“I’m a huge vintage lover,” Verlaque tells us the morning after the screening. “I saw this vintage Vivienne Westwood dress, and it was black and had this giant red lip on it and some teeth out, and the lipstick was sort of dripping.” From the moment the actress saw the black minidress while pursuing a vintage fair in her native New York, she knew she had to have it. The piece happened to be sourced by one of her favorite vintage stores, James Veloria, and felt like the perfect look for a press moment. “This was during the strike, so mind you, I was very depressed and trying to manifest that the strike would be able to end before [the film came out] or that we got a deal so we could promote it,” Verlaque says. “I saw it and thought, ‘I’m just going to get it, and if I get to wear it for something Thanksgiving related, then perfect, and if not, I’ll save it for the next one.’”
You could say Verlaque manifested her next red carpet appearance in that moment. When she got the call months later from Sony that they were moving ahead with a premiere, albeit with barely a week’s notice, she went straight to her closet. “It was great to have a special piece like that,” she says, referencing the dress. “I also like throwing things together myself, so I was quite happy with the way it turned it out.”