Katie Holmes: The Unlikely Fashion Icon Making Practical Chic
Katie Holmes, the actress who recently collaborated with A.P.C. for a new fashion line, prioritizes practical dressing above all else.
What is it about Katie Holmes that has fashion experts eagerly chronicling her every sartorial choice?
In the past several days alone, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, and InStyle have lauded her style, with the latter describing an outfit — a simple Banana Republic shirtdress worn over a tank top and wide-leg pants — as “a master class in elevated basics.” Vogue dubbed a basic slip dress she wore in May as “a lazy girl’s shortcut to cool.”
Recently, A.P.C., the French fashion label founded in the late 1980s known for its emphasis on durability and effortlessly chic style (think Jane Birkin or Françoise Hardy), joined the chorus of admirers.
This spring, A.P.C. enlisted Ms. Holmes to lend her name and celebrity to a line of sweaters, T-shirts, miniskirts, and jeans, some of which are reproductions of items A.P.C. originally sold in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The collection is priced from approximately $145 to over $1,000.
“We like how real she is, that her style is appealing to everyone,” said Judith Touitou, A.P.C.’s longtime creative director, regarding Ms. Holmes. “For a celebrity, she is very sophisticated but also accessible.”
Many have viewed Ms. Holmes as the ultimate cool girl since she captivated TV audiences in the late ’90s and early 2000s as Joey on “Dawson’s Creek,” before her six-year marriage to Tom Cruise elevated her fame.
Over the years, she has collaborated with various brands, including Miu Miu, Max Mara, and Ann Taylor. However, according to Ms. Holmes, she never anticipated becoming a fashion icon.
“I never really anticipated this,” Ms. Holmes said in an interview while introducing her A.P.C. line at the company’s New York office last month. Her style, she added, is grounded in practicality.
Despite this, she has been a paparazzi magnet for decades, her slender, 5-foot-9-inch frame hard to miss as she strolls through her downtown Manhattan neighborhood. In many images, she exudes the same blend of self-assurance and doe-like vulnerability she did onscreen as Joey.
Currently juggling appointments and rehearsals for a Broadway revival of “Our Town” set to open in September, Ms. Holmes finds dressing up for routine errands “really hard to understand.” She prefers the comfort of sweatshirts and jeans, reserving glamour for red carpet events and other formal occasions.
“The dinners and parties are work,” she said, noting that adding glamor to her daily life “just doesn’t feel right to me.”
Ms. Holmes has embraced an Everywoman persona, often opting for the simplicity of a blazer, a midcalf dress, a white T-shirt, or trusty jeans — the fashion equivalent of meatloaf and beans.
But as Ms. Touitou of A.P.C. noted, she does so “with a touch of French girl sex appeal.” She added that Ms. Holmes successfully merges her low-key sensibility with a subtle eroticism, making her the ideal bridge between French-girl style and a mature version of Joey.
Katharine Zarrella, a freelance fashion critic and former fashion director at The Wall Street Journal, remarked that Ms. Holmes’s daily wardrobe consists of “approachable clothes that make people feel good about what’s in their closets, that make them confident they can make those clothes work.”
Given this, it is unsurprising that the enthusiastic coverage of Ms. Holmes’s style shows no sign of waning. Some media have even celebrated her more notable fashion missteps.
“Katie Holmes is not afraid of putting a little frump in her stride,” read a Vogue article, referring to an ungainly camel coat and an awkwardly shortened midi dress worn by the actress. “This is a woman who understands that it sometimes takes a real fashion brain to make a cumbersome silhouette look like a confident life choice.”
Ms. Zarrella shared a similar sentiment. “There is something comforting about her look,” she said. “And not much in life is comforting right now.”
