Anya Taylor-Joy on navigating fame and using fashion as her armour

She may be one of Hollywood’s best-dressed women—with her chameleonic nature allowing her to look perfectly at home in everything from backless leather Mugler to otherwordly Maison Margiela or fairy-tale Dior couture—but being stylish isn’t something that previously came quite so easily to Anya Taylor-Joy.

The 28-year-old, who is an ambassador for the luxury watchmaker Jaeger-LeCoultre, is actually a self-confessed tomboy, tending to opt for baggy, casual clothing in outfits a world away from her perfectly preened premiere looks.

“I was just unaware of fashion of a really long time,” she explains to Harper’s Bazaar from her hotel room, in her velvety rich voice. “I immediately went straight into working acting jobs, and so the only way I saw clothes was as a means of finding a character. It was about building this other person.

“Because I was getting picked up at from work at three o'clock in the morning and then going home exhausted, I would only really wear sweatpants.”

Taylor-Joy was just a teenager when she landed her breakout role in Robert Eggers’ horror film The Witch. Since then, her career has gone from strength to strength, with notable television performances in BBC’s Peaky Blinders and Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit—the latter opening her up to international recognition and earning Taylor-Joy a Golden Globe award. Now, she’s considered one of Hollywood’s most desirable actors, having played the lead in the hotly-anticipated prequel Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga opposite Chris Hemsworth. Growing accustomed to the spotlight that her international fame invites, Taylor-Joy found solace in fashion, and started curating her own distinct personal style.

“Fashion began as a means of feeling comfortable,” she explains. “The actual experience of a red carpet was so anxiety-inducing for me. I found that if I was making it about something more artful, then I just turned off a part of my brain that usually would be afraid and that made me excited about it instead. It really does feel like a kind of armour.

“But the deeper I got, the more obsessed with fashion I became. I love fashion history—being able to look at designs and seeing how events in the world influenced each piece or how the designer responded to trends.”

Taylor-Joy’s fascination with clothing now means that she works closely with stylists to ensure her red carpet looks always land. For her promotional tour of Furiosa, she worked alongside Ryan Hastings, who favours bold, cutting-edge looks—with a dash of method-dressing where appropriate. While she cites the Rabanne chainmail dress she wore to the film’s Australian premiere as her favourite fashion moment, Taylor-Joy says that every outfit she pieces together for the red carpet is a vital part of the movie-making process.

“I’m very obsessive when choosing red-carpet looks, I’m not chill in that regard,” she says, laughing. “It’s very much part of the job for me. I see these red carpets as my bon voyage to each character I play.”

It’s not just the big premieres and award ceremonies that Taylor-Joy feels more confident dressing for, she now appreciates good tailoring and classic, timeless staples in her everyday life, too. “If you can, try and flash-forward to yourself in five or 10 years and think: ‘OK, is this something that's trendy right now, or is this something that I'm going to love always?’” she advises. “I think a lot of that comes down to your own personal taste; it doesn't really matter what anybody else thinks. If you love it and you feel great in it, that's all that matters.

“I think having good basics that you can style are really, really important. So if you love a blazer, splash out on the blazer, and make sure that it's a blazer that you can wear with absolutely anything. A watch lives on your wrist, so for that you need something classic that stands the test of time.”

While she still struggles with some aspects of her mammoth fame, the actress has found that, as her career continues to flourish, her confidence grows alongside it.

“There's certainly elements of (fame) that I don't think I cope well with at all,” she admits. “I would love to get used to what it feels like to be photographed when you’re walking down the street. I still haven't figured it out. It completely fills me with panic.

“I think often we worry about what other people are going to think of us. However, the realisation that they're thinking about themselves and they're not thinking about you is so unbelievably freeing.”

Ever modest, Taylor-Joy coyly adds she feels “so lucky” for continuing to work in the film industry, and the opportunities she finds herself presented with. “I'm just constantly amazed at how many wonderful people there are in the world,” she says. “The opportunity to have such variety in my work, to be able to jump off set and then to come and be an ambassador to Jaeger-LeCoultre, is really great. I love working with passionate people, whether they are directors or watchmakers.

“I love what I do and I love the creative process. I hope that as I move on and as I get older, the rest of it just becomes a bit less stressful.”

This article was first published in harpersbazaar.com/uk in August 2024. 

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