{"id":634294,"date":"2026-10-02T14:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T14:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/634294\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T14:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T14:42:12","slug":"florence-pugh-assumes-her-villainous-final-form","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/634294\/","title":{"rendered":"Florence Pugh assumes her villainous final form"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0Featuring the good, the bad and the ugly, \u2018Look of the Week\u2019<\/a> is a regular series dedicated to unpacking the most talked about outfit of the last seven days. If you want more Style in your life, consider subscribing to our newsletter here<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n If clothes tell a story, then Florence Pugh\u2019s \u201cEast of Eden\u201d press tour wardrobe has tantalizingly mirrored that of her character in John Steinbeck\u2019s classic novel. And at the New York premiere of Netflix\u2019s new adaptation, she assumed her villainous final form.\n <\/p>\n

\n After more than two weeks of period-coded outfits, the British actor wrapped up her promotional campaign on Wednesday in a dramatic, luxuriant Vivienne Westwood gown. Its puff sleeves and plunging corset would surely have pleased Pugh\u2019s character Cathy Ames, the beautiful but manipulative antagonist described by Steinbeck as possessing a \u201cmalformed soul.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\n The choice of chartreuse \u2014 a borderline putrid shade of it, no less \u2014 walked an appropriate tightrope between glamorous and grotesque. The polished green tourmaline of her Bulgari choker shone like some kind of enchanted talisman. The wavy updo was fittingly severe.\n <\/p>\n

\n Hollywood \u201cmethod dressing\u201d may have become tired and gimmicky<\/a> (it is tedious to know we\u2019re being advertised to via clothes) but with \u201cEast of Eden,\u201d Pugh\u2019s stylist Rebecca Corbin-Murray has crafted an intricate literary narrative through ruffles, gemstones and fine tailoring.\n <\/p>\n

\"Pugh<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n In mid-September, Pugh was the picture of period romance as she kicked off the promotional campaign in LA wearing a frilly, buttery yellow Rodarte blouse and skirt. Days later, during a panel appearance at the Atlantic Festival, she was prim and proper in a long-sleeved collared Shushu Tong maxi dress. She has also toyed with Edwardian menswear (\u201cEast of Eden\u201d is set between 1862 and 1918, from the American Civil War to the end of World War I) by styling a Dior brocade jacket as a mini dress.\n <\/p>\n

\n Yet, just as Cathy\u2019s narrative arc transforms her from New England schoolgirl to \u2014 mild spoiler alert! \u2014 Monterey brothel madam, Pugh\u2019s outfits increasingly traded soft elegance for bold glamour.\n <\/p>\n

\"Florence<\/p>\n

\n By the second week\u2019s promotional events, pleats and ruffles came to the fore. Again turning to Rodarte, Pugh wore an elaborately pleated blouse and wide-legged pants to a photocall in London, before arriving at a BAFTA screening in a voluminous gothic-inspired look, also by the LA label.\n <\/p>\n

\n A sea of black ruffles, the off-the-shoulder gown and vibrant red rubellite necklace signaled an ongoing transformation \u2014 just as Steinbeck\u2019s Cathy eventually becomes Kate, her neat, youthful appearance growing more sophisticated and calculated in the process.\n <\/p>\n

Big Style: Where culture meets clothing<\/p>\n

CNN senior style reporter and advanced outfit anthropologist Rachel Tashjian<\/a> excavates the stylish amusements and contextualizes the world of fashion \u2013 all in your inbox. Sign up for Big Style here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Pugh<\/p>\n

\n Then, just to keep us guessing, Pugh attended a press event at New York\u2019s Paley Center in an ethereal all-white Erdem gown, a personification of symbolic innocence. The next evening, however, it was back to black with the polished Vivienne Westwood cocktail dress she wore for Jimmy Fallon\u2019s \u201cThe Tonight Show,\u201d before the tour culminated in the villainous chartreuse look.\n <\/p>\n

\n Subtle and coded, this was method dressing done well. Or, at least, the messaging was not as painfully literal as we\u2019ve grown accustomed to. After all, as Steinbeck\u2019s novels are pains to remind us, appearances are poor evidence of character anyway.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0Featuring the good, the bad and the ugly, \u2018Look of the Week\u2019 is a regular series dedicated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,85,46,100624],"class_list":["post-634294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-look-of-the-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}