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The Good Buyis a podcast fromHarper’s Bazaarin which editors Leah Chernikoff and Lynette Nylander invite celebrities, designers, models, and tastemakers to talk shop: what they buy, where they got it, and why it matters. Come down the fashion rabbit hole and take a peek inside the closets and shopping carts of the world’s most stylish people. Learn how they use style to tell their stories.
If you ask any well-dressed person for their list of style inspirations,Chloë Sevignywill no doubt come up towards the top. A permanent fixture of best dressed lists everywhere, the Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe-winning actor is perhaps just as synonymous with individual style as she is her body of film work. And with credits ranging fromKids(1995) andAmerican Psycho(2000) toAmerican Horror Story(2012, 2015) andLove & Friendship(2016), that’s saying a lot.
Evolving from a quintessential ’90s It girl and indie film darling to a renowned actor, director, producer, writer, model,anddesigner, Sevigny has carved out her own corner of the entertainment industry—one full of nuanced, complex characters and artistically-driven storytelling.
Her approach to fashion is similar, mixing vintage one-offs with underground designers and the best of luxury labels to create looks that feel fresh, eclectic, and uniquely her. (Consider the look she wore to film this episode ofThe Good Buy: aGiovanna Floresreconstructed sweater selected from the designer’s apartment-slash-studio, Lou Dallas sweatpants, and Maison Margiela booties).
Here, the icon—andHarper’s BazaarMay cover star—joins the podcast to discuss her early red-carpet moments, favorite vintage stores, and the origins of her decades-long relationship with Tabis. Read on for highlights and watch the show in full above.
On being one of the few women in Hollywood without a stylist in her early years:
“I feel like my personal style is very different from my red-carpet style and I feel like they get conflated. So much of my red-carpet [style] that was photographed was [from] a very weird period for me because I wasn’t working with a stylist. I dressed myself. I was working with my publicist who—God bless her soul—worked really hard. She would call in the things in for me. Say I had an event. I would call in a dress or maybe two at most, and if it didn’t fit, I just had to wear it. I just had to show up wearing what came. Now those outfits seem like they were really considered, but a lot of them were fly by night because I had nothing else to wear.”
On working with her current stylist,Haley Wollens:
“We’re very collaborative. In Venice, I wore the YSL with the biker shorts. We were working with the house, maybe trying to collaborate on something custom, so we were looking at that neckline and I was like, ‘Well has anyone worn that actual thing? Because it’s so great.’ And then I was like, ‘I think I should just wear that,’ and Haley was like, ‘Okay!’ We send pictures back and forth and it’s very collaborative. She’s not showing up with a rack—I wish she was[laughs].”
“We’re very scrappy. She’s too busy; she doesn’t do celebrity [styling]. She’s like, ‘I can’t do celebrity the way other people do celebrity so we’re gonna do it like this, and if you’re okay with it...’ I’m very grateful for her.”
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On where she finds inspiration:
“AtOPEN24HRS, they often will showcase new designers that I have never heard of before. [And from] Haley and other stylists that I follow, I’ll hear about young designers, emerging designers. I can’t say there’s a mood board, but I’m very inspired by other stylists, like Melanie Ward and Jane How. I just feel like they just have an innatesomethingand they’re also looking at stuff all the time and posting interesting stuff. There’s a lot of archival pages I also follow on Instagram. I’ll see something, like some old picture of Diane Keaton in a strappy sandal with a sock at the Oscars, and I’m like, ‘I want to wear a strappy sandal with a sock.’”
On costume design in films:
“I have a really hard time with costume designers. I feel like fittings are just challenging. You’re in bad lighting and you have to be naked in front of people and it’s a very vulnerable position to be in. One would think that I really enjoy that part of filmmaking, but I don’t. I love them and respect them, but I have some trust issues.
“You have to give yourself over as an actor, and I’d be like, ‘Well, musicians don’t have to do that!’ I was always frustrated by that. I think a lot of actors love that aspect but for me it’s not my favorite part. I love being on set, I love creating characters, obviously I love acting and all the relationships you make. And learning—deep-diving into whatever period or subject you’re doing is endlessly fascinating. It’s such a gift to be able to do that for a living, but oddly the fashion side is not my favorite.”
Shop Chloë’s Good Buys
HER FIRST BUY:
“I was very into shopping from age 5. My mom was a thrifter, so we would go to all the local church-run, community-based thrift stores. I would buy Laura Ashley and Ralph Lauren and Asprey. I then slowly became more alternative and would scour those for interesting things, but then, in the ’90s I became obsessed with Margiela. I turned 18 and I wanted my first pair of Tabis and that was my first big, high-fashion purchase. My parents went halvsies with me and I bought them at If in Soho which is still there. That was a really defining, changing moment.”
HER REGRET BUY:
“I regret wearing certain things, but I don’t know if I have any purchase regrets. But sometimes I’ll go big on a winter coat and be like, ‘Ugh that’s a lot of money. It’s so heavy. Why did I buy such a heavy coat?’ I love buying at Margiela, Simone Rocha, and Miu Miu.”
HER REPEAT BUY:
“There’s always a denim quest. August Barron is doing some fun denim, I’ve been getting their denim. The early Vetements denim is really good; some of the Pieter Mulier Alaïa denim was really exciting. So jeans. Also loafers. And Tabis—all different kinds.”
HER DREAM BUY:
“I’m really into Artisanal Margiela, to sound like an asshole. I’m always hounding the people atByronesquebecause they find that stuff—the Martin [years], some of the early [pieces]. They had this inside-out, deconstructed coat that they showed in New York recently and the price tag was just[sighs]… I was like, ‘Do you want to trade?’”
HER MOST RECENT GOOD BUY:
“Other than the Giovanna and August Barron denim, some Hunza G bikinis. They sent me the little gingham dress and I was like, ‘Well, now I need the bikini.’ There’s this T-shirt dealer in L.A.,Addicted to Rags, who has a lot of good T-shirts and I bought some. I bought a James Cagney T-shirt from the ’70s. I love Hollywood T-shirts. Any actors, actresses? Send them my way.”
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