'12
Years A Slave' Oscar nominee Lupita Nyong'o has become a style favorite over
the awards season and has quickly garnered attention for her always elegant and
modern take on red carpet dressing. The actress has spoken on her thoughts
regarding the fashion industry, admitting that before the film's success she
didn't know much about fashion at all but was often influenced by her
surroundings: “Until all this, I hadn’t been a student of the fashion
industry as a formal industry, I wasn’t the girl who bought the fashion
magazines, I’d always just worn what appeals to me. I know that even if I don’t
buy the magazines and stuff, with fashion and style, you pick up influences all
the time—if your eyes are open, you’re being influenced by fashion and style,
whether you like it or not.”
On
her personal style icons, Lupita points out that she admires a few other stars
for their own refined sense of style and she began to research fashion properly
after the film because she knew she would be making red carpet appearances and
wanted to find her own sense of style: “I’ve admired from afar people like
Elizabeth Taylor, Iman, and Cate Blanchett. When I knew I was going to be doing
the press tour for 12 Years A Slave, I got to work and started
researching what was happening in the formal world of fashion to try and
articulate to myself what my style would be in it all. It’s been a great
education—a great discovery—to find clothing artists who are doing things that
I feel express something about myself. And there are so many.”
Lupita
is known for opting for bold colours on the red carpet and she explained her
choices: “I love color and gravitate towards solid block colors, I like clean
lines and a classic look, but I also like to have a sense of humor and wear
things that put a smile on my face. I like to wear things, I don’t like things
to wear me. I don’t like fuss!”
