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Margot Robbie’s ‘car wash’ dress turns royal heads at the 2019 BAFTAs

Making a spotlit entrance on the red carpet at the 2019 BAFTA awards, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Kate in Alexander McQueen with Princess Diana’s diamond earrings) had acting royalty craning their heads at the 2019 BAFTA awards.

The couple had front row seats on Sunday night (Britsh time) for the Royal Albert Hall ceremony, which saw The Favourite scoop seven awards.

Among them: best actress for Olivia Colman and screenwriting and production design gongs for Australians Tony McNamara and Fiona Crombie.

Roma was named best film and its director Alfonso Cuaron won a record four personal BAFTAs for a single film, including best director and cinematography.

Margot Robbie didn’t take home an acting award but – hands down – won the gong for most divisive dress.

Nominated for best supporting actress, the Mary, Queen of Scots star arrived in a spangled Chanel Haute Couture creation with dramatic tulle shoulders and fishtail. Vogue raved about it as a fun risk but it also topped worst-dressed lists and confused armchair critics in the cheap seats.

“Whoever told Margot Robbie that dress was the one is a cruel human,” wrote one Twitter user.

Another fan clapped back, saying Robbie could wear a potato sack and it would still be the one. But when the first user shared a photo of the dress, the second fan had second thoughts: “I take it back.”

A third tweeted that Robbie looked like a grade six craft project, and there was plenty more:

Robbie wasn’t the only Australian star who took things to the next level and had fashion fans in a tizz.

Cate Blanchett’s offbeat Christopher Kane dress with gemstone neckpiece spawned a stack of instant memes.

As the Radio Times noted, the look was reminiscent of the Infinity Stones from Avengers: Infinity War, “aka the magic rocks that allowed Thanos [Josh Brolin] to wipe out half of all life in the universe”.

Robbie and Blanchett were hardly the only stars to push the envelope at the BAFTAs, usually the most experimental night of the awards season. In 2019, it seemed the unofficial dress code was “a lot”.

Rachel Weisz reimagined a classic princess gown in pale yellow Gucci with ruffles and a crystal-covered belt. Was it frumpy? Was it fabulous?

Russian actor Tatiana Korsakova appeared to have taken time out to make her own dress only to have a prolapse of the uterus on the red carpet.

Lily Collins seemed thrilled with her mash-up of tuxedo jacket top, frou frou mini and jellyfish skirt.

After perhaps escaping from an Austrian handcrafts cult, Scottish radio DJ Edith Bowman was quite extraordinary in a broderie anglaise dress with Elizabethan ruff neck, detailed bodice and Baby Driver gloves.

Millie Mackintosh looked like I imagine Princess Margaret did when she was going to bed in the early 1980s.

Lucy Boynton was one of the few who was in full control of her frills, bow, printed sun ray pleats and red eyeshadow.

Pili producer Sophie Harman was a true original in a batik-inspired gilded dress by The Vampire’s Wife.

Rising star nominee Cynthia Erivo was irredeemably awful in cheap pantomime tulle and a bodice that not even Hollywood tape could fix. Lady, you wear costumes in the movie itself, not the awards night.

Zawe Ashton’s high-end casual dress with flats and sundress straps is what Meghan Markle will pack to wear to dinner on Necker Island if Richard Branson invites her.

Mary J Blige was awesome and awful in equal measure in a jumpsuit that would have had Heidi Klum gnashing her teeth with jealousy.

Rachel Brosnahan’s prissy, fussy dress made her look like the Christmas tree that nobody wanted.

Eleanor Tomlinson showed how to do bows (although it’s time to stop now) in a modern take on flapper dressing.

There were those who went the minimal route. Claire Foy led the way in a contemporary forest green sheath that put Brosnahan’s same shade in the shade with its simplicity and innate cool. Her best look this year.

Danai Gurira was stark perfection in a covered-up dress that was the sexiest of the night.

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