A new red carpet style star is stepping into the spotlight: Francesca Hayward. The Royal Ballet’s principal dancer and star of the forthcoming Cats film is making moves off the stage and screen with her confident and modern take on leading-lady dressing.
‘I love fashion. It’s actually – after ballet – my favourite thing, since I was little,’ Francesca told Grazia at the London premiere of Romeo and Juliet: Beyond Words. ‘I’ve always been distracted by shopping and when I’m not dancing, I’m probably shopping,’ she laughed.
A relative newcomer on the red carpet, Francesca admits she’s ‘kind of figuring it out’ but her love of fashion is clearly serving her well already. Case in point, for the premiere she chose to wear arguably the hottest label in the world right now – Bottega Veneta – stepping out in a look that was equal parts refined and rebellious: a ruched tulle midi dress with cushioned leather coat, cut out pumps and a pyramid bag. Not to leave it there, she later changed into a stretch-knit dress and poufy clutch bag (you know, the one every fashion girl seems to have right now).
The looks felt modern, relevant, cool; a bold statement for a rising star who refuses to go down the well-trodden princess-ingenue or look-at-me sexy starlet roads. ‘What don’t I love about this!?’ she said of her Bottega looks. ‘Bottega is one of my favourites at the moment. In Romeo and Juliet I obviously played a young girl who looks quite sweet and cute, but I feel powerful right now, so it’s a nice contrast’.
Despite being an avid fashion fan, Francesca’s IRL wardrobe is grounded in comfort and simplicity. ‘I have so many clothes, but really, I have the same variations of the same thing, usually black jeans, black jumpers, black double-breasted coats,’ she says. ‘When I’m not wearing ballet shoes, I’m wearing pretty tough black boots’.
That sense of ease will serve her well on the red carpet. ‘I like it when you’re not fiddling with anything, you just need to feel confident,’ says Francesca. ‘You can just be in the moment and let it happen’.
It might sound like a world away from the elaborate costumes and frothy tutus of a ballet dancer, but Francesca insists there is a parallel. ‘I feel like when you’ve got a good outfit on it makes your day, right?’ she says. ‘Before you’ve even started you feel like yourself. Similarly, in what I do performance wise it has to feel authentic and real for me to feel like it was a good show’.
‘You can get away with a lot on stage, when the audience is very far away,’ she laughs. ‘You just don’t want to have a costume malfunction, you do not want to be thinking about your costume. Or your wig, or your crown… Everything needs to be secure so you can do your thing’. We can’t wait to see more of Francesca doing hers – both on the red carpet and off.
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