Proof Kristen Stewart is the perfect poster girl for Virginie Viard’s youth-infused Chanel vision: the ease with which she lends her signature punk flair to the creative director’s new-age couture fashion. With a flip of a strawberry-blonde quiff and her signature heavy kohl eyeliner, Stewart transformed Viard’s beribboned Chanel designs into a wholly modern proposition at the LA premiere of Spencer.
The haute couture autumn/winter 2021 look – a micro black satin bralette and tiered lace skirt adorned with a fairytale bow – made an apt choice for the cinematic celebration of a woman who always went her own way in terms of fashion, and one who also shared a penchant for Chanel: Diana, Princess of Wales.
In the trailer for the royal biopic, which homes in on the tumultuous Christmas holiday during which Diana ended her marriage to Prince Charles, Stewart wears heavenly vintage Chanel looks sourced by costume designer, Jacqueline Durran. From the autumn/winter 1988 red tweed coat resembling the festive bouclé she wore to that fateful Sandringham Christmas in 1993, to a recreation of a muted spring/summer 1988 haute couture organza gown, which took five seamstresses more than 1,034 hours to make, the sumptuous film is a double-C dotted feast for the eyes.
Stewart never wears anything but the brand on the red carpet, but her Spencer premiere look shows a slightly more demure side to the actor who makes tweed hot pants look like a cinch and is keeping Viard’s crop top business booming. Styled by Tara Swennen, who has helped hone Kristen’s beaten-up Converse and boyish tailoring, Stewart evoked the photos of revolutionary dresser Coco Chanel decked out in ’30s costume ball finery, which inspired Viard’s latest couture offering. Bouffant meets bohemian in Stewart’s Chanel world; Coco, and surely Diana, would approve.
