The year is 2023, but current events suggest a certain late-aughts déjà vu: There’s a new Twitter. Our ongoing situationship with economic catastrophe is as sultry as ever. Jennifer Lawrence is starring in a bawdy, R-rated comedy, while Taylor Swift has spent the year revisiting her entire musical oeuvre via her blockbuster Eras tour and, as of today, a new reissue of her 2010 album Speak Now.
But thankfully fashion, like lots else, has changed in the last ten years, which has loosened up even the tightest conventions of personal style (or, as the case may be with many famous people, personal wardrobes curated by a stylist). The line between womenswear and menswear has never been hazier. In their latest high-profile moments—Jennifer Lawrence on her No Hard Feelings press tour; Taylor Swift in her Eras era—both stars have donned a host of nouveau-preppy menswear staples: loose button-downs, baseball caps, derbies, low-profile sneakers, trench coats, sweater vests, nice watches. They look cooler than ever.
Lawrence, who’s been working with stylist Jamie Mizrahi, has gone full gamine: During a recent commercial shoot for the Swiss watchmaker Longines, she sported (while wrestling three well-pedigreed dogs on leashes) a slouchy gray trench from The Row, loose black trousers, and a navy sweater tied around her neck—which recalled another classically boyish look, a nubby Loewe sweater vest over a simple white tee, she wore for an appearance on the Spanish TV show El Hormiguero last month. (These are, certainly, still leading-woman looks, their boyishness offset by JLaw’s perfect teen-movie blonde hair and gauzy makeup.) Even JLaw’s breezy off-duty outfits, like the baggy green cargo pants, open Oxford shirt, and Adidas Sambas she sported earlier this week, remain decidedly low-key.
Swift, in her well-publicized downtime between tour stops, puts together her casual looks carefully. She’s been spending a lot of time at Electric Lady Studios in Manhattan’s West Village, where she looked cooler than ever last week in an untucked striped button-down (also from The Row) worn loose over a mini pleated skirt, paired with black lug-soled derbies and a nondescript baseball cap. (TSwift, like JLaw, also has teen-movie-perfect blonde hair and kept things feminine with gold hoops and red lipstick.) Earlier in May, when she headed into Electric Lady accompanied by her erstwhile flame, The 1975’s Matty Healy, she wore a vintage New York University pullover with kicky sneakers from—who else?—The Row.
Throughout the last decade, JLaw and TSwift have established themselves as two of showbiz’s most classically glamorous women. On red carpets, they wear ultra-feminine gowns and delicate jewelry; off the clock, they lean tasteful, girlish, casual. (Throughout her Eras tour, Swift’s costumes have been a parade of princess frocks and glittering bodysuits; the Raf Simons-designed Christian Dior haute couture gown Lawrence wore to the 2013 Academy Awards—as immortalized in her famed tumble en route to accept her Best Actress statuette—is still the most expensive Oscars dress ever worn.) But menswear has had a hold on many female stars of late, and it’s been wielded to particularly spellbinding effect by both Lawrence and Swift. You could do a lot worse, regardless of how you identify, than trying to dress like these two.
