A PRESTIGE HONG KONG EXCLUSIVE
THE RELUCTANT ICON - CHLOË SEVIGNY
by Stephen Short

Contrary to popular opinion, style icon Chloë Sevigny tells Prestige Hong Kong Deputy Editor Stephen Short, she does not love or court fashion and is trying to remind everyone she’s a big-screen actress

Connecticut-born Chloë Sevigny, 33, who’s related to France’s 17th-century Marquise de Sévigné (though she speaks precious little French), has never been conventional. But then, neither was much else surrounding her precocious instant fame. Spotted on a New York City street at 17, she did a Sassy magazine cover shoot and stayed on as a summer intern. Appearances in music videos for Sonic Youth and The Lemonheads followed, then a handful more shoots and a film (Kids). On the basis of that brief portfolio, American novelist Jay McInerney penned a six-page New Yorker story in November 1994 dubbing Sevigny “the downtown trendsetter of the moment” and comparing her to a skinny Jean Seberg in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 film Breathless.

Word spread and style mavens breathlessly rushed to equate her freshness with the style of a young Audrey Hepburn, or Edie Sedgwick, or even Twiggy. But there was one small disconnect. Sevigny wanted to be an actress, not a model, and a big-screen face, not a fashion plate. And she certainly didn’t want to be the “It girl” – a tag that stuck and morphed into “style icon” on account of her intuitive fashion hip – when she was most comfortable just being herself. But to be Sevigny was to be It.

With It came indie films, and with indie films came more of It. Sevigny’s choices were daring. She played an HIV-positive teenager who gets raped in Kids. In 1997 there was Gummo, a disturbing portrait of youth alienation and sexual abuse in Ohio, for which Sevigny played a secondary role and was costume designer. Next, a lead role in Whit Stillman’s dysfunctional The Last Days of Disco.

Then Sevigny had her mass-market film moment. Cast to play the girlfriend of Hilary Swank (a girl disguised as a boy) in real-life story Boys Don’t Cry, Sevigny earned an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress in 1999, while Swank won Best Actress. It was an indie film that crossed into the mainstream, and suddenly Sevigny was a style icon. Films with Lars von Trier (Dogville, Manderlay), Woody Allen (Melinda and Melinda), Jim Jarmusch (Broken Flowers) and other directors followed – all edgy, artful, less than conventional choices, occasionally involving explicit sex scenes, but none securing her top billing as a lead actress.

Opportunity came calling through the unlikely medium of HBO television series Big Love, in which she plays a polygamist’s wife. Starting its third season of filming – the cast and producers have seven-year contracts – it has won commercial and critical acclaim and been nominated for multiple Golden Globe Awards and an Emmy. It’s given Sevigny both mass-market attention and acting recognition, but it’s still not big screen.

Which all leaves her facing rather a large dilemma when I meet her in New York and find the reluctant style icon knee-deep in fashion-related projects. She’s just launched her own clothing line, “a one-off” she calls it, which sells along with Kate Moss for Top Shop at Opening Ceremony boutique in Soho. She has a photo campaign with Japanese cool-dude actor Tadanobu Asano for Japanese brand Uniqlo, which has one store in New York (and one in Hong Kong), and to top it off, was asked to design a ballet flat (think wedge) for Paris-based brand Repetto’s 60th anniversary (see “Don’t Step on My Toes,” page 214 of Prestige Hong Kong May 2008). Oh, and she’s also style adviser to British Elle magazine and the face for Chloé perfume. Previous campaigns have included Louis Vuitton, Miu Miu and MAC Cosmetics. When fashion comes so easy, the TV’s breezy and the brands so needy, how’s a Sevigny to get back to big screen?

Two weeks after our New York meeting, I ring Sevigny in Los Angeles for another chat. She’s there for six months to work on the film Barry Munday, will go for wardrobe fittings and make-up the next day and start filming the day after. She means business. Knowing the Big Love gig has limited her chances to seek more film work, she’s committed to making something work. She doesn’t need it, but the “downtown trendsetter” still wants better in the form of celluloid. It girl, style icon, screen dream, Sevigny is one aristo-cat who acts and won’t let the world, or herself, forget it.

What are the greatest misconceptions about Chloë Sevigny?
Well, the pronunciation of my name, first of all [laughs].

[Blushing] Forgive me. At least please tell me I’m close with Se-VEE-nyee.
No, it’s very off [laughs]. It’s Seven-ee. The “g” is silent. It’s okay. In America they all get it wrong as well. I always say just do the number “seven” and the letter “e.” It’s easier.

Tell me about the campaign shoot you’ve done for Japanese brand Uniqlo with actor Tadanobu Asano?
Uniqlo is a very big chain in Japan and there’s only one in America so far, in New York. They’ve approached me every year. The first year they had [musician] Kim Gordon, [photographer] Terry Richardson and others. Previously they’ve done campaigns with about 10 people in each one, so I kept saying no. This year they approached me with just Tadanobu Asano. I always thought the ads looked really great and that it wouldn’t do any harm.