In recent years, Hollywood stars and their stylists have plucked through the archives of designers like John Galliano, Thierry Mugler, and Tom Ford. Daisy Edgar-Jones and stylist Dani Michelle seem to have set their targets on a new (and somewhat surprising) designer’s archive: Stella McCartney’s four year stint at Chloé.
On Monday, the actor stepped out to promote Sense and Sensibility in Midtown Manhattan in back-to-back airbrushed baseball tees from McCartney’s spring 1999 collection for Chloé. First, a top with a hummingbird and pastel pink sleeves, followed by a bald eagle design with navy accents. Each outing was paired with delightfully off-beat bottoms—canary-yellow trousers from Jean Paul Gaultier and lace-trimmed blue shorts from Chloé, respectively.
McCartney came into Chloé under intense public skepticism. Many suspected that the fact her father is Beatles member Paul McCartney helped her land the job. She had only just graduated from Central Saint Martins’s fashion program just two years before, and was charged with following in the footsteps of her predecessor Karl Lagerfeld. Yet, her four-year tenure at Chloé won of the fashion set. Her collections were marked by a specific kind of nostalgic, irreverent sexiness—a theme that came through in body-hugging silks, nipple-freeing tops, and blurred airbrushed designs spanning sunsets, beaches, and various types of birds. As writer Liana Satenstein put it: “Stella-era Chloé garments are the wild-eyed moment that happens right as girlhood veers into womanhood.” McCartney was just 28 when she presented the spring 1999 collection, which toed the line between clean ’90s office wear and early-aughts quirk. It’s a decidedly more undone aesthetic than Edgar-Jones’s corseted red carpet frocks, but a strong sartorial time capsule nonetheless.
Perhaps that’s why, for the Los Angeles premiere of Sense and Sensibility last week, Edgar-Jones wore another look from the collection: a satin floral-embellished slip with sheer sleeves and a mermaid silhouette. While that look was Jane-Austen-level romantic, her spray-painted jersey tees may deliver an even more impactful dose of nostalgia.
