I'm Winona Ryder, and this is my Life In Looks.
[gentle upbeat music]
This picture was taken at one
of my very early auditions.
I didn't get the part.
Partially, I think because of my look,
a lot of people mistook me for a boy.
I felt like to be an entrepreneur,
or if I did have the look,
it would've been not really me.
So I was kind of oddly perfectly happy being
more of a character, an actor.
But I remember taking a trip to LA
and back then, you had to sort of, if you didn't have
any credit, you had to come up with like a monologue to do.
And I sort of put this,
the Salinger novella, Franny from Frannie and Zoe.
I adapted into a long monologue, sort of obsessed
with the Glass Family to this day.
Ah, Beetlejuice, I credit Tim
and this movie with really helping sort of launch my career.
I completely identified with it.
They didn't have to do much to me
to make me look the way that I did.
I recently found a picture of me and my brother
and my friend from a few months before I auditioned.
And I looked very much the same as Lydia.
I was super pale
and I had dyed my hair, L'Oreal blue, black.
I mean, there were such great lines.
My whole life was a dark room, one big dark room.
Obviously the wardrobe was incredible.
I hadn't seen that in any type
of studio movie.
I just really remember feeling surprised
and just so excited and grateful
to be treated as a collaborator, you know?
And it meant a lot to me.
Okay, Veronica Sawyer.
Heathers is another one of my favorites.
I think it's a masterpiece.
I absolutely was just in love with the script, in love
with the character, the language.
I mean, I was just, you don't have to pay me.
I just need to say these lines.
Each Heather is a different color,
and they're actually very different girls,
but they're part of this clique.
We decided on blue for Veronica.
Blue to me, it's almost bruised, you know?
And I felt like she was going through a lot of emotional,
like bruising.
You know, be it from JD or the girls or her own conscience.
It made the most sense, and I identified with that color.
I've been also huge Joni Mitchell fan.
The term in the sort of, oh, I've got the blues.
Like, I was sort of, there was a lot
of different little things that I had in my head
that I just kept for myself that had to do with blue.
Oh, Veronica.
It was returning from Edward Scissorhands.
Out of frame is Tim Burton,
and this was back when the paparazzi could wait
literally at the gate.
It was always so embarrassing
because you'd have this long walk
and everyone would be looking like, who are you,
photo, you know.
I still have this Stegosaurus briefcase,
or it's like a mini suitcase, and I still use it.
I do think it does capture the mood you're in
when you're like greeted by paparazzi.
It also reminds me of that time,
which was a really nice time.
Yes.
This was taken at the premier of The Commitments.
Last minute, got it.
You know, invited, just literally wearing
my old Doc Martens,
my precious Tom Wades t-shirt that I wear all the time.
Leather jacket, which I think it was my mom's.
I wonder if I still have it.
I probably do.
My dad was right out of frame.
This was the brilliant Eiko Ishioka
who did these incredible costumes.
It was my first experience in corsets,
which was intense.
Really, really helped
in terms of like building the character
and how you carry yourself, how women were sort of forced
to carry themselves with these clothes.
The great Andre Leon Talley was there.
We had, you know, these little breaks
because back then we filmed with film
and when it would run out, they'd have to reload.
And so you'd have about 20 minutes,
and Andre was so wonderful and patient,
but he'd steal us away.
It was a really fun day.
I really loved him.
This was sort of the time
where everyone was wearing those little slip dresses.
I was suddenly considered attractive.
I wasn't playing, like, the weirdo.
Something shifted
and I was suddenly sort of like a leading lady,
you know, which I kind of didn't see coming.
But back then, you know, you're so focused on the work
that you are not really thinking about your persona.
I do remember this being like, oh my-
It was like, on the cover of Vogue.
If you had told me that a few years prior, I would've like
never, ever believed it.
It was definitely a switch, a switch for me.
The Age of Innocence.
Another favorite of mine, obviously to work
with Scorsese.
Any actor's dream
to work with Daniel Day-Lewis.
I mean, it doesn't get better than that.
There's this scene where I sort of come in
and I'm taking my hat off and I embrace him.
Marty had me switch the hat pin.
So I literally looks like I could stab him.
And there's this great line.
Richard E. Grant says it where he says
that my character has eyes with a lot of lashes.
And I just always thought that was such a incredible line.
The costumes were very important
and very detailed.
This was at the Academy Awards,
was the first time I was nominated.
I do remember sitting there, I was actually quite scared
to win because I always felt like there was like,
there would be a backlash and I was young.
And yeah, it was like kinda a little bit
of a stressful night.
But I also was very nervous about sitting
and not breaking the beads.
It was just very,
I was just trying to take care of the beads.
And then, ah, Susanna from Girl, Interrupted.
My gosh, I still have this shirt.
This movie meant a lot to me.
It was a very complex role
and it was a true story
and I very much wanted
to do it justice to Susanna Kaysen,
who I play the wardrobe was very, very crucial, you know,
because of, it was at the end of the 60s.
It was a weird time
because people just, were not talking about anything to do
with mental illness.
I wanted to sort of start some sort
of dialogue about making people feel a little bit less like,
it's just them and that, you know, they're crazy.
This is a beautiful vintage Pauline Trier dress.
I've worn it a few times 'cause it's so beautiful.
I wore it once without the cape.
It's just a stunning dress.
This is Mark Jacobs.
This was the time I went to the Met Gala
and I went with Mark.
You can be in this beautiful velvet dress.
It was a really nice night, yeah.
Okay, Joyce Byers.
So the look was inspired
by the movie Silkwood and Meryl Streep.
There's a scene where I'm wearing like the [indistinct]
same type of leather jacket that she wears.
It's always very important to me with all of the work
that I do, that I'm dressing in a way that
of what my character can afford.
On Stranger Things,
I do a lot of repeats over the last five seasons.
I'm still wearing a lot of the same stuff
because I mean, she's working two jobs.
I grew up in a home that, you know, we didn't,
was hand me downs and stuff like that.
I very much wanted to incorporate that into it.
Okay, This is one of my favorite things I've worn.
It's Dior.
Gorgeous piece.
It's sort of a blazer over a dress,
but you can't really.
It's almost incorporated into the dress
and it has these sort of almost, I don't know how to,
they look like feathers, but they're material.
It was just absolutely beautiful.
I felt beautiful.
It was comfortable.
Got to wear my boots underneath.
I love that.
I wanted to keep her essence,
but she has a kid now and obviously her life has changed.
Colleen Atwood, who's just so brilliant,
I mean a true genius.
One of the best costume artists I've ever known,
and I've known her since Edward Scissorhands.
And she, little women for me,
and she, I mean, we've just worked together
so many times, but she really, really helped me
to keep Lydia,
but also bring her more into where she is in the movie,
which is struggling a bit.
All right.
[gentle music]
And that is my Life In Looks.
[gentle upbeat music]
[gentle upbeat music]
