How to Get Gwyneth Paltrow’s Best ’00s Leather Looks

Today Gwyneth Paltrow turns 47. The fresh-faced, luminescent actor has had plenty of iconic looks over the years: Nobody can forget the verdant green Donna Karan maxiskirt and barely buttoned top she wore in the film Great Expectations (1998), after all. Another Gwyneth fashion moment to remember? At the 71st Academy Awards in 1999, when she accepted the Oscar for best actress for her role in Shakespeare in Love in a look that transformed her into a modern-day Grace Kelly. Wearing a strappy Ralph Lauren dress in a charming shade of powder pink, the look has forever lived on best- dressed lists.

But while these are certainly standout ensembles, Paltrow has also regularly championed a slick, minimalist look that includes plenty of leather. Take her character in Sliding Doors (1998), whose pared-back wardrobe was literally plucked from the late-’90s runways of Calvin Klein and has been resurfacing on Instagram feeds for several years now. In the film she managed to look both elegant and edgy with the help of a simple leather blazer. But Paltrow had long been wearing leather gear before that movie debuted on the silver screen. In 1995 she attended the premiere of The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain in a rich black leather blazer with a white T-shirt and gray skirt. And it wasn’t only leather jackets: Paltrow also ventured into the riskier world of leather pants. In 1996, at a Giorgio Armani event in New York City, she shined in a black turtleneck with loose-fitting leather trousers. And while Paltrow’s late-’90s and early-’00s leather looks were much dominated by an all-black palette, she did occasionally dip into color too. At The Next Best Thing premiere in New York, she sported a butterscotch leather blazer with a lavender-pink suede skirt. Call it sweet and chic.