“I was told to become more feminine—it drove me crazy,” remarked Diane Keaton in a 2017 interview with Radio Times. It’s not onerous to think about studio execs scratching their heads, questioning what to do with a younger Keaton in 1972, when she starred in her first movie—Woody Allen’s Play It Again, Sam—she seemed extra like somebody you’d stumble upon in a New York bookstore or the philosophy division of a stuffy college than a Hollywood starlet.
Clad in trousers too massive, shirts too free, and hats too each of the above, Diane Keaton was, from the outset, an iconoclast. And whereas it’s that exact high quality she’s been celebrated for for at the very least my complete life, it wasn’t all the time that manner.
In the identical interview, Keaton remembered a neighborhood appearing coach who refused to solid her in any productions: “He told her [Keaton’s mother] that I needed to go to modelling school because I didn’t look good. That I should become more refined and feminine and more groomed. This drove me crazy, so I didn’t do classes anymore.” Instead of being smoothed and sculpted to suit Hollywood’s blueprint, Keaton stayed precisely as she was. Eventually, trend adopted.
Diane Keaton sporting a white satin go well with with an identical feather boa and cigarette holder in a scene from Sleeperdirected by Woody Allen, 1973.
(Image credit score: United Artists by way of Getty Images)
From outsized tailoring to eccentric hats, Diane Keaton spent over 5 a long time dressing fully for herself—and in doing so, redefined what fashion, age, and femininity may appear to be. Her private fashion, mirrored in the legendary characters she performed, turned a cultural touchstone, inspiring generations to worth authenticity and self-expression over tendencies.
Here, we break down Diane Keaton’s inimitable fashion from Annie Hall to 2024’s Summer Camp.
Diane Keaton in the Nineteen Seventies
Fashion likes to coin a phrase, and in Diane Keaton’s case, that time period could be ‘Anti-Style Style.’ ‘Kooky’ can be a label that’s been levied at her, however the latter feels too lazy, too umbrella, to adequately seize her offbeat, irreverent aesthetic—particularly when utilized to her wardrobe circa the Nineteen Seventies. Her breakout position, one other neurotic romantic comedy by Woody Allen—a little-known flick referred to as Annie Hall in 1977—didn’t simply win her an Oscar; it rewrote the foundations of fashion and subsequently fated each girl thereafter with a penchant for ties to be dubbed an Annie Hall sort.
Hall’s wardrobe, drawn instantly from Keaton’s personal closet, was a hodgepodge of thrifted menswear: slouchy blazers, saggy trousers, super-sized shirts, patterned ties, and felt hats. It was messy, bookish, lived-in—however definitely not in vogueregardless of second-wave feminism being at its peak. Women had been pushing again towards gender roles, and Keaton’s androgynous fashion provided a visible revolt. Even although feminism was gaining floor, mainstream media lagged far behind, archaically anticipating femininity to be palatable, polished, and predictably fairly. Keaton—not for the primary time, and positively not the final—refused. And in doing so, she provided girls a brand new form of icon: one who might be humorous, good, fascinating, and unbothered by standard intercourse attraction—or social conventions of any form, for that matter.
Diane Keaton in the Nineteen Eighties
At first look, the Nineteen Eighties—with its penchant for energy dressing and masculine costume codes—would possibly’ve appeared like a very good match for Diane Keaton, particularly in distinction to the earlier decade’s dominant trend themes: hippiedom, disco, punk. But the fits of the ’80s got here with a heavy dose of high-gloss glamour. Sure, girls had been now extra prone to be seen in tailoring, however on the runway, that translated to a extra sultry fashion of suiting: the waists had been small, the shoulders amplified, and the heels spindly and excessive.
Keaton’s model of energy dressing didn’t play the company sport. That’s to not say she was fully resistant to the altering tides; she sharpened her silhouettes and swapped out the rumpled thrift-store power of the ’70s in favour of crisper cuts: high-waisted trousers, belted blazers, leather-based gloves, and tall boots. The hats remained ever-present. Her color palette stayed impartial and grounded; her clothes practical moderately than frivolous, regardless of its considerably cartoonish high quality—assume René Magritte bowler hats and a playful use of layers.
Diane Keaton in the Nineteen Nineties
If the ’80s had been all about maximalism and extra, then it made sense that the next decade would champion its reverse—a sartorial slate-clean in the type of stripped-back minimalism. Calvin Klein reigned supreme, and the pink carpet turned a parade of spaghetti straps. Naturally, Keaton skewed sideways, embracing quantity, texture, and wit. Her outfits turned extra exaggerated and extra refined, however no much less hers. A double-breasted all-white go well with paired with patent platforms on the 1997 Oscars provided a cheeky nod to Father of the Bride co-star Steve Martin’s early stand-up persona (who’d, in flip, riffed off Tom Wolfe).
Also in the combo: dramatic coats, A-line skirts layered over trousers, thick belts cinched on the waist, and outsized glasses—which had been starting to outnumber the hats in each presence and frequency.
Hollywood is an particularly brutal place to be a lady—significantly a lady in her 40s and 50s—and lots of feminine stars are inspired to melt or sexualise in order to stay related. Keaton selected as a substitute to dial up her eccentricity. There was no try to disappear; she remained, as ever, an island of individuality.
Diane Keaton in the 2000s
By the early 2000s, Keaton’s fashion was effectively and really recognisable—and refreshingly out of step with the glitzy, body-conscious clothes gripping Hollywood. At award exhibits, she’d eschew pink carpet norms and arrive in three-piece fits, long-line coats, Victorian-style booties, ties, gloves, and an ever-rotating solid of assertion hats.
Her silhouette turned extra theatrical however by no means indifferent from actuality. Yes, there was the Diane Keaton–Annie Hall character, however there was additionally an actual sense of consolation and ease. She escaped being changed into a caricature of herself—one thing that befalls so many public figures. Perhaps the trick was that she by no means appeared to take trend, or herself, too severely.
And lastly, the world caught up along with her. Style critics as soon as baffled by her buckled boots and skirt-over-trouser ensembles started calling her a trend unique, an icon, even. The recognition helped present different girls in their 50s and 60s that they didn’t have to shrink, soften, or intercourse up. Another choice was obtainable to them: they might increase into their eccentricities and their autonomy.