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6 Film Fashionistas and the Style Lessons They Teach Us

Rocking Real Curves, Ignoring the Critics and Rediscovering Your Closet, These Film Vixens Teach Us Plenty

Oct 28, 2011 / By Tara Spicer

6 Film Fashionistas and the Style Lessons They Teach Us

Photo: Photo by Jim DeYonker

In the present-day world of Bumpits, menswear for women, and meat couture (hello, Lady Gaga), defining style is a bit like defining beauty -- it’s often in the eye of the beholder. However, we do hold one truth to be self-evident: that style is more than just name brands and big price tags. But don’t take our word for it. These six fabulous film stars -- both past and present -- offer style lessons that transcend runways and glossy magazines. From America Ferrera to Katherine Hepburn, each woman proves that good old-fashioned fashion wisdom will never go out of season.

Real women really do have curves.

- Lessons learned from actress America Ferrera

America Ferrera

One part girl next door and two parts smoldering vixen, she’s teaches us that real women really do have curves. The 26-year-old made her film debut in 2002 in “Real Women Have Curves” as a Mexican-American teenager struggling to balance family culture with college ambition. By 2010, she was grappling with the question of culture once again, in the rom-com “Our Family Wedding.” While she’s continuously fraught with issues of identity onscreen, off-screen Ferrera flaunts confidence, a megawatt smile, and a trademark hourglass figure even Ugly Betty couldn’t hide on a bad day.

Fashion Bloggers Sound Off

What comes to mind when you hear the word “style?” Is it a look? An attitude? The newest Dolce & Gabana bag? In the circus of Hollywood cameras, red-carpet events and runway shows, prominent fashion bloggers are sitting pretty, poised to answer. So we asked them: “How do you define style?”
Ali Basye, On This Day in Fashion: “Style is the opposite of fashion. A stylish woman denies trends, knows herself and has absolute confidence in who she is and how she presents herself. A woman has to truly like herself in order to be authentically stylish, otherwise she's simply … wearing clothes.”
Catherine Kallon, Red Carpet Fashion Awards: “People often confuse fashion and style. Fashion changes constantly whilst style remains the same. Style is forever evolving as it develops and grows through experience ...”
Craig Arend, Altamira: “Style is individual, fashion is more commercial. Style comes from the inside out. Fashion comes from the outside in. Style is authentic to the self. Fashion is authentic to the market.”
Rumi Neely, Fashion Toast: “Style is consistently managing to look like yourself while at the same time playing with fashion. Being comfortable in your own skin is the single most noticeable thing about any look you might create.”

Grace Kelly

When it comes to style, sometimes less is more. No one demonstrated this better than one of the original leading ladies of film, Grace Patricia Kelly. Best known for her performance in Alfred Hitchcock’s wonderfully creepy film “Rear Window,” Kelly was the epitome of understated elegance and one of the most photographed women of the 20th century. Even before her royal status (did we mention she was the princess of Monaco?), Kelly -- with her pearls and ballet flats -- showed women that you don’t need designer labels to look and feel beautiful. Even after her death in 1982, Kelly’s contribution to American style endures.

Katherine Hepburn

In the 1930s when Hollywood’s most prominent actresses were wearing dresses and flaunting for the cameras, this tomboy turned legendary screen star was sporting trousers and refusing to step into the role of media darling. Hepburn, known for Oscar-winning films like “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” and “On Golden Pond,” earned plenty of criticism for her “anti-Hollywood” behavior, but she had the last laugh when, in 1986, she was awarded a lifetime achievement award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America. In her 96 years of living big, she taught us to ignore the critics and be true to yourself.

Molly Ringwald

This Gen X poster girl taught us all an important lesson in fashion frugality: being stylish doesn’t mean spending loads of money. Ringwald’s portrayal of poor, eccentric Andi Walsh in the 1986 film “Pretty in Pink” inspired girls everywhere to don bowler hats, floral vests, brooches and anything else they could find in their closets. However, it was Andi’s homemade prom dress that forever solidified her status as an ‘80s style icon. Rocking her signature red locks, pearl earrings and enough pink fabric to dress an entire prom committee, she proved just how far you can get with a little imagination (and a good sewing machine).

Sarah Jessica Parker

Would any fashionista list be complete without the woman who made “Manolo” a household name? We certainly don’t think so. Like her stylish alter-ego Carrie Bradshaw, SJP has emboldened many women to be unapologetically brave when it comes to fashion; witness: the giant flower lapel. While she’s certainly raised eyebrows -- anyone remember the Dr. Seuss-esque “Plant Hat” she wore to the “Sex and the City” London premiere in 2008? -- she also teaches us that fashion, above all else, should be fun. So what if Jane Doe style expert tells you that neon green is “sooo last season?” If you love your look, wear it proudly.

Zoe Saldana:

Whether she’s sporting skin-tight space wear and cavorting with Spock, swinging from trees as Pandora’s resident “it” girl in “Avatar,” or swashbuckling with Captain Jack Sparrow (swoon!), this Jersey-born screen vixen shows us that style isn’t style without confidence. If you haven’t seen her movies, she’s bound to get your attention as the newest face for Calvin Klein’s Envy line. In nothing but black skivvies and bed sheets, she peers at the camera with come-hither eyes and tells the world “I have nothing to hide.” And then she talks about riding a dirt-bike when she was only 9. If that doesn’t say fierce, we’re not really sure what does.