These Photos Of Late ’90s And Early ‘OOs Chloë Sevigny Prove That, Yes, She Is The Coolest Girl In The World

In a 1994 interview by Jay McInernery, published in The New Yorker, Chloë Sevigny was called ‘the coolest girl in the world’. She was only 19, but people were already desperate to dress like her (during the interview, two girls asked where her jelly shoes were from and darted off to find them) and shoot her (Sassy’s fashion editor, Andrea Lee Linnett, scouted her at a newsstand when she was just 17).

She was a thrift store obsessive, hunting through racks to find two-dollar dresses, and a self-confessed fashion magazine junkie. Flicking through Vogue’s September issue, in 1994, McInernery captured her running commentary for his story called, rather prophetically, 'Chloë's Scene': ‘This Marc Jacobs dress is beautiful...Helmut Lang is my absolute favorite....'

The Chloëssance has officially started, decades after that profile hit the newsstands, because of the latest series of Feud. Coming soon to Disney+, it follows the story of the writer Truman Capote, portrayed by Tom Hollander, and his acolytes turned adversaries, the so-called Swans. Sevigny plays C.Z. Guest, transforming into the legendary socialite whose ice-blond hair and double string of pearls made her a formidable presence at any cocktail hour, and has already been blazing an oh-so-stylish trail on the promo tour (a highlight was the bow-tied cream ball gown that she wore to the premiere with 'half palm' gloves that exposed each wrist).

But it was in the late ‘90s when her film career took off, with Kids (1995), Boys Don’t Cry (1999) and American Psycho (2000). Her wardrobe, however, has stayed just as idiosyncratic as in that seminal period when she didn't have a stylist and was simply following her own nose instead of taking a cut-and-paste approach like other starlets in the making.

To the premiere of 1996's Trees Lounge, the actor wore a spangled one-shouldered dress, tiger-print tights and little strappy sandals. She must be the only person that can 1) wear tiger-print tights without looking like her bottom half’s late for Halloween and 2) make tights with sandals actually look sexy. In a recent video interview with Vogue, she also explained the corsage pinned to her right shoulder, a reference to a film she loved called Streetwise. 'I just thought that was the coolest accessory.'

At a fashion party in 1998, she unusually wore head-to-toe black, a high-necked lace gown with pointed pumps, and swept her hair back into an understated bun. It was the opposite of being overly-manicured or trying-too-hard, and cemented her status as the red carpet’s most intriguing, enigmatic and, yes, cool character.

Although her style’s got that hard-to-pin-down, can’t-bottle-it flavour, she did have some well-rehearsed signatures in those years. See, the berets she wears with black tie (like her clingy purple dress and beige beret combo at a party thrown by Talk Magazine). She also loves giving shorts their moment in the spotlight, from a thigh-hugging denim style that she balanced out with an oversized black blazer and XXL earrings to the knee-length culottes she wore with a ruffled milkmaid blouse at 2001’s Independent Spirit Awards.

Having said that, she can always surprise. At 2002’s Cannes Film Festival, the actor wore something akin to an ice skater’s outfit to the premiere of Demonlover. It was slashed to the hip, came with criss-cross lashings at the front and was 100% fabulous. She accessorised with a knockout beaded necklace (literally, it was huge) and a no-fuss fringe.

And so, to end our voyage through her ‘90s and ‘00s wardrobe on a high, we have to mention what she wore to sit front row at Versace. The year was 2002 - a time of undeniably questionable fashion trends - and she arrived wearing several of them in the form of a sarong-style gown with a 'floaty' hem, dyed a pleasingly ‘off’ combination of pink and brown. In Chloë's hands, it was dynamite. And the accessories? Visible tan lines.