Is Cate Blanchett’s Cannes Dress a Show of Solidarity for Palestine?

Aamina Inayat Khan
·2 min read

Australian actress and forever A-lister Cate Blanchett has graced the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Last night, she attended the world premiere of The Apprentice, a controversial biopic about a young Donald Trump, starring Marvel actor Sebastian Stan and Succession star Jeremy Strong. But Cate Blanchett’s Cannes dress has people talking about something else.

Blanchett wore a custom Jean Paul Gaultier gown designed by Haider Ackermann from the Couture Spring 2023 collection. The key differences were 1. that Blanchett’s dress had a much longer train and 2. that the colors in the original were black, periwinkle blue, and lime green and Blanchett’s dress was black, white, and emerald green. The Internet caught onto the fact that the colors of Blanchett’s dress, plus the red carpet she walked, make up the colors of the national flag of Palestine. We can’t know for certain that this was Blanchett’s intention, but spectators seem pretty convinced. If true, it would be quite a statement to make on the red carpet at one of the biggest film festivals in the world, an even bigger statement that it’s at the Donald Trump biopic.

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Cate Blanchett attends the "The Apprentice" Red Carpet at the 77th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 20, 2024 in Cannes, France.
Cate Blanchett attends the "The Apprentice" Red Carpet at the 77th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 20, 2024 in Cannes, France.

During the awards season earlier this year, it was very common for celebrities to wear Artists For Ceasefire pins, with artists like Billie Eilish, Ramy Youssef, the members of boygenius, and more sporting the little red pins. The flag dress, while less explicit, arguably makes a larger splash. And whether she meant to or not, she has diverted the conversation at Cannes to Gaza.

A model walks the runway during the Jean Paul Gaultier by Haider Ackermann Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2023 fashion show as part of the Paris Haute Couture Week on January 25, 2023 in Paris, France.
A model walks the runway during the Jean Paul Gaultier by Haider Ackermann Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2023 fashion show as part of the Paris Haute Couture Week on January 25, 2023 in Paris, France.

Blanchett, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, spoke to the assembly back in November of 2023 calling for an immediate ceasefire.

“I am not Syrian. I am not Ukrainian. I’m not Yemeni. I’m not Afghani. I’m not from South Sudan. I’m not from Israel or Palestine. I’m not a politician. I’m not even a pundit. But I am a witness,” she said. “The conflict has cost and continues to cost the lives of thousands of innocent people.”

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