Image courtesy of allure.com
Transformation can be difficult for all of us. Especially, when someone in their youth is recognized as having certain characteristics, but as maturity yields more depth and a transition into other things.
Some celebrities are not equipped to move past the perceptions of fans, particularly when the images and style they projected in their youth were positive reflections of bygone times remembered. The annals of Hollywood are overrun with young actors who have not been able to move past the glories of their youth.
Image courtesy of harpersbazaar.com
Chloe Sevigny is not one of those actors. And her appearance in Ryan Murphy’s “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans” is evidence of her transition into more mature roles.
An ‘It’ girl of the mid to late 90s, Sevigny has emerged from that downtown girl with a peripatetic, quirky style that appealed to young consumers looking to express themselves through garments that are livable pieces of art to a mature artist that now chooses European luxury brands that can still reflect her fashion-as-art style.
This ‘Edie Sedgwick’ of the 90s is currently seen as style maven whose personal style conjures up images of a now and next fashion sentimentality. Now 49 years of age, Fashion Reverie looks back at this fashion style icon’s transformation from a downtown 90s ‘It’ girl to a red-carpet, go-to fashionista.
Images courtesy of dazed.com, glamour.com, wmagazine.com, respectively
Edie Sedgwick reincarnation
If you are not aware of ‘60s ‘It’ girl and Andy Warhol’s Galatea, Edie Sedgwick, then you should. Sedgwick epitomized that free-spirited downtown girl of the 1960s. We set her own rules and lived by her own standards. Named a fashion revolutionary by Women’s Wear Daily, Sedgwick, both an actor and model, with black stocking, miniskirts, chandelier earrings, short brown hair, and heavy eye makeup, became a controversial, tragic cult figure who broke with tradition. Establishing the clique of rebellious, free-spirited youth.
Like Sedgwick, early in her career Sedgwick was an untraditional model who walked to the beat of her own drum, preferring vintage clothing over fashionable labels. In 1994, Sevigny was called “the coolest girl in the world” by Jay McInernery in the New Yorker. Sevigny idiosyncratic style was aptly expressed in 90s vintage-store style which consisted of jelly shoes, vintage miniskirts, or vintage jackets paired with miniskirts and psychedelic tights.
Images courtesy of Getty Images, wwd.com, and Opening Ceremony, respectively
Golden girl
By the late 90s and early 2000s, Chloe Sedgwick evolved from an indie film queen to more mainstream films with her fashion sensibilities evolving beyond a downtown free spirit. Sevigny chic style, though still eclectic, included strappy heels, mini pinafores, and sexy cocktail dresses. Sevigny in the early 2000s added noted fashion brands Loewe, MUGLER, Miu Miu, and Jean Paul Gaultier to her lists of favorite brands. But her style was so much more than these esteemed fashion brands. Sevigny’s style is defined by how she mixes and matches these brands with vintage pieces in a way that uniquely her own. And acquiring campaigns with Loewe and Miu Miu helped, as well as being a muse for Marc Jacobs, and collaborations with Opening Ceremony.
Images courtesy of tomandlorenzo.com, thecut.com, red-carpetfashion.com, respectively
Fashion maven
Like all great harbingers of style, Chloe Sevigny understands how to transform her fashion without losing the style that made us celebrate her. Still employing her fashion-as-art style, Sevigny has matured in her choice of fashion brands and film appearances, with her role as 60s and 70s socialite C. Z. Guest being the most dramatic pivot in her film career.
With a style that was once the assemblage of a patchwork of varying style and aesthetics, Sevigny has solidified her style choices that can range from red-carpet fashion to luxury streetwear. Sevigny is still a very important fashion icon, and she continues to prove that in her appearances on global red carpets.
William S. Gooch
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