It wasn't 17-year-old Mackenzie Foy's first time at a fashion show this past Couture season. In season's past, she'd seen Saint Laurent and an Erdem for H&M show. Not bad for your first three big fashion moments. Albeit her third, this show, though, was arguably her most important to date.
Foy, who plays the role of Clara in the upcoming The Nutcracker and the Five Realms, joined the ranks of Hollywood greats like Penelope Cruz, Tracee Ellis Ross, and her former Twilight co-star, Kristen Stewart, when she was invited to go to her very first Chanel show.
The experience, she told me over the phone, was fully emmersive and more than just "a show."
"I got to learn a ton of stuff from the history of Chanel," Foy tells InStyle. "Everything they do is in someway involved with Coco Chanel's history and her personal life. Now, I can look at [the collection] in a different way and see, 'oh that's inspired by this or that.' I didn't realize how much history is in all other pieces."
Here, we talk to Foy about her experiences learning about the House of Chanel and what it's like to own your personal style at the ripe age of 17.
On personal style
"I'm kind of a T-shirt and jeans kinda person. But as I'm getting older I'm experiencing different kinds of patterns and different styles. If i'm feeling different or feeling kind of cool and edgy I'll go for a leather jacket and ripped jeans. But if I'm feeling very happy airy fairy, I'll go for more of a Bohemian style. So it's ever-changing. As I'm getting older and experiencing different things in the world, I'm kind of trying to show that it's my own work."
On Coco
"Coco Chanel was just this trailblazer. She did things that people at the time weren't doing. She incorporated stripes, which were kind of a guy's fashion statement, and she turned them into a woman's fashion statement. She turned the fashion world on its head, which is very bold to do."
On red carpet dressing
"When it comes to [dressing for] events, I think a lot about [why I'm there]. And then my own personal mood. What is the theme of the event? I try to incorporate that into my look so it's kinda fun and coherent."
On The Nutcracker costumes
"The fashion in the movie is really really cool. It's set in the Victorian time period and it's a fantasy film. [The costumes] had lots of really beautiful bold colors, and I try to incorporate that into my kind now."
This article originally appeared on InStyle U.S.
