Rachel Bloom Reflects on Journey to Embrace Herself in Style
Like her character Rebecca Bunch in “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” Golden Globe winner Rachel Bloom journeyed to find herself, fashion-wise. “There had been efforts to minimize my bust and not showcase my curves to fit a more acceptable, ‘high-fashion’ look,” says Bloom, whose most recent awards look epitomizes how much she’s grown. “[It] felt like truly embracing who I was: a curvy girl who wanted to feel like a princess.”
2016 (Golden Globes)
“When Christian Siriano sent me a list of potential [Golden Globe] dress designs, this one immediately jumped off the page because it looked exactly like a drawing I’d made in third grade of ‘future me’ winning an award,” says Bloom, whose teacher didn’t condone the cleavage in that design. “Twenty years later, it felt badass to walk down the red carpet in a dress that was too scandalous for third grade.” Bloom won the Globe for portraying Rebecca Bunch. “Because the dress harkened back to a time that I could only daydream about award shows, I was very grounded in my inner child during that surreal night.”
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2016 (Creative Arts Emmys)
Bloom, co-creator and star of the CW’s musical dramedy, is “consistently frustrated” that actors get more attention than writers. “This attention is partially why I became an actor in the first place,” she says. “But on a red carpet, actors get asked questions that could be answered way better by the piece’s writer.” When “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” scored Creative Arts Emmy nods for music and lyrics, Bloom showed solidarity with her partners by matching their tuxes. “I knew that, as the actress in our songwriting team, I’d get more attention on a red carpet, so I wanted to be aesthetically tethered to them.”
2017
Nominated again for a songwriting Emmy, Bloom decided to buy this Gucci dress — and joked about it. “What I didn’t know yet about the fashion world is that to admit you bought a dress is a scandalous thing to say because it implies you didn’t have the clout to get anyone to loan you dresses,” she says. “Within the hour, I saw my comment inspire a million articles about how I was taking down the fashion industry since Gucci had refused to loan me a dress due to my size — they hadn’t.” Bloom supports the hashtags #feminism and #everybodyisbeautiful, “but, in this situation, the messaging was straight-up inaccurate.”
2019
“I hadn’t been nominated for the Critics’ Choice Award since Season 1 of ‘Crazy Ex,’ and, in general, the award show nominations were drying up for this old 31-year-old,” says Bloom, now 32. “So for this night, I wanted to really do it up and feel like a star in this Cristina Ottaviano shape-hugger.” The L.A. native took her parents, and before getting in the limo, they posed for a photo on the porch — just as Bloom had done as a kid before piano recitals, graduation and prom. “Once again, I felt completely connected to my inner child, except this time I’d had sex so that made me way cooler!”
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