A is for Alber Elbaz: When the legendary creative director was at the helm of Yves Saint Laurent womenswear, he created Sevigny’s red carpet looks for both the 2000 Oscars and Golden Globes — the year she was nominated for Boys Don’t Cry. As revealed in Opening Ceremony’s three-part closet confessions series, Sevigny still has the illustrations Elbaz sent her hanging in her closet. Aw!
B is for Black boots: Chloë has dozens of pairs and has been collecting them since high school. Without enough money for Dr. Martens, Sevigny started rocking a pair of surplus store combat boots (and stuffed them with socks because they were three sizes too big).
C is for Copy cats: Chloë’s imitable style has been inspiring girls everywhere since she first rocked a comic book print baby doll dress on the pages of Sassy back in 92, but perhaps no one has paid homage quite like the girls of In Your Dreams club. The Aussie duo recently recreated five of the OG’s most iconic looks. Check em all out here.
D is for Denim: Second only to her loyalty to black boots is Sevigny’s love for denim. She’s said that her favorite item in the entirety of her closet is Cebe’s denim jacket from Out of the Blue. Sevigny met actress Linda Manz while working on Gummo and eventually purchased the Elvis-embroidered light wash jacket.
E is for Enormous: Throughout the 90s, Mark Borthwick photographed Sevigny in the avant-garde designs of Maison Martin Margiela. Standouts include a snap of a short-haired Sevigny standing in the sand in a (duh) black pair of the house’s iconic Tabi boots, and a shut-eyed shot in the brand’s 10th anniversary collection. Borthwick also photographed a series of Sevigny being dwarfed by Margiela’s Size 74 collection.
F is for Fucking Awesome: Last year, Jason Dill’s skate brand immortalized the icon in the best imaginable way: with a pale pink skate deck and matching shirt featuring her shaved head yearbook photo. Sevigny clearly gets a kick out of the hype it’s generated among a new generation of skate rats; she recently reposted a snap of her t-shirt self smoking.
G is for Gummo costumes: Aside from starring in then-boyfriend Harmony Korine’s directorial debut, Sevigny did the film’s costumes. This includes the Bunny Boy’s floppy pink ears, which were crudely constructed from a wire frame. “He was tough; he could handle it,” Sevigny said. “He hung out in dumpsters.”
H is for Halloween: One year, Sevigny celebrated her favorite holiday by dressing as Joan of Arc. She chopped a short blonde wig, bought a suit of armor online, smudged char all over her face, and copped a walkman — an homage to the Smiths’ classic Bigmouth Strikes Again. Also this.
I is for Imitation of Christ: Titled after a 15th-century religious text — and a Psychedelic Furs song — Imitation of Christ was an art project-cum-fashion line originally conceived by Tara Subkoff and Matthew Damhave in 2000. For the next several years, the label created one-of-a-kind pieces crafted from repurposed vintage items. Tapping Chloë as its creative director, Imitation of Christ staged seriously unconventional presentations: one was set in an East Village funeral parlor while another featured half-naked models vacuuming.
J is for J.W. Anderson: The Irish master was behind her jaw-dropping strapless gown for the most recent Met Gala. The look was styled by Hayley Wollens, the same mastermind behind Sevigny’s motocross bonnet moment in Marfa Journal.
K is for Knicks: Yeah, Spike Lee might have Knicks super fan on lock, but Chloë has proven great company on Celebrity Row. Here she is with Adrienne Bailon, Jay Z and Beyoncé (bonus: here she is in a courtside interview talking about sitting with Jay Z and Beyoncé), and my unmatched favorite companion, Jersey Shore’s own Pauly D. Sheer joy.
L is for L.L. Bean: A tried and true New Englander, Chloë has, as she told the New York Times, “L.L. Bean boat totes for days.” Capitalizing on the brand’s signature monogramming service is a Sevigny family tradition: “I have towels, [no really, she does] I have paper napkins. Anything that I can put my initials on, basically I do,” CSS said. This look might not exactly be up to Official Preppy Handbook codes, but we’ll take it.
M is for Miu Miu: Back in 96, Juergen Teller shot a fresh-faced Sevigny for one of the Prada sister brand’s earliest campaigns. Flash forward to 2012, and she stepped behind Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott’s lens for the brand once again.
N is for Nurse: Chloë rocked perhaps her most over the top looks alongside Macaulay Culkin in Party Monster, the ultimate ode to the club kid era. Styles included a typical baby-bunned candy raver, a super sweet pale blue ensemb, and, who could forget, a pill-popping nurse. Not to be excluded from this retrospective: Natasha Lyonne in purple dreadlocks, Versace glasses, and three lip rings.
O is for Opening Ceremony: In 2008, Sevigny launched her first collaborative collection with Opening Ceremony — a line inspired by high school thrift store finds and nostalgic takes on the sounds of the Slits. Over the past seven years, she’s produced knockout collections ranging from a revival of her favorite 90s skate brand to protest-ready 60s silhouettes.
P is for Pope Francis: As she revealed to Lily McMenamy cozied up under the covers, Chloë is super down with the prog rock Pontiff. She even has an “I Heart Pope Francis” t-shirt with his hat replacing the heart.
Q is for Q train: Patti has the M train, Chloë’s got the Q. Earlier this year, she told us it’s her favorite subway line in the city. Judging by the Church Ave stop in this clip, it’s also perhaps the same love train she was riding in the Last Days of Disco‘s final scene.
R is for Rips: Before Chloë shared the cover of i-D’s Beat Issue with Terry Richardson in 2003, she flew solo on the front of the Dynamic Issue. Photographed by Matt Jones and styled by Cathy Dixson, the shoot saw the star in nothing but a torn t-shirt. i-Conic.
S is for Siouxsie Sioux: Chloë’s first concert was The Cure at New Jersey’s Meadowlands, but for her stint on Portlandia back in 2013, she channeled another messy-haired post punk style icon. Sevigny played Alexandra, Fred and Carrie’s roommate that AV Club described as a “‘cultural tease,’ … utterly ignorant of French New Wave cinema even while she’s dressing like the main character of Breathless.”
T is for TV: Sevigny’s starred in a few television shows — notably as Nicki, Big Love‘s most materialistic sister wife. But more recently, she (and a fraction of her closet) made an appearance in a new Apple Watch commercial. In addition to fuzzy pink cardigans and floral print overalls, Chloë also rocks a denim look courtesy of LA favorite 69.
U is for Umlaut: “It’s Hollywood’s biggest mystery: Chloë Sevigny’s on-again, off-again umlaut,” Entertainment Weekly wrote on one very slow news day in 2000. A few years later, Sevigny declassified the great film industry secret when she told Esquire: “The umlaut isn’t on my birth certificate. I had this book as a child called Chloë and Maude, and there was an umlaut on the e, and I said, I want that! It’s a little flair.”
V is for Vice: In 2009, Vice editors stumbled upon an early issue from 1994 that was never published, which featured Chloë on the cover as well as a full X-Girl spread! Sevigny also appeared in the magazine’s Dear Diary series, in which she and pal Leslie Arfin travelled to her Connecticut hometown and dug through the detritus of their teenage years.
W is for Woes: You know how that shit goes.
X is for X-Girl: Chloë ended up bagging one of her earliest acting roles in the Sonic Youth’s Sugar Kane video alongside a suuuper young Marc Jacobs in 92. The following year, Sevigny became the fit model for bassist Kim Gordon’s cult line X-Girl, before starring alongside artist Rita Ackermann in a Godard-inspired short film.
Y is for Yogurt: Earlier this year, Sevigny gave us the low down on the Big Apple in her ultimate guide to being a New Yorker. The standout moment of which was schooling a stunned frozen yogurt shop employee on past haunts the banal Lower East Side fixtures have run out.
Z is for Zine: Earlier this year, Sevigny put her pack-rat tendencies to creative use and published a zine dedicated to the men in her life (including her pops). Titled No Time for Love, the 28-page DIY mag culled images of and old gossip column clippings about her former flames, whose faces were blocked out with some sweet stickers.
Credits
Text Emily Manning
Photography Marcelo Krasilcic, 1994