Last year’s award season was all about sophisticated girlishness. Even though the stars of one of the buzziest movies, Black Swan, were seriously dark in their roles, they were positively feminine at the award shows. There was Natalie Portman in her purple Rodarte gown at the Oscars; Hailee Steinfeld in her striped Prada dress at the SAG awards; Mila Kunis in a flowing, red, printed Alexander McQueen gown at the same event. But for next year’s award show season, one of the most-watched red-carpet dressers is sure to be Rooney Mara, TheGirl With the Dragon Tattoo star. Unlike Portman and Kunis, whose roles didn’t seem to influence how they dressed at these events, Mara’s role as the hardened, damaged, and ingenious Lisbeth Salander has molded her from an innocent and perhaps lazy dresser to an edgy, utterly striking one with an unconventional sexiness. Now, with probably every fashion designer waiting for her evidently brilliant stylist to call, she’s adopted a very specific and different look.
We expect our singers to be outlandish, and actresses to fear such a thing, falling into the pit of generically pretty sameness that can make red carpets so very boring. Where most of Mara’s peers seek out the Rachel Zoe treatment of a sparkly floor-length gown, generic borrowed diamonds, platform stilettos, and fake eyelashes, Rooney wears very little color and embellishment, practically no jewelry, and little makeup, except foundation and red or dark lipstick. She’s edgy without being eye-rolling, she’s minimal without being boring, and she’s a rare sort of original that can make women everywhere proud to be pale. In the slideshow, see how her style’s evolved over the past few years.
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December 15, 2011 Leaving an office building in New York, the most colorful thing on her person is that green juice, which can make the rest of u... December 15, 2011 Leaving an office building in New York, the most colorful thing on her person is that green juice, which can make the rest of us who try not to be such bleak winter dressers but ultimately wear gray and black almost exclusively anyway feel a bit better about it.
Update: The shoes and bag are Balenciaga.
Photo: Splash News/? www.splashnews.com
December 14, 2011 A lot of famous chicks get tattoos so that we all know how bad they are. Mara, who has no tattoos of her own despite undergoing... December 14, 2011 A lot of famous chicks get tattoos so that we all know how bad they are. Mara, who has no tattoos of her own despite undergoing a pretty severe (read: pierced) transformation for this film role, uses her ink-free skin to serious advantage with striking cut-out dresses that are shaping up to be her signature look. What Michelle Obama did for arms, this girl might do for sides.
December 14, 2011 Leaving her Letterman taping in the black coat you've been looking for every season since you started wearing black coats.
Ph...December 14, 2011 Leaving her Letterman taping in the black coat you've been looking for every season since you started wearing black coats.
Photo: Wylde / Splash News/? www.splashnews.com
December 13, 2011 For the film's Stockholm premiere, Mara wore a Roksanda Ilincic jumpsuit — yes, the often loathsome jumpsuit — without loo... December 13, 2011 For the film's Stockholm premiere, Mara wore a Roksanda Ilincic jumpsuit — yes, the often loathsome jumpsuit — without looking like someone who hasn't changed since Studio 54 closed.
Photo: PONTUS LUNDAHL/2011 AFP
December 12, 2011 Givenchy couture for the London premiere.
November 14, 2011 Perfectly fashionable, if naked-looking, at the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards.
Photo: D Dipasupil/2011 Getty Images
September 13, 2011 This playing-with-her fingers pose is evidently another of her signatures, but since we're in the middle of overanalyzing her,... September 13, 2011 This playing-with-her fingers pose is evidently another of her signatures, but since we're in the middle of overanalyzing her, we might add that it infuses her look with a refreshing innocence, as though she arrives without trying.
Photo: Charles Eshelman/2011 Getty Images
September 6, 2011 Mara wore Diane Von Furstenberg to the premiere of Tanner Hall in L.A., her dark girlish past forcing its way to the surface wi... September 6, 2011 Mara wore Diane Von Furstenberg to the premiere of Tanner Hall in L.A., her dark girlish past forcing its way to the surface with a noticeably structured A-line.
Photo: D Dipasupil/2011 Getty Images
September 11, 2011 A gray sweatshirt to pick up food in New York. Talk about *living the dream.*
Photo: Wylde / Splash News/? www.splashnews.co...September 11, 2011 A gray sweatshirt to pick up food in New York. Talk about *living the dream.*
Photo: Wylde / Splash News/? www.splashnews.com
Summer, 2011 And this is how she'll look in the movie. And even though the nudity seems unnecessary*, you can't do anything on Rooney Mara withou... Summer, 2011 And this is how she'll look in the movie. And even though the nudity seems unnecessary*, you can't do anything on Rooney Mara without exploiting the fact that she has a nipple ring, so here's the full monty.
*Unless it's supposed to make us uncomfortable because the story, which explores sexual violence, is so uncomfortable in itself? So it's like meta-nudity? Mara told Vogue, "There’s a certain way people are used to seeing nude women, and that’s in a submissive, coy pose, not looking at the camera. And in this poster, I’m looking dead into the camera with no expression on my face." But it still seems like an excuse to put a topless woman on a movie poster and get some pierced nip buzz going.Photo: Girl With the Dragon Tattoo/? www.splashnews.com
April 27, 2011 Looking at her here, you get the sense she has an edgy beast inside that's yearning to come out. And in Hollywood, being edgy can ... April 27, 2011 Looking at her here, you get the sense she has an edgy beast inside that's yearning to come out. And in Hollywood, being edgy can be as simple as rejecting the usual, "I am wealthy so envy me" borrowed statement jewels.
Photo: Kevin Winter/2010 Getty Images
April 12, 2011 It's wonderfully hard to imagine how she'd work satin ruffles into her fashion life now.
Photo: Jim Spellman/2010 Jim Spellman
January 6, 2010 Mara has also ditched the ubiquitous clutch purse you always wonder why celebrities, who don't have to do or carry anything for t... January 6, 2010 Mara has also ditched the ubiquitous clutch purse you always wonder why celebrities, who don't have to do or carry anything for themselves, need.
Photo: Angela Weiss/2010 Getty Images
November 5, 2009 Eh, we all used to subscribe to Lucky at some point.
Photo: Jean Baptiste Lacroix/2009 Jean Baptiste Lacroix
September 15, 2009 There's pretty much no way she can deny that she has a stylist now — a stylist who has enabled her to re-hang that valence she... September 15, 2009 There's pretty much no way she can deny that she has a stylist now — a stylist who has enabled her to re-hang that valence she used to wear.
Photo: Jim Ross/2009 Getty Images
September 14, 2009 Ruffles are like holiday cookies: the first two or so are great but you always end up regretting the next twenty.
Photo: Mal...September 14, 2009 Ruffles are like holiday cookies: the first two or so are great but you always end up regretting the next twenty.
Photo: Malcolm Taylor/2009 Getty Images
January 19, 2009 From this to Givenchy couture. She wins.
Photo: Jason Merritt/2009 Getty Images
