100 Most Influential People in Fashion

Fashion Influential #89: Anjelica Huston

A 1972 Bob Richardson shot for Vogue Italia. Via The New York Times

ANJELICA HUSTON
Born:
July 8, 1951 in Santa Monica, CA
Fans:
Wes Anderson , David Bailey, Helmut Newton
Fan of:
Bob Dylan, Bob Mackey
Fashionable Films:
Prizzi's Honor, The Addams Family, The Royal Tenenbaums
Beginnings.
Anjelica Huston was an unlikely supermodel in the late '60s and early '70s. Nothing like the bubbly blondes who landed the top fashion mag covers, a dark, angular, teenaged Huston shot to fame following a chance meeting with legendary Vogue editrix Diana Vreeland, who sent her to Ireland for a photo shoot with Richard Avedon. Her relationship with much-older, schizophrenic photographer Bob Richardson (father of equally famous photographer Terry Richardson) led to some of the most beautiful fashion photos of the day.

Career Highs.
Anjelica was in all the European Vogues in the early '70s, a muse to the likes of David Bailey and Helmut Newton. She and her boyfriend, Jack Nicholson, were regulars on the New York and Los Angeles party scenes, often photographed at Studio 54 and Mr. Chow's (70s fashion giant Halston was among her friends). In the 1980s, Huston won an Academy Award for her performance in Prizzi's Honor, accepting the Best Supporting Actress award in a dress of her own design. All the good girls, they have to have a big personality – it’s no good just being beautiful. Anjelica wasn’t beautiful in the normal sense; she had her own beauty, and I always liked girls who had their own beauty, like her and Penelope Tree. You need something else to go with the beauty.
- photographer David Bailey

Anjelica's unconventional beauty made her a popular model in Europe.
Career Lows.
Anjelica has maintained a steady film career for over thirty years. She most recently garnered great reviews for her roles in Choke, The Royal Tenenbaums, and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. She did, however, direct the unintentionally funny Riding the Bus With My Sister, starring Rosie O'Donnell doing her best imitation of the mentally handicapped.

Legacy.
Models like Kate Moss, who possess strong, highly photogenic, but not necessarily pretty features, owe something to Huston, the original poster girl for unusual, provocative beauty. What's more, her sense of style - she still tends to wear large, luminous jewelry like her blue beads in The Life Aquatic - definitely inspired the eclectic-chic we see on today's it-girls, from Sienna Miller to Peaches Geldof.

Anjelica Huston has appeared in Wes Anderson's last three films.

Get the Look.
Much of Anjelica Huston's look is about performance. Of her modeling days, she said, "I liked working for a camera, the atmosphere of creation, interpreting what a photographer or designer had in mind." Go for drama: dark eyeliner, slicked-back hair, heavy jewelry.

- Alicia