Blake Lively Wears an Off-the-Shoulder Floral Dress at First Red Carpet After Welcoming Her Fourth Baby

Blake Lively couldn’t lean any further into spring fashion than she did last night at Barnard College’s gala. The actress attended the event in a gorgeous off-the-shoulder floral dress by Carolina Herrera. She wore her hair up and accessorized with pink shoes.

Lively spoke at the gala about almost attending college herself, quipping, “Zero acting jobs later, I decided to go back to college, and two weeks after that, the producers of Gossip Girl called me like an ex-boyfriend, and they said, ‘Listen, will you please do the show? And if you do, we promise you can go to Columbia one day a week as long as it doesn’t interfere with our seven-day-a-week shooting schedule.’ Who doesn’t want to earn a bachelor’s degree in 77 years? So needless to say, I think I have to accept that tonight is the closest I’m going to get, so I’m just going to pretend that this is me graduating tonight. So thank you! I made it.”

As for her wardrobe, Lively has been her own stylist for years. She spoke to WWD in March 2018 explaining why.

“I have control issues and a big ego—that’s probably the honest answer [for why I won’t hire a stylist],” she deadpanned before becoming more serious. “I just like it. I love design and I love fashion and it’s a way to be creative. In my job I get to be creative, but it’s over a period of time and so many other people are involved, whereas this is a beginning, middle and end, and I get to be creative and there’s an end date in the near future. It’s the same reason why I like doing my friends’ hair and makeup or cooking—you get to be creative and finish it. Whereas with my job you do it and then two years later it’s finished. It probably goes back to the control issues; it’s like, ‘Okay, I did it, I completed it, it’s done!’”

Senior News and Strategy Editor

Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she’s not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.