The similarities between the Instagram socialite Hailey Bieber and Oppenheimer’s Emily Blunt are admittedly thin, but last night, Blunt’s outfit drew parallels. That is because the actor wore a broad-shouldered, backless pantsuit—a silhouette that has fast become synonymous with the model and skincare mogul—while making an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. And though it called to mind images of Bieber at the 2019 Met Gala and images of Bieber posing on the sidelines of Saint Laurent’s spring/summer 2024 catwalk, it was, in fact, the exact same Alexander McQueen design that Lenny Kravitz wore to this week’s Golden Globes.
“I saw him swaggering across the floor at the Golden Globes,” Emily Blunt told Colbert. “I had already pre-planned this for your show and I thought, ‘You know what, no, I’m still going to wear it’.” Of course, it would generally be considered declassé for a Golden Globe winner—a serious artist schooled in the works of Konstantin Stanislavski—to show the same square footage of flesh across the front of their bodies. That is perhaps an area reserved for different kinds of entertainers… like pop stars. But to expose the long, sloping lines of the back is a subtle kind of seduction that purrs more than it provokes.
It was perhaps Tom Ford who best understood the allure of a prone back when he was producing coccyx-grazing looks at Gucci in the ’90s. See also: Mireille Darc in that low-cut Guy Laroche dress in 1972’s Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire, Keira Knightley in that green Atonement dress and the model Vikki Dougan—aka The Back—who was praised for her “marvellous exits” in the June 1957 issue of Playboy, and ultimately banned from Hollywood parties because her preference for backless dresses drew too much attention. Which is, of course, the entire point of exposing your most intimate contours.
This article first appeared on British Vogue.
