Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images
Style is always ebbing and flowing, but every once in a while, you get lucky and figure out what you love to wear. It’s a personal experience, and sometimes hearing about how others found their sense of style is the right inspiration for you to unlock your best looks.
Below, Chloë Sevigny, Rihanna, Solange Knowles, Cher, Jenna Lyons, and more famous women share why getting dressed is about who you are.
From left: Photo: Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images for MontblancPhoto: Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty
From top: Photo: Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images for MontblancPhoto: Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty
“I think to be a true style icon, you just have to dress yourself. There are so many actresses floating around who have people picking out their outfits for them; that’s hard for me to wrap my head around or celebrate. To be a true icon, you have to have style emanating from you. And you have to have figured it out on your own and have a point of view, a perspective, and be able to translate it in some personal way.” — Interview, April 2015
From left: Photo: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagicPhoto: Arturo Holmes/Getty Images
From top: Photo: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagicPhoto: Arturo Holmes/Getty Images
“With the first pregnancy, I feel like I was able to wear heels all the way through. But then with the second pregnancy, you have a toddler, a belly, it’s winter, you have a coat, a baby bag. You’re like, heels? Hmm, maybe not. That’s why I got a little bit more creative with my comfortable style. And then I got too comfortable after I had my second kid and I just was in robes, PJs, sweats. And now I’m playing again. Now I’m having fun with my clothes. After a while when you have kids, you think, this is the dumbest [stuff], the least important. It really is the least important thing. But it does something for you as a woman, and as a mum that’s important for us. I approached it like everything else I approach in fashion. I just want to do things my way. I just want to always stitch it up and put my own twist on it. But I just refused to buy maternity clothes, really and truly. I was like, whatever fits was what’s going to work. And that made me challenge myself to get clever with style.” — BBC, April 2024
From left: Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for KeringPhoto: Rose Hartman/Getty Images
From top: Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for KeringPhoto: Rose Hartman/Getty Images
“There’s no bad taste and good taste. I like powerful clothes – power in the sense that they can give a woman confidence and make her not afraid to show femininity. And that time [when Gianni was designing, in the 1990s], it was very bourgeois. You had to go with a suit, it had to be grey or whatever, and to be elegant and chic. And flat shoes, which is OK for me.” She shrugs, grudgingly. It’s obviously not that ‘OK’. “It was a man’s society. We were not liberated; we were more conservative. But women were not sexy any more. I tried to do that, to push [Gianni] to do that. To celebrate the woman’s body, and not be afraid to show real personality.” — Harper’s Bazaar, March 2023
From left: Photo: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for MTVPhoto: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images
From top: Photo: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for MTVPhoto: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images
“My stylist, Genesis Webb, and I pull from drag, we pull from horror movies, we pull from burlesque, we pull from theater. I love looking pretty and scary. Or, like, pretty and tacky. Or just not pretty. I love that too.” — The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, June 2024
From left: Photo: Gregory Bojorquez/Getty ImagesPhoto: Harry Langdon/Getty Images
From top: Photo: Gregory Bojorquez/Getty ImagesPhoto: Harry Langdon/Getty Images
“My personal style early on was so crazy. Like, I know they thought I was crazy (laughs). Well, when I was in junior high school, I most definitely was wearing what everybody else was wearing. It was the fat shoe laces, the whole Run DMC, Adidas thing. We were wearing Penny Loafers with taps on the bottom of them. But when I got to high school, I just started doing stuff differently. I would wear an All-Star on one foot and Puma on the other, with a trench coat. I just wore whatever I felt at the time. And nobody looked at me like I was crazy. So when I put on that blow-up suit with the finger waves, it was like, ‘whoever this girl is, this is her.” — BET, November 2022
From left: Photo: Arturo Holmes/Getty ImagesPhoto: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
From top: Photo: Arturo Holmes/Getty ImagesPhoto: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
“I would describe my style as Harlem. I am going to give you a riot of color, of patterns. I’m going to give you va-va-voomness. You’re going to know when I enter a room. It will not be quiet, nor demure. I never tried to fit in.” — W Magazine, December 2021
From left: Photo: Mark Von Holden/Variety via Getty ImagesPhoto: Arturo Holmes/Getty Images
From top: Photo: Mark Von Holden/Variety via Getty ImagesPhoto: Arturo Holmes/Getty Images
“I feel my best when I feel good. And that’s coming from somebody who’s been told, ‘You need to cover up’ or ‘You need to lose weight’ or ‘You look too frumpy’ or things like that for my entire adult life so far in a professional setting… I love fashion and I love versatility, and I love how it can make you feel on different days. It’s such a joke, and probably such a bad joke, but I always say my style changes depending on how gay I want to feel that day.” — Highsnobiety, November 2023
From left: Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images for LoewePhoto: Gotham/GC Images
From top: Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images for LoewePhoto: Gotham/GC Images
“Some days I feel confident in short skirts and tall boots, and other days, I feel more confident in baggy jeans and baggy t-shirts…I don’t wear what I wear on stage to the grocery store, but I definitely feel comfortable enough in it that I wouldn’t feel weird wearing it to dinner with my friends and family. It never feels like I’m putting on this persona and becoming someone else. It still feels like another facet of me.” — W Magazine, April 2024
From left: Photo: Arnold Jerocki/Getty Images for Warner Bros PicturesPhoto: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
From top: Photo: Arnold Jerocki/Getty Images for Warner Bros PicturesPhoto: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
“I think about red carpets as having their own characters and narratives. We build a little story for all the looks. It’s like an extension of my acting career in a weird way — you just pop this wig on or whatever it is. Clothes sometimes are very emotional, so I get to embody these different facets — maybe they’re of myself, or maybe they’re alter egos. But I get to meet these different women through clothes.When I was 14 and at my first movie premiere, my outfit was a bunch of stuff that I had from Target. And I thought I was fly. I felt cool. To this day, I think that’s really all that matters. Then you know you’re doing the right thing.” — InStyle, November 2021
From left: Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty ImagesPhoto: Darlene Hammond/Getty Images
From top: Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty ImagesPhoto: Darlene Hammond/Getty Images
“I remember when my friend Paulette and I were talking about when we were going to have to cut our hair and stop wearing jeans – because it seemed like [before] that’s what women did, and it hasn’t hit yet. I mean I just can’t believe I will be 80 at some point – sooner than I wish. I will still be wearing my jeans. I will still be wearing long hair. I will still be doing the same things I’ve always done.” — Good Morning Britain, September 2023
From left: Photo: Marc Piasecki/GC ImagesPhoto: Dave Hogan/Getty Images
From top: Photo: Marc Piasecki/GC ImagesPhoto: Dave Hogan/Getty Images
“When I was in the Spice Girls there were stylists who dressed the group, but in my personal life I have never worked with a stylist. I used to wear lots of structured dresses with corsetry, and I do still have some of those dresses, but my personal style has become more relaxed. Looking back, I guess it was a sign of insecurity that I would always wear clothes that were very tight, very fitted… As the business took off and I got busier, my style changed, because I just can’t run around the studio doing everything in high heels. I’m juggling a lot: being a mum, being a wife, being in the studio every day. I remember one time at a show in New York where I wore a pair of masculine trousers and trainers, and everyone went crazy, “Oh my God, she’s wearing trainers!” My confidence has definitely grown as I’ve got older. I know what works on me, what looks good, what makes me feel confident and comfortable. I don’t feel I have anything to prove now in the way I dress.” — The Guardian, June 2020
From left: Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty ImagesPhoto: Monica Schipper/2016 Getty Images
From top: Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty ImagesPhoto: Monica Schipper/2016 Getty Images
“I had a very strong idea of how I wanted to look, always. When I was about 8, I didn’t look good in pants — I still don’t wear pants — so I told all the kids in the neighborhood we weren’t wearing pants anymore, we were only wearing dresses. I still dress like a [child] in a way. Sometimes I’ll see a little 2-year-old on the street in a giant tutu and a funny sweater and polka-dot socks, and I’ll go, ‘There’s my look.’” — Business of Fashion, June 2013
From left: Photo: Randy Shropshire/Getty Images for InStylePhoto: Steve Jennings/WireImage
From top: Photo: Randy Shropshire/Getty Images for InStylePhoto: Steve Jennings/WireImage
“Both of my parents worked in uniforms: My mom was a janitor and my dad a trashman. When I was living in Atlanta, I felt homesick and wanted to do something with my style in homage to them. So I established a uniform for myself — a black-and-white tuxedo.” — O, the Oprah Magazine, August 2013
From left: Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty ImagesPhoto: Michael Tullberg/Getty Images
From top: Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty ImagesPhoto: Michael Tullberg/Getty Images
“A lot of my musical icons and style icons are the same: Kate Bush, Björk, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, Kelis. Honestly, my mom. She’s what I think of when I think of classic. You can look at pictures of her from the ’80s and it’s just like, ‘God damn, Mom, don’t stunt on us that hard! Style has to play a part in everything that we do. It’s the way we communicate who we are before we say a word. I used to be really interested in fashion years ago, and the more I got pushed into that world, the more it actually motivated me to write this album. I felt that I was setting my intentions too much on fashion and not enough on style. So, once I kind of made that decision to really do this for me, my style has evolved and changed so much. It’s really interesting because moving to New Orleans people are 100 percent distinctively themselves. That gave me the courage to express myself in ways that I maybe was a little more self conscious about living in New York.” — Stylecaster, May 2017
From left: Photo: Pierre Suu/Getty ImagesPhoto: Amy Sussman/Getty Images
From top: Photo: Pierre Suu/Getty ImagesPhoto: Amy Sussman/Getty Images
“I don’t want to be flashy, but I do want to dress myself with what I like. [With a black and white outfit,] you can add anything to it. I can wear a lot of hats. Or coats with a wide belt. I don’t get too crazy with color. I also like suits with turtlenecks, and vests…. And I do love clothes; I love looking at them. I buy all the magazines, and I’m constantly cutting pages of things that I find interesting—a Dior outfit, hats, or how people decorate their homes. I’m an addict.” — Vogue, September 2023
From left: Photo: Yves LE ROUX/Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesPhoto: David Thorpe/Getty Images
From top: Photo: Yves LE ROUX/Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesPhoto: David Thorpe/Getty Images
“When I see photos of me from 1968, my big doll eyes underlined with eyeliner, exaggerated mouth, bangs, I find it horrible. I found myself the most interesting at forty. I started wearing Scottish cotton marcels, agnès b men’s shirts, oversized pants upgraded with a thin red leather belt and sneakers without laces. Oversized Men’s clothes are good when you get older. We look fragile. At one point, you have to know how to give up the ladies’ dresses. They make you look older. It’s like makeup, at a certain age, stop playing with false eyelashes. Otherwise, it becomes terrifying.” — Vogue France, July 2017
From left: Photo: Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Self-PortraitPhoto: Taylor Hill/Getty Images
From top: Photo: Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Self-PortraitPhoto: Taylor Hill/Getty Images
“My personal style signifiers are my black glasses by Moscot; a weathered gold Rolex made the year I was born, which I bought through a vintage dealer called Michael Ashton; and a bespoke gold ring. My father wore a family crest ring when I was growing up and I always thought it was the coolest thing.” — Financial Times, March 2016
From left: Photo: Clayton Call/RedfernsPhoto: Richard McCaffrey/Getty Images
From top: Photo: Clayton Call/RedfernsPhoto: Richard McCaffrey/Getty Images
“I didn’t want to look like anyone else — like Janis Joplin or Grace Slick. That’s why I never went to any of the big designers. I drew a stick figure of what I dreamed up and gave it to my costume designer, Margi Kent, who I still work with. It was a handkerchief dress with a jacket, long, droopy chiffon sleeves, and velvet platform boots. I didn’t want to wear high heels. That’s when it started … I found a top hat at a thrift store in Buffalo, New York, on our first tour, and I loved it. Now I have several. It really became part of my look.” — Harper’s Bazaar, April 2011
From left: Photo: Taylor Hill/Getty ImagesPhoto: Joe Kohen/2013 Getty Images
From top: Photo: Taylor Hill/Getty ImagesPhoto: Joe Kohen/2013 Getty Images
“I think most people don’t know who they really are. They feel secure if they look like other people or if it’s the look that everybody says is in … People agonize about the way they look! It’s unbelievable! They don’t know what to wear or how to do it, and they’re very unhappy. But you can’t learn style. Style, I think, is in your DNA. You can learn how to be more fashionable, you can learn how to be better dressed, but I don’t think you can learn style. I think that’s something inherent. You have to know who you are first and then proceed from there — and that’s a lot of work! Most people don’t want to do it. And if they don’t want to do it, and they feel stressed by doing it, I always say it’s better to be happy than well-dressed.” — The Talks, February 2016
From left: Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty ImagesPhoto: Arturo Holmes/MG23/Getty Images for The Met Museum/
From top: Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty ImagesPhoto: Arturo Holmes/MG23/Getty Images for The Met Museum/
“I make no distinction between what I wear on the street and the stage; it’s all just my style. I don’t work with a stylist, and I never plan what I’m going to wear, it’s always an of-the-moment thing … I’ve always enjoyed dressing my head, whether it’s head wraps, hats, or wigs, I’m not sure why. I think that’s just where my mojo lives.” — Vogue, July 2015
From left: Photo: Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC ImagesPhoto: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
From top: Photo: Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC ImagesPhoto: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
“Know your body and know what works for you. Then you can become almost like an architect. You create a plan with key pieces, like an A-line skirt and button-down shirt. You build on that uniform or base. So every day you can go to your closet and easily say, ‘This is the shape of skirt that works for me and what I will wear.’ Then the rest becomes about accessorizing and playing. Throw on a nice wrap or wear a beautiful belt. But you need that base — those shapes that work for your body. I always tell women to start by knowing what base works. From that base add things to accessorize that are fun. The bag, the shoes, the belt, the scarf. But it’s always the same base.” — Parade, September 2015
From left: Photo: Karwai Tang/WireImagePhoto: Dave Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images
From top: Photo: Karwai Tang/WireImagePhoto: Dave Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images
“What I do know is that my style is not simply limited to what I put on, but rather an amalgamation of everything I have an affinity for. Although nowadays originality is something I strive for, there was a time in my youth when I would barnacle myself with items borrowed and pillaged from the women I admired. It would be remiss not to mention my early twenties, when the look I became associated with was nothing more than a wonky impersonation of Jane Birkin….That desire to “be myself”, or at least be different, has resulted in a fly-in-the-ointment approach to dressing. If something looks too predictable I find it impossible not to want to throw it off with the wrong shoe or a violent misplaced colour. This led me to the once fresh but perhaps now more commonplace combinations, of red-carpet gowns with sensible flat shoes, men’s tailoring with feminine blouses, and sexy pencil skirts with grandma knits.” — Financial Times, October 2022
From left: Photo: Mike Coppola/Getty ImagesPhoto: Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images
From top: Photo: Mike Coppola/Getty ImagesPhoto: Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images
“Find your own style. Don’t spend your savings trying to be someone else. You’re not more important, smarter, or prettier because you wear a designer dress. I only wear the expensive clothes because I get them free and I’m too lazy to go out and look for my own. I, a rich girl from Mexico, came here with designer clothes. And one day when I was starving in an apartment in Los Angeles, I looked at my Chanel blouses and said, ‘If only I could pay the rent with one of these.’” — O, The Oprah Magazine, September 2003
From left: Photo: Swan Gallet/WWD via Getty ImagesPhoto: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for W Magazine
From top: Photo: Swan Gallet/WWD via Getty ImagesPhoto: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for W Magazine
“Fashion should be fun, right? Taking risks and pushing myself out of my comfort zone is exhilarating for me, and I don’t care what other people think about it! I will wear anything as long as it feels like an extension of my personality. I don’t put myself in a box at all. I am finding my sense of style more and more as the years go by. I’d say my fashion evolution has been me growing into myself.” — Us Weekly, December 2023
From left: Photo: Lloyd Bishop/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty ImagesPhoto: Bruce Glikas/Bruce Glikas/WireImage
From top: Photo: Lloyd Bishop/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty ImagesPhoto: Bruce Glikas/Bruce Glikas/WireImage
“I would describe my personal style as “chaise lounge but make it human girl” or “velvet dinner party argument” but these things evolve and the only way to find your own vibe is to experiment—watch movies starring women from the past, dive into the chaos that is the Instagram explore page, copy what you like and scrap what you don’t… I always get a bit nervous to incorporate something new into my Look (shoutout to adult headbands, knee-high white go-go boots, that summer I wore socks with sandals, etc.), but my rule is that once you wear something twice it’s just like…something you wear. Feel free to embroider that on a pillow. AND if anyone makes a comment (or worse, a joke) about your new Look, understand that they’re simply jealous of your confidence and wish they had a drippy-droplet of joie de vivre in their bland-ass bloodstream. Ultimately, I can’t decide if life is short or long but I do think that it can be really boring and the best antidote to boredom is a bold outfit. So do feel free to go absolutely off.” — W Magazine, January 2020
