“Chanel is Chanel,” enthuses Bel Powley, fresh from her first show as a guest of the house, which saw her cozy up to the likes of Lucy Boynton and Charlotte Casiraghi on the front row. “You really felt like you were at a couture show,” she adds, touching on the grand staging which was, this season, masterminded by Dave Free, Kendrick Lamar and Mike Carson, and featured a ginormous bejewelled button suspended from the ceiling to reflect the house s attention to detail. “Side note,” says the actor, “it felt really feminist, because weren’t buttons [a marker] of how women dressed themselves for the first time after corsets?”
This hundred-mile-an-hour conversation is Bel through and through. The Brit girl, who is giddily exploring Paris — snapping obligatory pictures of the Eiffel Tower when we speak — is on cloud nine after witnessing all that ornate frou-frou first hand. “The first look was wow, but it got even better and better with more sequins and more tulle.” Ecstatic to see her friend Margaret Qualley open the show in a modern interpretation on the bouclé skirt suit, Powley wanted to channel a similar classically cool vibe. “Chanel is where the fashionable lady began,” she says. “I wanted to stand out and feel special, but be comfortable and look like myself – I never want to feel like the clothes are wearing me.”
Powley and her longtime stylist Cher Coulter landed on a cute short suit and Mary Janes, with a lavender bag for a pop of color that makeup artist Celia Burton accented with a swish of pretty eyeshadow. It was the second look they tried on during the Paris fittings and chimes with the playful aesthetic Bel channelled at the Critics’ Choice Awards, where she modeled a frilly Chanel couture number and bow tie. “I don’t want to sound like a complete dick, but I feel like I can wear lots of different hats,” she explains of her red-carpet narrative, which might be cute and boyish and twee, but always has a through line.
Central to the pair’s partnership is laughter – the two Londoners know how to really belly chuckle – and ice. Powley’s pre-game ritual is to request a bucket of ice from room service – not for champagne, but for the depuffing properties of those sub-zero cubes. “I have a round face and so I can get quite puffy,” says the actor, whose bridal beauty enraptured Vogue fans. A cold shower, multiple coffees (“I need six shots before I can even speak to anyone”), and BBC 6 music is all Bel needs before she “pops off” to whatever A-list event her thriving career is taking her to.
A testament to her zest for life is the fact Powley jetted to chic Paris department store Merci post show and pre Chanel luncheon, where she bought bed linens, tablecloths and cushions (“I’m addicted to buying homeware!”) before hobnobbing with the other guests. Bel, you see, can draw you in with thoughtful tales of watching her mother apply red Chanel lippy in the car – “my first memory of those interlocking Cs” – but she can also make you laugh like your most outrageous friend. “It can get a bit stressful if you take it too seriously,” she shares of her many commitments. “My main job is acting, so fashion has to be fun.” Bel Powley in Paris is a complete breath of fresh air.
