'It's a huge step back': Meet the three women who refused to wear black to the Golden Globes- and why

The only two ways to guarantee yourself a spot on the inexorable ‘worst-dressed’ lists at this year’s Golden Globes? Wear any colour other than black, or wear Marchesa, the label designed by Harvey Weinstein’s now-estranged wife Georgina Chapman, which numerous actresses claimed they were forced to parade over the years by the film producer, or face threats of funding cuts to their projects.

Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Angelina Jolie and dozens more of the most powerful women in Hollywood wore exclusively black dresses on the red carpet last night, putting on a united front for the Time’s Up campaign, and rallying to end the run of sexual abuse, harassment, and misuse of power within the industry.

Three women, however, abstained, with each giving a different reason as to why they were wearing colour on the first big night of 2018’s awards season.

The first, and perhaps most understandable was Meher Tatna, the president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. She chose to wear an embroidered red dress and robe with a Time’s Up brooch and explained that she was ‘totally in solidarity’ with the actresses wearing black, but had chosen to wear red because it is customary to do so during a celebration in her Indian culture. It’s a “cultural thing,” she said as she arrived. “When you have a celebration, you don’t wear black.”

Perhaps less clear, though, were the intentions of actress Blanca Blanco and German model Barbara Meier. Blanco, wearing a slashed, bandage-look red dress from Atria Clothing, had simply decided that she didn’t want to take part, and later borrowed her boyfriend, the actor John Savage’s, suit jacket to cover up as she exited the solo safety-zone of the red carpet and had to mingle with the rest of the herd.

Meier, meanwhile, chose a deliberately ‘sexy’ Eva Poleschinski gown which looked unfortunately like a Marchesa design.

“A lot of women will wear black tonight to support the time‘s up movement [sic],” she wrote before she arrived on the red carpet. “I think this is a great and extremely important initiative. Nevertheless I decided to wear a colorful dress tonight. If we want this to be the Golden Globes of the strong women who stand up for their rights, I think, it’s the wrong way not to wear any sexy clothes anymore or let people take away our joy of showing our personality through fashion.”

Meier continued to make the case for defiantly sexy clothing, suggesting that her outfit “symbolizes our freedom and our new strength.” “We were fighting a long time for the freedom to wear what we want to and that it is also ok, to dress up a little more sexy,” she added. “If we now restrict this, because some men can’t control themselves, this is a huge step back in my opinion. We should not have to wear black to be taken serious. [sic]”

The directive to wear black was given almost a month ago, giving the styling teams behind Hollywood’s great and good plenty of time to organise a dress accordingly. There was no chance of missing this memo - the plot has been covered by media outlets around the world since its formulation - and so anyone who didn’t comply with the dress code was giving a definite snub.

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But can you really blame them for finding the opportunity to stand out irresistable, when the field has been levelled for every other player? There was still a competition, ultimately, to find the best black dress of the night. We're still pawing over the glamorous pictures and the outstanding, dazzling jewellery. We’re still passing judgement on those who wore black, and how well they ‘did’ the conservative look, as much as we are on those lesser-known names who opted not to.

Did those who fronted the ‘blacklash’ do the sisterhood down? Probably not. But in their minimalist ribbons, their short-term win will likely not pay off in the long run. You can bet the Hollywood elite left Blanco and co. out in the cold when the after parties came began last night.

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