Chloë Sevigny has been an It Girl long past the expiration dates for It-ness and girlhood. Her next move is a role in Ryan Murphy’s Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, about Truman Capote and his betrayal of several society figures, including Babe Paley, Ann Woodward, and Lee Radziwill. Sevigny plays the unscathed C. Z. Guest, an equestrienne, gardening enthusiast, and fashion plate. She directed a short film,“Toxic Femininity,” starring Lypsinka, for the New Group. The actor also has a fragrance, Little Flower, for Régime des Fleurs, an unpredictable rose scent with a splash of woody musk that’s both polite and challenging, much like Sevigny herself. —Jensen Davis
I heard early in my career that society ladies and rock stars maintain a certain look because it doesn’t age you as much. That really resonated. So I’ve tried to keep some consistency with my hair and makeup.
I have long blond hair. I have worn it up or down or parted in the middle and pulled back for more than 30 years. It’s that with a red lip and mascara. Whenever I try to present myself as something that I’m not, or I’m doing a red-carpet moment where I can tell I’m trying to appear a certain way and it’s not true to myself, I look back on that and kind of cringe.
I’ve always found it very perplexing that people think I am fashion-forward. I’m not that wild.
I got into the red lip and the middle-parted hair somewhere in high school. There’s an asymmetry to my face, and I felt that parting my hair in the middle was more flattering to me. It’s also being a blonde girl from Connecticut. A side part felt very basic. The center part somehow felt more serious or intellectual.
When I was going through adolescence and post-adolescence, I had a myriad of different looks. My mom encouraged me to wear makeup when I was little. She was one of those moms who’d say, “Why don’t you put on a little blush or a little mascara?” It was in the days of toasted-almond lipstick. There was a frosted-pink lip in junior high. As I got older and into alternative music, there was a little black eyeliner and a black wig. I’d cut up my old tights and wear them like an Alice [head]band in my hair with a flip in my eye[liner], and I would automatically be alternative.
My father was really into music, and he had a lot of records around, so the images of beauty for me first came from seeing Debbie Harry on the cover of Blondie records, or Marianne Faithfull. Those were two women that I saw as beautiful. Also, because they had blond hair, I was particularly attracted to them.
I was very into Warhol and the Factory girls Candy Darling and Edie Sedgwick. I was very inspired by them and then by Kim Gordon and Courtney Love, people I was seeing in Sassy magazine.
There were periods when I bleached my eyebrows, and I dyed them darker. In the 90s, I plucked them beyond belief. It made sense at the time.
I had hair to my waist, and then I shaved my head. Then I had to go through the whole awkward growing-out stage where I’m like, I might as well try all the crazy things I’ve ever wanted to do. I had white and pink hair, a bowl cut, I had orange hair, red hair, all the different kinds of short hairstyles, until I grew it out again.
When I got the job to do the movie Kids, Larry Clark was like, We want you back to your blond, before all this stuff. So I had to get my hair dyed to a fake natural blond for the movie.
Blond can be very tricky. I don’t like chunky streaks. I want it to be as seamless and natural as possible. Fake natural.
Now, I do like long hair and hiding behind it. It’s a goal to get my hair to my waist again. I’m 49. Is it weird at a certain age? Do you become witchy?
We all have our own idea of what beautiful is, but I can only imagine if you’re a real beauty how hard aging would be. If you’re a quirky beauty, maybe it’s a little easier.
Chloë Sevigny is an actor, model, and fashion designer
