18.05.12

In the Hollywood of today, fashion is a particularly powerful tool of self-creation, and not just for rigorously planned-out red-carpet events. Pity the rising star who goes out for ice cream in that paparazzi-rich microculture looking unkempt! Reputations have been made and lost on less. And if that star wants to be a serious actress, the constriction becomes even narrower; free-spirited messiness is fine if you’re a rom-com regular, but if Natalie Portman showed up in Santa Monica in Uggs and a bikini, would she still get the same roles?

Additionally, Hollywood demands glamour, beauty, a sense of occasion, and a demonstrable love of clothes. It’s a tricky balance in any case, and especially delicate at the start of a career—or on the threshold of teenage-dom. That’s why Chloë Grace Moretz is at the Calvin Klein showroom on a steamy August afternoon, teetering slightly in glossy caramel high-heeled Miu Miu Maryjanes.

Source: Elle