Fashion Flashback

Chloe Sevigny's Style Is Downright Psychic

There are girls who love fashion (yours truly) and girls who were born to wear clothes. I'm talking Jackie O., Katharine Hepburn, and Mary-Kate Olsen, people who have style so deep in their DNA that being told to wear a school uniform would be a fate worse than death. I'm officially putting Chloe Sevigny squarely in the latter category, after spying this amazing photo of her in this week's New York Magazine...

The issue is chock full of incredible stories of celebrities' first year in New York (everyone from Naomi Campbell to Andy Samberg share their mouse-hunting, ramen-noodle-eating tales), and Chloe arrived in 1991 to dance at all night raves and sleep in Washington Square Park. She quickly made her way onto the downtown scene, thanks to an innate sense of style that can only be described, in italics, as chic. The legendary paparazzo Ron Galella took this snap of her in 1996, and it totally solidified her status as a larger-than-life fashion personality for me.

A true style icon never looks dated, and this photo absolutely captivated me with how modern it feels. Yup, it's 13 years old, and yet there is Chloe rocking two of this year's biggest trends--the one shoulder dress and textured tights--like the style soothsayer that she is. It's bold and daring and beautiful and yet nowhere near over the top. She's always been a woman who knows how to take risks--check out her impressive lesson on mixing and matching unexpected color combos here--and I've seen them pay off over and over again.