FASHION

Cate Blanchett's Twist On the Canadian Tuxedo Is Unexpectedly Edgy

by Matthew Velasco

Cate Blanchett arrives at the "Sophie's Choice" 40th anniversary screening at Museum of Modern Art o...
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Hollywood stars are known to have their style signatures. For Cate Blanchett, those signatures largely revolve around repurposing certain styles and, recently, tailoring—more specifically, each and every type of power suit possibly imaginable. Well, last night, the Academy Award winner brought a heavy metal touch to her preferred silhouette for an anniversary screening of Sophie's Choice at The Museum of Modern Art.

Blanchett’s look for the event leaned heavily into suiting, yes, but it also appeared to be the actress’ take on the Canadian Tuxedo. Her ombré matching set was an edgier version of the denim-on-denim look, made complete with a light-to-dark acid wash. Blanchett wore the jacket, which featured a single black button and a fairly boxy shape, sans undershirt and paired her straight-legged jeans with pointed-toe boots.

As unorthodox as Blanchett’s power suit turned out to be, the actress leveled up her look with some hefty heavy metal jewels. The various strands of silver and gold stones which Blanchett layered around her neck functioned as the perfect accent to her bare décolletage. Like her suit choice, Blanchett’s jewelry was left-of-center, functioning more like a very, very long wearable keychain more than a traditional necklace.

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The actress joined Kevin Kline and Meryl Streep at the screening, which honored the 40th anniversary of their appearance Sophie’s Choice. Streep also got in on the power suiting action, opting for a menswear-style tuxedo that she paired with a white button down and glasses.

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Chalk it up to her role as the tailoring-obsessed Lydia Tár in Tár or, simply, just enjoying this particular silhouette, but Blanchett has clearly proven herself to be a major proponent of virtually every type of power suit. The actress’ public appearances have been few and far between recently (she’s currently filming her upcoming project, Father, Mother, Sister, Brother), but we have to look no further than her last outing back in early December for some more evidence of this phenomenon.

Blanchett stepped out to a screening of Shayda wearing a geek chic look consisting of a plunging blazer and matching dress pants. A few days later, the actress slipped into some burnt orange tailoring for an appearance at the United Nations. Interestingly, back in September, Blanchett pulled out a Canadian Tuexdo for the Armani show, though her most recent look definitely carried more of a heavy metal finish.