Emily Blunt shares how the levitating straps on her Oscars dress works

‘Sometimes we don’t play it safe,’ Blunt’s stylist says

Emily Blunt hilariously showed the internet how the straps of her 2024 Oscars dress work amid backlash for the look.

When internet users tuned into the 2024 Academy Awards ceremony on 10 March, the Oscar nominee’s beaded champagne-colour Schiaparelli gown with floating straps came under fire, with many dubbing the look “confusing” and “bothersome.” Some people were especially irritated by the dress’s floating straps.

“Is anyone else as fascinated by Emily Blunt’s dress as I am?” one person posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Why won’t her straps sit on her shoulders?! Meanwhile, someone else added, “I’m so distracted by the shoulders on Emily Blunt’s dress,” one tweet read.

“Find someone who will respect your personal space the way the straps on Emily Blunt’s dress respects hers,” another person joked.

The Oppenheimer actor put the comments to rest when she posted a hilarious video of her playing with the straps. In the video, she moves her head back in forth to create an optical illusion with the dress.

“This is trippy as hell,” one user wrote, while another noted: “Ppl moaning on Sunday about how they didn’t get the reason behind these dresses....said reason.”

Blunt’s stylist Jessica Paster defended her choice to style the Devil Wears Prada star in the beaded gown, saying in an interview with Vanity Fair: “Sometimes we don’t play it safe. At this point of years of being with Emily, we can go have fun with fashion.”

Although she noted that everyone was entitled to their own opinions, the only opinion that mattered at the end of the day was Blunt’s, and whether or not she felt her best. She added that the last thing they wanted to do was play it safe when it comes to fashion, even if a certain sect of people aren’t buying into Schiaparelli’s trademark whimsical details.

“Did I know that people were going to talk about the shoulder? Absolutely. Do I care what anybody else has to say? Absolutely not,” she added. “Me? I think that people that know fashion, like fashion, like things that are interesting, were going to like it and I know the people that like some things that are very classic were not going to like it.”

“At the end of the day, she looked absolutely beautiful. It was such a beautiful dress,” Paster added.

She explained that final gown was selected after a last-minute try-on theSunday morning right before the Oscars. The ensemble was accesorised with Tiffany & Co platinum necklaces - which boasted over 100 carats of diamonds - as well as six-carat diamond earrings.

According to Paster, the luxury fashion house has decided to name the gown “The Emily” as a tribute to the actor.