CINEMA NEWS – Steven Soderbergh’s new spy thriller, The Black Suit, has already been praised in every way: all the critical indicators of the film – from the direction to the acting to the lighting – are at or near the maximum. But there is one thing that is still missing.

We can imagine the scene as Variety’s lifestyle editor, Anna Tingley, bursts into the office and exclaims: “Oh my god, we haven’t written about how great Cate Blanchett‘s wardrobe is yet to be written!”

And indeed, The Black Bag hasn’t been praised from a fashion perspective, fortunately Anna Tingley quickly makes up for the shortfall.

The film’s story centers on a married couple. Kathryn (Cate Blanchett) and George (Michael Fassbender) are spies. They work in different fields, so they have secrets from each other, which they mutually agree to pack into the symbolic black bag. One day, George is tasked with finding out who the traitor is in the organization – one of the suspects is Kathryn. The love between our heroes is so great that they would literally kill for each other, but at the same time, the traitor must be exposed.

As a thorough expert in the fashion industry and spy films, Tingley is first of all happy that The Black Bag enriches the genre with new colors in terms of clothing style. The credit goes to costume designer Ellen Mirojnick, a tried-and-tested Soderbergh collaborator, who had a relatively easy job this time. Blanchett is such a stylish and sexy character that if they put a woolen bag on her, it would look good on her. In our case, however, she plays an elite spy who has plenty of money for luxurious designer clothes, so she can be dressed really nicely. Mirojnick doesn’t hold back, the actress looks in every scene like she could easily be put on the cover of any glamour magazine.

In addition to restrained luxury, practicality also plays a role, so Blanchett‘s wardrobe is overrepresented with bomber jackets and leather biker jackets, but the viewer can still think that every serious piece costs at least her two-month salary. Or even more: for example, the Chloe leather jacket worn by Blanchett in one scene has a list price of $5,000 (1.86 million forints), which is somewhat offset by the fact that the Max Mara bomber jacket seen in the other scene can be taken home for a quarter of a million from one of the boutiques on Fashion Street. And so on, every scene with Blanchett in The Black Bag is a fashionista’s dream come true.

(Black Bag – domestic release: April 3, 2025.)

Source: UIP