything and he turned them around and sent them to me. Cate put it on and it was perfect.”
The jacket in question is a classic white bouclé style with navy trim, which Blanchett can be seen wearing in the film’s trailer. Thankfully, the number fitted perfectly with Allen’s costume mentality.
“He wants his films to be timeless,” said Benzinger.
“He doesn’t want you to look at one of his films five years from now and say, ‘Oh, that was so trendy. That’s so five years ago.’ He loves the classic stuff; that’s just the way he is.”
Blanchett also wears pieces by Ralph Lauren in the movie, but that Chanel jacket alone is enough to have us buying our cinema tickets.