Florence Pugh made a case for fall's divisive chartreuse in Vivienne Westwood
Chartreuse is not a color for the faint of heart. It sits in the acidic hinterland between yellow and green, tricky enough on a manicure, let alone a couture gown. Florence Pugh, in the middle of her East of Eden press tour, just walked the New York premiere of the Netflix drama in a look built to change that.
The gown, a Vivienne Westwood couture piece, pairs a sculpted, plunging zip-front bodice with black and silver detailing and a pair of heightened chartreuse sleeves that rise dramatically around her shoulders. A metallic silver silk skirt spills into a train below, and gold, silver, and diamond Bulgari jewelry — a choker plus a stack of rings — amps up the shine. It is bombshell dressing through a distinctly Florence Pugh lens, with a nod to the period drama she is starring in.
Working with longtime stylist Rebecca Corbin-Murray, her glam team kept the color story going. Makeup artist Alex Babsky painted a smoked-out silver eye under sharply defined brows with a soft matte-pink lip, while hairstylist Hyungsun Ju swept Pugh's blonde hair into a voluminous layered updo. Even at its most princessy, the look still has personality.
A shade to turn up, not tone down
The gown fits the ultra-feminine, faintly punk register Pugh has leaned into all tour. At a London screening last week she wore an operatic black Rodarte gown covered in oversized ruffles and set off with a nearly 30-carat rubellite Bulgari necklace. Earlier on the tour, she wore an almost bridal-white corseted Westwood gown with fluttering sleeves, and she has gone barer elsewhere in an Erdem sequined bra and briefs with a kilt and a Chloé nightie.
Vogue reports that chartreuse has been quietly slipping into fall wardrobes and even manicures since turning up across recent collections. Pugh's pitch for it is maximalist: don't dilute the color, commit to it. On a red-carpet regular who already treats dressing as a costume moment, the divisive shade reads as deliberate rather than daunting.
