Tag Archives: Actress

Style Crush: Emma Watson

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Sorry for the radio silence recently! I moved house a couple of weeks ago (last Monday to be exact). We decided we had had enough of London so made the move to Gloucestershire, temporarily living with The Boyfriend’s parents. It took about a week to settle in but now I have my own little sewing area set up and have been sewing and cutting out things for the last few days, so hopefully soon I will have some finished things to show you. And a new backdrop for my photos!

My Style Crush today is Emma Watson – of course, of Harry Potter fame. More recently though, as I’m sure you’re aware, she has become somewhat of a spokesperson for feminism and gender equality, through her work on the He for She Campaign as a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador. She has recently announced that she will take a year off from acting to focus on this work and to read books and learn stuff. She has set up a feminist bookclub on Goodreads if you’re interested, too.

She also has called on the fashion industry to help affect change towards gender equality as they have such a powerful voice, particularly in terms of how women are perceived and represented in the media. You can watch a video where she talks to some of fashion’s biggest names here:

It may seem a little frivolous now to talk about how I like the clothes that she wears, but the thing about fashion and style is that it is one of the ways people can express themselves and it can make you feel confident or powerful or sexy or however you want to feel in any given situation.

For her recent speeches and things she seems to have mostly worn monochrome, well tailored things. And lots of skinny jeans/ trousers, which I’m a sucker for!

I especially love this outfit – I don’t think it’s a silhouette I would have gone for, but I love how she looks comfortable and stylish. Maybe some wide-legged cropped trousers/ culottes are in my future?!

Still mostly in monochrome, I love the next 3 red carpet looks. They’re a bit out of the ordinary and make her look much cooler than wearing a gown or boring dress would. Maybe I should copy this lace top and skirt with my lace!? Maybe not wedding appropriate though…….

I definitely need to make a leather jacket though. I’m not sure I could really pull it off, but I really really want one!

I love this jumpsuit! I’m being more and more drawn to jumpsuits and dungarees lately. I already have the BHL Holly Jumpsuit and Marilla Walker’s Roberts Collection in my stash, so I think they’re going to move up the queue as the weather warms up.

I love this outfit mainly for the skirt!

I’m sure you won’t be surprised to know I loved it when she chopped all her hair off! I thought it made her look super cool and a bit more grown up than she had before – the below picture was at the penultimate Harry Potter premiere. I also love the lave dress. Maybe some more inspiration for my lace!

Another little lace dress, but this time in a brilliant shade of pink. I think she looks nice in colour, so it’s almost a shame she wears black and white so much, though it is incredibly chic.

You can’t beat a dress with a contrast colour with a pixie cut. Very 60s!

As you’ll know if you follow me on Instagram, I’m a big fan of this Dior outfit she wore to the Golden Globes in 2014. I love the colour (though not on me!), the fact that it looks like a normal dress from the front, and the blue shoes! I kinda want to make a copycat version, maybe in more of a pink than red, but I would never have an occasion to wear it. Do you ever sew things for the fun of it even though you know you won’t wear the finished product?

Style Crush: Tilda Swinton

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So I love actresses (I do acting classes a couple of times a week and dream of being a film star, obvs!). And I especially love tall, slightly mannish ones – no idea why – like Allison Janney, Fiona Shaw, Eve Best and Janet McTeer. Chief among these women is Tilda Swinton. She does androgynous style like no-one else. And she has the most amazing hair!

As you may or may not have spotted in my last post, about my Linden Sweatshirt, my hair is shorter now than it was when I first had it all cut off. This was not entirely what I wanted – I asked for a trim and got a completely different haircut! I’m definitely going to grow it out a bit more and Tilda Swinton’s hair is definitely one of my inspirations. Not sure I’d have the balls to have an undercut though!

I love her over-sized tailoring type looks. She definitely rocks some excellent trousers! And on the red carpet too – it’s not super often that you see actresses etc. wearing trousers on the red carpet.

I want this jumper.

I love, love, love this over-sized jacket! Not sure I could pull it off at only 5’3” though. Tilda is 5’10.5” apparently. And she’s not afraid to wear heals, which is awesome!

She can also do more feminine looks – I especially love this look from the Baftas.

(image source )

I love the drama of this look – it’s sort of a dress but not something you can imagine every starlet wearing.

I especially love this gown, with the fresh almost-not-there make-up.

Can we also take a moment to appreciate how much she can change her appearance for films? This is her in The Trainwreck:

And in The Grand Budapest Hotel! I mean wtf!?

I wish I was taller as I do feel drawn to androgynous looks quite often, but I feel like you have to be tall to pull them off. I might be wrong though – do you know any shorter androgynous style icons?

Style Crush: Michelle Williams

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I’ve written a couple of Style Inspiration posts so far (on Orla Kiely and Dear Creatures) and I decided this time to write about a person whose style I like: Michelle Williams. I was first drawn to her because of her amazing short hair, which was one of the inspirations for my short hair when I had it cut off a couple of years ago.

I like it slightly on the longer side too:

I’m kind of tempted to cut my hair off again, but it took about 18 months to grow it out so I’m not sure I can be bothered to grow it out again if I change my mind again. Mine was really quite short, though – maybe if I had it like above, it wouldn’t take so long.

But I digress – I’m here to talk about fashion and not hair! I like how Michelle Williams can mix up her style and wear a pretty, girly dress one day, skinny jeans and a leather jacket the next day, and something more edgy and fashion forward the next.

On the red carpet she can wear a great gown with the best of them:

I like both of these gowns – they seem quite similar to me, except for the bow. I think they might have been from the same awards season, so maybe this is what was in that year? I like a gown with sleeves – I think you can look really elegant without showing much skin. Both of them seem to fit her perfectly, too, without looking too tight, which always looks naff. I’d love to get my fitting skills advanced enough for something to look this good!

She also sometimes doesn’t go for the obvious at red carpet events:

I love this look of tuxedo jacket with shorts – it’s chic but not predictable. Not convinced about the hair in the first picture, but the outfit it great. I particularly like the white shirt in the second picture too – classic.

She does do a good line in pretty dresses. This one was part of my inspiration for my Elisalex Dresses I made a couple of Summers ago. I should have noticed then, though, that this one is gathered and not pleated – more on this in a later post. I do love the pockets. All dresses should have pockets! (image source)

I love this dress – the little sleeves are really sweet and I like the different fabrics on the top and skirt. It might be separates I suppose.

I love this beaded 60s-style shift. Definitely my style!

I love this slightly more casual look. It’s chic but also totally wearable and comfortable looking. (Sorry the picture’s small, I couldn’t find a bigger version). I so need to get into making some Ginger Jeans!

I love this casual outfit – I’m not sure I would have worn a loose sweatshirt over the top of what presumably is a dress or skirt, but it looks great. I love her sandals too!

If you’ve read my blog before, you’ll know how I love a peter pan collar. This outfit is so cute!

This is a more recent picture – this is her with longer hair, the pixie cut is no more. I actually like this hair on her too – maybe she will still be my hair inspiration! I also love this dress, and teaming it with ankle boots is a bit more interesting than with court shoes or something.

Do you have a style icon? I think I probably have a million – I’ll share more of them in the future if you’re enjoying these posts. I tend to be drawn to actresses, because that’s my dream job. I could watch films and TV pretty much all the time (and I do, much to my shame!) because I love watching people acting.

By the way, I haven’t included any photos taken of her on the street by paparazzi. I find the paparazzi culture really quite distasteful, especially when it includes taking pictures of someone’s children – which a lot of them are with Michelle Williams. I know there’s a movement, led by Kristen Bell and supported by a lot of actresses in Hollywood to make it so papers and magazines can’t publish photos of people’s children without their permission. If you’re interested in the issue of privacy – which affects non-famous people too, from revenge porn to cyber bullies and trolls – then this is a really good interview with some leading actresses (they talk about privacy and their children’s privacy from about 35 minutes in, but the whole interview is good if you’re interested in actors):