Chloë Sevigny gets a lot of well-deserved credit for her hipper-than-thou personal style. But if you’ve spent any time at all with the newly 51-year-old actress’s filmography, you know that she’s just as intimidatingly cool in many of the films and television shows she’s appeared in as she is when she’s walking around New York in trail shoes.
In honor of Sevigny’s birthday, we’ve rounded up seven of her very best movie and TV looks, from Kids to Big Love (hear me out!) to Bonjour Tristesse. See them all below.
Jennie in Kids (1995)
A blonde pixie and the color blue haven’t looked so cool onscreen since Mia Farrow was running around the Bramford in Rosemary’s Baby.
Alice Kinnon in The Last Days of Disco (1998)
Pretty much every time I wear a tube top (especially a sequined one), it’s an homage to Sevigny’s portrayal of ’80s publishing girlie Alice in this Whit Stillman classic.
Gitsie in Party Monster (2003)
This is truly one of the best odes to old-school New York party culture I’ve ever seen, and Sevigny as a Limelight-going club kid who hangs out with the likes of James St. James is the cherry on top.
Monet the chic lesbian on Will and Grace (2004)
Years before lesbian fashion officially permeated the mainstream, Sevigny slayed her role as a well-dressed, laconic, and (let’s be real) somewhat mistreated partner in love and business to Deirdre, a scary real-estate top played by Edie Falco. We love a queer-coded sheath dress, don’t we, girls? As Karen warns Will of Deirdre and Monet: “Mess with their livelihood, and they come down on you hard. And your only warning is the ‘click click click’ of their Manolos.”
Nicolette Grant on Big Love (2006-2011)
On anyone else, this ice-cold polygamous wife’s ankle-skimming skirts, modest buttoned-up cardigans, and demure headbands would just look frumpy; on Sevigny, they could easily be mistaken for Batsheva.
C.Z. Guest on Feud (2024)
Ryan Murphy x Chloë Sevigny is exactly the baroque-meets-retro TV sensibility I crave, and Sevigny’s role on this miniseries as socialite C.Z. Guest was an excuse for her to rock some truly tremendous hats and nipped-bodiced party dresses.
Anne in Bonjour Tristesse (2024)
I will go to my grave thinking about the fabulously shower-curtain-esque chartreuse pleated bathing suit cover-up Sevigny wears to play fashion designer Anne in Durga Chew-Bose’s feature-length directorial debut.
