In this era of method dressing, press tours have become hyper-literal, with celebrities dressing as their characters or adopting the visual motifs of their film. But Kristen Stewart, styled by Tara Swennen, has recently shown us how to practice method dressing with restraint.
Stewart just wrapped up the promotional tour for her new film, Love Lies Bleeding—a sexy, sweaty thriller centering Stewart’s gym manager, Lou, and Katy O’Brian’s bodybuilder, Jackie. When considering how to dress for a movie largely set in a 1980s gym, Stewart and Swennen wanted to nod to the backdrop without going overboard. “I approach dressing her [considering] the movie’s about bodybuilding, and this athleticism, and the idea of the love story, the whole thing,” Swennen says. “So when we were thinking of looks, we were leaning into the idea of a playfulness with a romantic, yet empowering edge, but unapologetically sexy at the same time.” The clothing also reflects Stewart’s own catharsis. “As an actor you embody that character for a little while, and then when you go on a press tour, you are releasing it into the wild,” she says.
The press tour officially kicked off on the festival circuit. At Sundance, comfort was key given the adverse weather, but that was also where Stewart leaned into gym rat territory, rocking a white muscle tank with red and white striped track pants, and Adidas Superstars. As time went on, though, sporty references became a bit more oblique, like the Chanel leg-warmers and Camp Stewart baby tee. At the Berlinale festival, she began experimenting with hosiery—a recurring piece in her press tour looks—wearing white tights under her Chanel skirt set.
“We’ve never really done hose,” Swennen says. “It’s very hard to find a hose that don’t have a control top system anymore, so we were like, Let’s just lean into it. I love her personal flare.” The duo’s longterm personal relationship—Swennen has been dressing Stewart since the actor was 14-years-old—lends to the final product. “For us, it’s always been a collaboration,” she says. “It’s one of my most beautiful relationships in my styling career.”
As the film began to gain more traction, the looks began to get wilder. At the Los Angeles premiere, Stewart wore an ultra-high-cut Bettter bodysuit that mimicked a wrestling singlet, with her tights’ control top on full display. Swennen repeated this effect again with nude tights underneath Brunello Cucinelli cable-knit hot shorts. With that same outfit, she left Stewart’s nude bra exposed. “We decided to play with underpinnings, using foundational garments less as substructures to the look, but leaning into them as focal points or layering pieces,” she says. “[We were] not necessarily using it as outerwear, but having that juxtaposition of something a little harsh, yet feminine peeking from unexpected places.”
Stewart’s noticeably bolder, sexier style has made headlines in the last week. Between the unbuttoned Tibi vest, latex garters, and beaded Monôt halter that betray a hint of nipple, the actor has been taken a big swings with her fashion. “For us, there was a beauty in sort of disguising [nakedness] in a way, but seeing a little subtle hint that you can play with, or a little nod to this or that,” the stylist says.
Swennen points to Stewart’s Rolling Stone cover, featuring the actor in an open leather vest, her hand tucked into white briefs, as a turning point. (She notes that she did not style the cover.) “This is why I love Kristen: she loves to push boundaries, whether it’s in her fashion choices or just with the things that she does,” she says. From that moment, centering Stewart’s own relationship to sexuality (irrespective of the film’s queerness) became a key part of her style. “It was something that we thought to play to as well, this idea [that] we as women can be sexual in our own way, and in our own shape and form, however we choose to show that,” she says.
The secret to rocking these looks, Swennen says, is Stewart’s self-assuredness, which allowed her to pull off these daring outfits with ease: “She’s in a beautiful place [in her life], so she just radiates this beauty and this authenticity and this strength, and I just wanted to play to that.”
