Margot Robbie started something no one can finish.

Blake Lively has been wearing… a lot of florals.

Like, a lot. More than one person ever should. 

The actor and mother-of-four is on the press tour for her new movie, It Ends With Us, popping up all over New York in a bouquet of flowery looks, from an Oscar De La Renta minidress to daisy-print Chanel jeans and a camelia bag.

Images: Getty

In case you're not across the plot of the film, which is based on Colleen Hoover's bestselling novel of the same name, Lively plays Lily Bloom, a florist... and you need know no more about the narrative arc because Lively appears to have stopped there when seeking fashion inspiration for the junket.

Florist? Bloom? 

Flowers! We could do florals for the outfits!

Groundbreaking...

In all seriousness, with a film that explores the impact of domestic violence and generational trauma, it seems Lively has chosen to dress in a way that signals something more optimistic and vibrant. That's her prerogative — and she looks amazing doing it.

Famous for styling herself, Lively is never anything but committed when it comes to her looks. 

But she's just the latest celebrity in a long line to fully commit to the trend of 'method dressing'.

Like method acting (but less pretentious), method dressing is about getting into character through costume. Only it extends way beyond the filming part right into the marketing circuit. And it's become priority number one for film companies looking to boost their movie's viral appeal.

Method dressing really hit the mainstream with Margot Robbie and the juggernaut that was Barbie. Last year, Robbie and her stylist Andrew Mukamal pulled together months' worth of looks that were inspired by, or life-size recreations of, outfits worn by Barbie dolls through the years, turning to designers including Balmain, Bottega Veneta, Schiaparelli and Chanel.

Robbie took her best-dressed campaign all the way to the Golden Globes, culminating in this iconic Versace hot pink gown with tulle sleeves, a throwback to 1977's 'Superstar Barbie'.

Image: Getty

The tour was so successful, so omnipresent, it even earned its own Rizzoli coffee-table book documenting all the looks, Barbie: The World Tour.

Although Robbie wasn't the first actor to dress on-theme to her movie, she certainly upped the stakes. And famous women with big movies to promote have been following suit ever since.

Last month British actor Daisy Edgar Jones tried to make tornado fashion happen while promoting her film Twisters, in a series of looks recalling the natural phenomena of violently rotating columns of air. Cute!

Jones' stylist Dani Michelle told Harper's Bazaar that the actor "wanted to capture the earth's elements of the film stylistically", and felt the drape of this Vivienne Westwood gown was the perfect choice for the movie's European premiere.

Okay — twisting fabric, a film about twisters... a bit of a reach, but we can see what she was going for.

Zendaya and her longtime image consultant Law Roach set a new standard in method dressing while doing the rounds for Dune Part Two back in February.

The Emmy winner wore a series of looks paying homage to all things sci-fi, and went immediately viral in a daring robotic bodysuit from the Mugler archives. 

Zendaya at the Dune premiere in London. Image: Getty

The duo's fashion partnership reached even greater heights with the press run for Challengers in April, sourcing custom designer looks with a tennis theme from luxury houses including Loewe, Lacoste and Louis Vuitton. Many looks had tennis motifs literally woven in, from neon green balls to tiny bejewelled racquets.

And in May, Anya Taylor Joy promoted her film Mad Max: A Furiosa Saga, in several spiky and severe outfits that we guess were loosely based on... fury? Is fury a theme?

Taylor Joy is known for taking risks on the red carpet, but you had to wonder if her co-star Chris Hemsworth got the memo, fronting up beside her in his grey and beige suits. 

Honestly, Chris. This is going to ruin the tour!

Image: Getty

And sure, it looks like fun, all this theme dressing and sartorial one-upmanship, but it also looks kind of exhausting. For the stylists, and for the women in the clothes. 

Where they were once asked to wear their most glamorous gowns for days or weeks on end, on and off planes, from media wall to media wall — now they have to do it better than Margot Robbie and Zendaya. 

Method dressing seems to have become a bit of a curse.

It's the same thing that's happened with the Met Gala, the annual costume party that sees famous people try to out-dress each other in outfits tailored to the often elusive theme set by Vogue.

Designer Tom Ford famously derided the direction of the event, telling fashion writer Amy Odell in her book Anna: The Biography, "[The Met Gala] used to just be very chic people wearing beautiful clothes going to an exhibition about the 18th century."

Ford continued, "You didn't have to look like the 18th century, you didn't have to dress like a hamburger, you didn't have to arrive in a van where you were standing up because you couldn't sit down because you wore a chandelier."

Amen, Mr Ford.

We have to ask — when does the novelty wear off? How far can the theme dressing go?

Does it end with Blake, or is this just the beginning?

Feature image: Mamamia/Getty.

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