“I don’t work with a stylist, I never have,” Blake Lively says in her new Life in Looks video. Dressing herself amid a chaotic schedule is a feat, especially considering the star has dominated the red carpet at countless movie premieres, galas, and awards shows. Proving she has a distinctive personal style that’s all her own, the actor sat down with Vogue to revisit some of her best looks over the years, as well as her favorite fashion moments on-screen.
Lively’s trip down fashion memory lane begins back in 2005, when she nabbed her first role at 16 in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. “These shoes are very 2004,” she says of her character’s sporty look, sneakers included. She also reminisced on one of her favorite ensembles worn in Gossip Girl: the yellow, ruffled Ralph Lauren dress her character, Serena, wore during the season one finale. “This dress is one of the most critical fashion moments in Gossip Girl,” says Lively. “Eric Daman, our costume designer, was so spectacular and inventive. He took the idea of characters really having a ‘look’ to the next level.”
Lively also reflected on some of her standout off-screen moments. Take the very first time she hit a red carpet in 2005 at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards. The young starlet wore low-rise ripped Abercrombie jeans, a Y2K babydoll top, Aldo heels, and bright pink belt. “I was still in high school,” Lively remembers. “The teal T-shirt is something my mom found at Forever 21.”
Since then, her fashion game has elevated. One of her most glamorous moments came in 2014, when she attended the Cannes Film Festival for the first time in a custom Gucci gown. Her favorite part was the Lorraine Schwartz jewelry. “I love jewelry, it’s such an important part of styling,” says Lively, who admired the diamond necklace’s simplicity. “It’s easy to say simplicity when you’re dripping in 500 carats of diamonds.”
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Life in Looks video if Lively didn’t reflect on some of her favorite Vogue covers and Met Gala looks, too. Her favorite Met look of all time? The ornate Versace design she wore to 2018’s Heavenly Bodies (it’s a fan favorite, too). “I get very involved in the design of the dress—I don’t know if it’s because I’m a Virgo, or if I need a life,” she jokes, adding that it was her idea to add an 8 foot-long train. Just this past week, Lively hit the 2022 Met Gala carpet in another Versace creation that was inspired by the Statue of Liberty. “Instead of looking at Gilded Age fashion, I wanted to look at architecture,” says Lively. “New York has been a critical part of who I am… so I thought, I would love to arrive in a copper dress and have it patina as I ascend the red carpet. Instead of me performing, I wanted the dress to perform.”
