Chloe Sevigny is late. I've been waiting outside her Lane Crawford suite for more than an hour. She's doing her make-up, says a PR woman. She won't be a minute.
The door to the suite is slightly ajar. I take a peek and get my first glance at the fashion muse and actress: she's decked out in a full denim getup - shirt, skirt, jacket - a fashion no-no, but she wears it well, lounging on the couch surrounded by her entourage of six. The girls are all bleach-blond, the guys bearded and bohemian. Champagne and strawberries sit untouched, and there's not a make-up artist in sight.
When she emerges 10 minutes later, she's dressed exactly the same and has an au natural look about her. It's doubtful any make-up has been applied, but it doesn't matter. There's a sense of effortless cool to Sevigny, one that forgives any fashionable lateness because, well, here she is and you can't help but want to be around her.
Sevigny isn't your average fashion icon. She's not 'model-pretty', as she would say, but she's living proof that one doesn't need stunning looks for a sense of style. In her 17 years in the public eye, she's played muse to such high-profile names as Marc Jacobs, Terry Richardson and Daisy Von Furth. And then there's her acting career, which has ranged from a hit TV show (Big Love) and big-budget studio pictures (Zodiac), to indie Oscar favourites (Boys Don't Cry) and midnight cult classic (American Psycho).
But before she was any of that, she was just Chlo? it girl of the moment. In 1994, Bright Lights, Big City author Jay McInerney was walking down the streets of Brooklyn when he noticed a 19-year-old who he hailed as 'the coolest girl in the world'. He wrote a seven-page profile on her for the New Yorker's first annual fashion issue.
'The media always wants someone to celebrate and I was the person they were celebrating at the time,' says Sevigny. 'And I'm glad they did. It helped my career and the things I wanted to do. It set this prestigious tone that people are still referencing.'
Those who read the profile were struck by this exceptionally confident teenager with more style in her little finger than most industry folk had in their whole body. Soon Sevigny was everywhere, critics easily comparing her to such '60s fashion muses as Edie Sedgwick and Jean Seberg. But the truth was a little different; your classic tale of a little girl shoved into the limelight.
