Blake Lively played us all.
The former star of Gossip Girl and wife of Ryan Reynolds knew exactly what her red carpet aesthetic needed to be--and then she took it a step further.
The mid-2000s was a travesty for fashion. We all know this.
But Blake Lively tried her best to make it look fashionable.
But what she didn't tell us at the time is that she was spending no more than $13 per item to rock Forever 21 goods on the red carpet.
When asked, she would say it was just "vintage."
"I read that you don't work with a stylist. How did you start developing relationships with designers?" Sydney Sweeney, whom Lively was talking to for an interview with InStyle, asked. "I remember you wore a Forever 21 dress to one of your first red carpets."
"I wore Forever 21 much longer than I admitted," Lively said in reply.
"I just started saying it was vintage because I was so shamed for it."
It's funny because now we think of her as a fashion icon:
Not to mention, she's got a wicked sense of humor:
But she had a pretty solid reason for wearing that Forever 21 Chic look everywhere she went.
"For one of my first events, I wore a dress that I was so insecure in, but I was told that I couldn't back out because it was made custom and it would hurt my relationship with the designer," she recalled. "It didn't fit right though, and everybody knew it was a mess. Whenever I look at a photo from that red carpet, I can see how uncomfortable I was in my own skin. I'd never do that again."
So she gave herself the power.
We stan.
