http://www.centredaily.com/mld/dfw/entertainment/14166917.htm?source=rss&channel=dfw_entertainment
Sienna: Fashion's it girl
By ALYSON WARD
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
Fashionistas and fans of
Us Weekly, open your closets. Chances are, you can thank Sienna Miller for inspiring much of what's inside.
Have you collected a pile of scarves, belts and wraps that you layer with flair? Sienna started that.
Got a jumble of necklaces that are long enough to trip over? That's Sienna.
Ever worn cowboy boots with a prairie skirt? Or knee-high boots with your skinny jeans tucked inside? Yeah, you got that from Sienna.
At 24, the British actress (and yes, Jude Law's former fiancee) has become a style icon for the 21st century. She's been given credit for starting -- or at least popularizing -- just about every big trend in the past few years, from boho to black tights. And the world's fashion fanatics fall all over themselves to follow her every move.
There she is, hovering near the top of
Glamour's Best Dressed list (second only to her style archrival, Kate Moss).
InStyle magazine solidifies her status as an icon: "At 24," the magazine proclaimed in January, "Sienna Miller is a fashion prodigy the likes of which we haven't seen since '60s It Girl Edie Sedgwick. . . ."
The comparison is apt. Miller will be portraying Sedgwick in
Factory Girl, a film that'll hit theaters in the fall. She recently chopped off her long blond hair for the role, which gave her a pixie sort of look. And the cut, of course, was lauded by
Us Weekly as one of the year's best celebrity makeovers.
See? Sienna can't go wrong. She's creative. She's bold. She wears clothes well. And we rush out to buy them so we can wear them, uh, not quite as well.
Why is the world so smitten with Sienna?
Because we're easily led.
Trends seem to go directly from Sienna's hips to fashion mavens' lips. She can't be the sole source of style innovation. But you'd never know it from watching the way trends filter down directly -- and rapidly -- from Sienna to the masses. Here's how she has become a force in fashion:
It's 2004. Sienna begins to wear ruffly, flowing gypsy skirts -- here she is in May of that year, pairing the hippie skirt with a pair of cowboy boots. It doesn't take long for the world to copy her. In fact, British retailer Marks & Spencer releases an entire line of clothing for spring 2005 based on "the Sienna look." And the boots? By year's end, London's
Daily Mail declares that Miller put cowboy boots "firmly back on the map."
Here's Sienna in November, her skinny jeans tucked into a pair of knee-high boots. We're all going to be wedging ourselves into skinny jeans this year,
Women's Wear Daily announces in February.
WWD tells buyers to "be certain to have skinny jeans in stock," because women everywhere are going to want them.
No matter what Sienna wore, she always accessorized with a long mane of blond hair. No more. For her role in the upcoming
Factory Girl -- she's portraying Edie Sedgwick -- Sienna cut her hair into a sort of graduated bob. In Europe, women start asking their stylists for bobs. London's
Evening Standard declares the "Edie Sedgwick haircut" one of the top trends of the season.
In October, Sienna wears leggings to a film premiere. Leggings! Has anyone worn those since the 1980s? Days later, the
Daily Mail cries out in dismay: "Sienna has now committed the ultimate crime against her sisters," the paper says. "It is one for which she cannot easily be forgiven. . . . For Ms. Miller is trying to bring back leggings." And it worked. In February,
New York magazine declares the tight, hide-no-sins garment one of the top 10 trends for 2006: "Your leggings are no longer for the gym."
Here's Sienna in New York last fall. The look is pure boho, from her trademark hat to the skull-print scarf she's tied on as a belt.
But it wasn't meant to last. In January, Sienna announces to
Vogue that for her, boho is so over.
"I feel less hippie," she says. "I just don't want to wear anything floaty or coin-belty ever again."
Immediately, British retailers experience a dip in sales. Suddenly, women won't touch a flowy skirt or a shapeless tunic, and it's all staying in the stores. Retailers call it "the Sienna effect."
No, she's not the only fashionista to drape a long chain around her neck. Sienna wears gold layered necklaces to a polo match in July 2005. Along with a skirt she borrowed from a friend and wore as a mini-dress. In January,
Vogue declares "down-to-there necklaces" are "essential accessories for spring. Long and layered chains are much more rocking right now than last year's ubiquitous beads," the fashion bible proclaims.
A gaggle of cameras is aimed at Sienna's pretty Louis Vuitton slip dress at the
Casanova premiere. But look at her legs in the photo on the cover. Are those black tights? Yes, yes they are. And thanks to Sienna, they're back.
"Women, at least the sturdier-legged variety, have been waiting for this moment for more than a decade," the London
Daily Mail proclaims three months later. "Black opaque tights are fashionable once again."
My thoughts on this article are, yeah she started the boho look, but the Edie look has been recycled on the runway forever. Kate Moss wore skinny jeans and black tights before Sienna. Interesting article though.