Style Influence: Jennifer Connelly

A jeans and a T-shirt girl at heart, unlike many of today's leading ladies, it is easy to admire Jennifer Connelly.  She has a simple and elegant style, regardless of the high-end price tags she reserves for the red carpet.  Her hair is always simple, her makeup is no-fuss and to her, heels are something that are for events only,  "...high heels aren’t practical for the way I spend my day."

Jennifer could never be accused of being too mainstream and this is reflected in her choice of roles and in her choice of red carpet fashions.
"I try to stay focused on my life and do try not to be brought into the Hollywood fantasy."

Jennifer was born in 1970 in the Catskill Mountains New York, but grew up in Brooklyn Heights.  After a family friend recommended that she model, Jennifer began appearing in magazines and television commercials before landing her first screen role in Once Upon A Time in America (1984).  It was her role in Jim Henson's Labyrinth (1986) that first drew her to my attention.   I spent a lot of time pretending to be her character Sarah, acting out the role in my backyard.  I was 13 and a little obsessed I think.

Inventing the Abbotts (1997), with then lovers Liv Tyler and Joaquin Phoenix, was also a favourite of mine, but it was playing a heroin addict in Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream (2000) that Connelly finally established herself as a serious dramatic actress. 

"I began working when I hadn't yet come into my own, when I was this walking puppet. Some of the movies I did. . . I look back and cringe. For better or for worse, I feel responsible now. In Requiem for a Dream, I'm a heroin addict, and I thought it was being made for a reason--it wasn't about shock value. It has something to say about hunger and a void." 

In Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind (2001), Connelly played the role of Alicia Nash, the long-suffering wife of brilliant but schizophrenic mathematician John Forbes Nash (played by Russell Crowe), which earned her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

"It was a huge honor... and it was for a film which I had a wonderful time making. Winning an award for it was like icing on the cake for such a lovely experience." - Jennifer Connelly

Jennifer says that most of her clothes come from events she has attended, wardrobes from films, items people have given her.  That’s not to say she doesn't have an appreciation for nice clothing.
 "I fantasize about how I would dress if I actually took the time to go shopping. But I’d rather spend those two hours doing yoga or hanging out with my kids."

I always love Jennifer's red carpet choices.  She does work with a stylist for big events like premieres and sometimes works directly with the designers. She is daring with her selection of statement pieces from her favourite Balenciaga, to Lanvin and Rochas, Alexander McQueen and Givenchy - making the clothes her own, rather than looking like a clothes horse.  On dressing for the red carpet she has said; "I used to find it really uncomfortable. I’d get very uptight about it. I don’t really anymore. I think that’s about getting older. Or being more comfortable in my own skin. It’s horrible, feeling self-conscious, but it’s become easier just being with Paul at things; we find a way to make it fun." Elle magazine, November 2007.

She is self-deprecating and I would guess an extremely low-maintenance person because she once trekked through Tibet for three weeks and she seems much more at home hanging out at the park with her kids and jogging around her Brooklyn neighbourhood. 

I really admire her laid-back attitude toward dressing.  In an interview with Glamour magazine in 2005, Connelly said that growing up "I just wasn’t very girly. I didn’t even wear lip gloss until I was in my twenties!"  Boy I know what she means because I have to remind myself to re-apply my lipgloss throughout the day.  At my own wedding I remember making only one trip to the bathroom to check my hair and make-up!

When she is not working, promoting a film or attending a premiere, Jennifer can be found wearing jeans and a t-shirt (my favourite look of all time) and hanging out with husband Paul Bettany and her sons Kai and Stellan in her Brooklyn neighbourhood.  She likes to run (which would account for her slip of a figure and gorgeous legs)  and having recently discovered the joys of running myself, it is another thing that I have enjoyed learning about her.  

I just wish that I had the Balenciaga and Givenchy gowns to choose from when I had a red carpet affair to attend to...

If I ever had one to attend that is.




Images from Google, Glamour, Jennifer Connelly Center.

I Heart A Philip Treacy Hat

When I lived in Sydney, not so long ago, one of my favourite things to do was to pop into the David Jones Jones millinery department and spend as much time as I had up my sleeve trying on all the hats.  This was especially helpful if I was having a bad day as I felt transported just being there.  My worries disappeared, my stress fell away, it was bliss.

Philip Treacy, the artist at work.

This was how I discovered the world's greatest milliner, Philip Treacy.  In my opinion, there is no finer milliner.  No one has his daring  and creative approach to design, he is fearless.

Linda Evangelista on the cover of Vogue Italia June 2008 wearing a hat designed by Philip Treacy.

Treacy's talent was evident from the very beginning.  Discovered by the late Isabella Blow in 1989, she knew he was going to change the face of millinery.  At the time Isabella was style editor for Tatler magazine and after meeting him she commissioned Philip to make her a hat for her wedding and as luck would have it (the luck of the Irish perhaps?) he was blessed with having a client that sought out the unusual and the unconventional.

 Isabella wearing her elaborate head-dress designed by Philip Treacy for her wedding to Detmar Blow.

After graduating from the Royal College of Art with first class honours, Philip moved into Isabella and Detmar Blow's basement where he set up his workshop.  Isabella the benefactor became the artist's muse and they talked of nothing but hats, hats, hats!

In 1991 Treacy was to meet chief designer at Chanel Karl Largerfeld and became their chief milliner for the next 10 years.  Not a bad job straight out of university.  He was just 23 years old.  Wow!

Treacy and models at a haute couture show.

The real change for him happened after his first catwalk show.  Supermodel's Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Yasmin Le Bon all agreed to model his hats, (an all black collection) and were paid not in money, but in hats.  The media went crazy when the girls did his show and this changed how hats were seen in fashion from then on.

 Isabella Blow wearing a Philip Treacy creation.

By 1999 Treacy was designing for Alexander McQueen for Givenchy in Paris while while still designing for Chanel.

Some of Treacy's designs for Alexander McQueen and Givenchy.

This led to the first ever Haute Couture show devoted purely to hats which was held in Paris by the chambar syndical de la haute couture and of course Treacy was invited to contribute.

Treacy has now taken his design esthetic into other mediums, designing accessories, glass wear and furniture.  Treacy was awarded an OBE by her majesty the Queen in 2007 in recognition of his services to the British Fashion industry.

"Glamour is a world-wide currency" - Philip Treacy

"I believe in beauty and elegance and communicating thoughts and dreams in a visual way. I started designing hats 15 years ago while I was a student at the Royal College of Art.  It was at a time when hats were perceived publicly as something worn by ladies of a certain age and something from a bygone era.  I thought this was totally ridiculous and simply believed "we all have a head, so everybody has the possibility to wear a hat." - Philip Treacy

A design sketch by Philip Treacy.

"I have had the greatest pleasure of having the opportunity to challenge people's perception of what a hat should look like in the 21st Century."
 

This butterfly hat is truly my favourite.  I imagine the wearer must feel like they are in a butterfly enclosure, it is pure whimsy, sigh.  If I was lucky enough to own this piece of millinery genius, I would have it on display in my home for all to see. 


This post is dedicated to my friend Trudi Francis.