INSTYLE – I’m walking behind Elle Fanning into L.A.’s Chateau Marmont — not in a creepy way — and the first thing I notice is how perfectly, well, Elle Fanning she is. She’s wearing a cute plaid pastel minidress and chunky Gucci slides, and her hair is up in a topknot. All of it is polished off by a pair of swinging vintage daisy earrings. She’s also 10 minutes early. What’s so winning about Fanning — apart from daisies and punctuality — is the openness she radiates wherever she goes. An uncynical desire to try things, to perform, to fling herself out into the world. And, of course, her exuberant embrace of fashion is why she’s on the cover of this Best Dressed issue. Fanning has worn princess ball gowns (which she will also sport in Maleficent Mistress of Evil, out this month), sparkly Rodarte, artsy-girl Miu Miu, and the crowning glory that was a reinvigorated Dior New Look at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
On Fanning, though, every look is new.
LAURA BROWN: Everything you do, Elle, you embrace. I remember when you came to the InStyle Awards [in 2017] wearing a full-on Versace dress and giggling like you were 6.
ELLE FANNING: [Laughing] Oh my god, I hated the faux bangs I wore that night so much. But, hey, it was a costume. It was a Warhol print with Marilyn Monroe, and I love her, so, obviously, I wore that dress.
LB: It seems like that “I’m going to experience this” feeling governs you.
EF: Yes, I was always curious and mischievous. Like when I watched Friends, I loved Phoebe. I loved that she was gawky. I had a real awkward phase. I grew 12 inches in a year. I didn’t want to be like everyone else in school. There was a certain confidence that I had, that I was like, “I want you to make fun of me because that makes me feel cool.”
LB: Ah, the old “Awkward and gawky, now I’m a goddess.”
EF: Exactly! There is, like, a fairy-tale aspect to that, so that was always kind of in me. And I was already doing films and stuff.
LB: Did you go to a school that had a lot of performers?
EF: I went to Campbell Hall, which is in the [San Fernando] Valley. But I was home-schooled until the third grade. And then my mom kind of realized, “OK, you need to be around other kids.” [laughs] I went in fourth grade, and I was there until senior year. I went to all of my proms.
LB: What did you wear to your proms?
EF: The first prom was in ninth grade. I wore a white Ralph Lauren dress that we found at the mall. It was long and flowy with a V-neck tank. For the second prom I went to the Paper Bag Princess [in L.A.] and got a vintage bias-cut pink John Galliano dress.
LB: You wore a bias-cut Galliano to your 10th-grade prom! That is very advanced.
EF: Oh, yeah! I haven’t worn it since. I should wear it to a red carpet. You know, I’ve always just been interested in fashion. I love dressing up and playing characters. Growing up, my sister, Dakota, and I would do scenes but just for each other. There was a lot of Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada and a lot of desk jobs.
LB: Oh, poetry. Was your desk job always in fashion?
EF: From what I remember it was. We would dress a certain way and then put Coca-Cola in wineglasses. It was a lot of Dakota screaming at me.
LB: Well, that’s what it’s like. [laughs] Who were some of your style heroes as a kid?
EF: I loved Samantha from Bewitched. I would put a Brownie uniform on for some reason and make tea. That was me playing Samantha. I also loved Alexa Chung and her ’60s tomboy style. My mom would take me to [the clothing store] Opening Ceremony all the time. That was a big deal.
LB: I remember seeing you really wearing fashion when you were just 16.
EF: Yes, that was for the first Maleficent. That was a very important moment because it involved a huge press tour. That’s when I learned how to express myself through clothes.
LB: Alongside that, when did you first compute that your life was getting bigger, externally?
EF: I saw things happening to my sister, so it wasn’t completely foreign to me. People would confuse me with her all the time. It was a relief when people saw me as myself. Super 8 [written and directed by J.J. Abrams, 2011] was a big film, and we went to a couple of award shows, and experiencing all of that was extremely new. I also love seeing celebrities. I’m not jaded by that at all.
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