At 30, Jennifer Lawrence Remains Hollywood’s Cool Girl Next Door

Jennifer Lawrence’s energy is irrepressible. Whip-smart and eternally chill, the Southern star’s charm lies in her accessibility. Able to strike a balance between being larger than life (she remains the youngest person ever to garner four Academy Award nominations and she’s already got the statute on her mantle) and down to earth (who else could turn an Oscar night tumble into an adorable meme?), she endears audiences to her. Onscreen this allows her to move seamlessly between complex and realistic roles like Silver Lining’s Playbook’s war widow, Tiffany, and superheroes, but on the red carpet, the skill truly shines. One of the few celebrities who can take the fantastical beauty of haute couture and give it a dose of realism, Lawrence wears her Dior gowns with the same casual ease as a pair of jeans. After more than a decade in the spotlight, Lawrence, who turns 30 today, knows how to hold her own when it comes time for a party or a premiere. Her elegant yet unfussy take on style has remained a constant as she’s evolved her look while retaining a relaxed sensibility that makes each piece feel like it was made just for her.

From the very beginning, Lawrence made a splash on the red carpet. A relative unknown in 2008, when she starred opposite Charlize Theron in The Burning Plain, Lawrence managed to shine bright at the Venice Film Festival, pulling out a show-stopping Alberta Ferretti silver gown for the closing ceremony and giving the world its first taste of her style. Her breakthrough role in Winter’s Bone put her on the map in 2010 and made her a red carpet fixture. The subsequent press tour resulted in a series of firsts, including her Academy Awards debut. She added sex appeal to a minimalist Calvin Klein Collection look in a shocking shade of crimson. The appearance raised Lawrence’s profile and left many viewers asking, ‘who’s that girl?”

Thanks to The Hunger Games franchise, Lawrence was able to answer that question with blockbuster box office returns and a performance that made her a household name. As Katniss Everdeen, she brought the biggest character in young adult literature to life while spending three years promoting the project globally. From 2012 to 2015, you could not escape Lawrence’s presence in magazines or events, and she made the most of that visibility. At the premiere for the first film, she even cemented her status as a fashion darling by arriving in a Prabal Gurung gown that interpreted the novel’s “girl on fire” symbolism as an explosion of gold lamé.

Naturally, the industry took notice. With three Vogue covers under her belt—including the special 125th-anniversary issue—Lawrence has become a fashion darling. In 2014, Lawrence inked a deal with Dior that saw her become the face of the brand’s beauty and accessory campaigns as well as a global ambassador. Tasked with making then-designer Raf Simons’s austere elegance feel a bit more accessible, Lawrence adapted pieces to suit her needs. For The Hunger Games: Mockingjay world premiere that year, she chose a creamy white brocade ballgown from Simons’s fall/winter 2014 couture collection but subtracted 10 inches from the skirt, transforming the dress into an elegant cocktail look. When Maria Grazia Chiuri was appointed creative director of Dior in 2016, Lawrence didn’t change tack. Instead, she turned Grazia Chiuri’s ethereal femininity into something vampy. On the runway, the pastel sequin spring/summer 2018 couture piece Lawrence picked for Red Sparrow’s London premiere felt girlish, but on Lawrence, the plunging neckline and sparkling shades proved sultry.