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One year on, here's what happened to the woman who wore red to the Golden Globes.

 

The 2018 Golden Globes red carpet will forever go down as the most memorable Hollywood red carpet in recent history.

To quickly recap – on the back of the #MeToo movement that saw disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein called out for decades of sexual assault, harassment and abuse by his many victims, the women of Hollywood introduced the world to #TimesUp.

Spearheaded by some of the industry’s biggest names including Reese Witherspoon, Oprah Winfrey and Meryl Streep, Time’s Up is now an organisation that insists on safe, fair and dignified work for women of all kinds, and provides resources and funding for women to legally pursue their cases.

The movement debuted its strength and solidarity on the 2018 Golden Globes red carpet, with actors and actresses bringing social activists as their dates.

But the biggest statement was the fashion – all but three women chose to wear black.

Revisit the 2018 Golden Globes fashion below, post continues after video.

Video by MMC

One of those three women who, at the time, appeared to have missed the memo was Blanca Blanco.

The actress wore a bright red velvet Atria Couture gown with long sleeves and cut out detailing on the legs and chest. The 37-year-old was also wearing a Time’s Up pin, also worn by many other male and female attendees, but on the night, that wasn’t enough for some.

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Almost one year exactly on from the evening she chose to wear red on the blackout red carpet, Blanco has spoken about how that decision affected her life.

In an article for The Hollywood Reporter, Blanco said she had no idea the colour of her dress would cause such outrage online.

2018 Golden Globes
Blanca Blanco at the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards. Image: Getty

"I've always done my own thing, but I didn't think it would be a big deal for me to wear a red dress to the Golden Globes last year. From what I had heard, only the nominees were going to wear black, and I thought it would be silly for me to show up in black," she said, as told to The Hollywood Reporter journalist Chris Gardner.

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"I wanted to stand strong and I felt so honoured to be there, but what happened after I walked the red carpet was crazy. Photos of me went viral, I became a trending topic on Twitter, and I got death threats and tons of hate mail."

At the time, Blanco tweeted that "the issue is bigger than my dress colour", and she was right. But that didn't matter.

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Social media, Twitter in particular, couldn't decide whether Blanco's refusal to wear black was disrespectful to the Time's Up movement and by proxy, all sexual assault survivors, or an example of how we always manage to blame women for an issue men and their decades of systematic bad behaviour are responsible for.

It was, and always will be, the latter. But in Blanco's case, that didn't stop an online pile on.

With the 2019 Golden Globes days away, she said she understands how her fashion choice may have affected others.

"I support #MeToo — it had nothing to do with not supporting the cause. It was incredible to see all the courageous women come forward over the past year. I take responsibility for wearing colour while everyone else wore black. I get that a lot of people were affected by what I wore."

Blanco was also one of many to lose their homes to the November, 2018 Malibu fires, from which she said she saved her passport, bunny and six dresses - including the infamous red dress. She also said a few good things came from what happened, including her social media following tripling.

While we'll have to wait and see whether Blanco's name comes up again in this years' coverage of the Golden Globes, which will no doubt reflect on the importance of 2018, 'Blanca Blanco red dress' is still the top Google search term in relation to that dress.

Hopefully the conversation has evolved from simply the colour of one woman's dress.