Turns Out Blake Lively Was Onto Something With All Those Suits

For weeks now, Blake Lively has been trying to tell us something with her constant rotation of suits. What, exactly, we couldn’t say. Until now.

Turns out that all along, Lively has been channeling her character in A Simple Favor, a comedic murder-mystery directed by Paul Feig, out September 14. Lively plays Emily Nelson, a high-powered fashion PR director who wears a suit every day to work. According to the film’s costume designer, Renée Ehrlich Kalfus, Nelson literally and figuratively “wears the pants,” and her resulting wardrobe, which involves archival Ralph Lauren suits, dickies, cuff links, cummerbunds, and canes, is both enigmatic and hilariously over-the-top, much like the film.

“It’s genius,” said Kalfus of Lively taking her character off the set and into the real world today. “It’s drawing attention; people are really talking about it, and that’s what you want, right?” Clearly, Blake did her research when it comes to PR strategy.

At first, we were skeptical of the idea that any fashion PR person dresses remotely like Lively. (Normally, they tend to try to blend into crowds with an all-black uniform.) But by the end of New York Fashion Week, we were convinced that Lively might actually know something we don’t. Suits were everywhere! From the runways to the after-parties. When we asked one real-life PR director why it was such a trend this season, even they had to wonder: Was Blake Lively to thank?

Below, 18 designer suits for Blake Lively to try next.