For stylist Leith Clark, Keira Knightley was a friend before she was a client. “As we developed a relationship, it felt really natural to try to make her look authentic in her public persona after knowing what she’s like privately,” explains Clark, who started working with the actor over 15 years ago. “It’s been an adventure ever since.”
Once a permanent fixture on red carpets worldwide, these days, Knightley’s appearances in front of the paps are rare. But she recently made a brief (and welcome) return to the spotlight in New York, where she was promoting her new film, Boston Strangler. “It felt like a really nice story,” Clark says of the British actor’s Stateside fashion streak, which the stylist started plotting out last autumn. “Playing a good game of dress-up with someone you love is a great thing to do.”
Despite her preference for life out of the spotlight these days, Knightley was “pretty open” from the outset, according to Clark. Typically, she’ll discuss key words or themes before dressing other clients, but it’s different with Knightley. “We don’t really work that way. I think we had a conversation initially saying, ‘Is there anything you don’t want to feel like?’ I know her like I know me in a way, and I can be quite focused.” The trust they’ve built up during their years of friendship is key to what makes their partnership successful. “Sometimes, she’ll make a face at me and be like ‘really?’”, says Clark, laughing. “But as long as she puts it on and feels that thing, then it works, and usually I know what that will be.”
Clark’s unique knowledge of what makes Knightley tick informed her research from the outset. “I guess the coolest part for me was that it still just felt as natural as it always felt,” she says of using her instincts to find looks for Knightley’s new chapter. “Part of what’s been integral to our working relationship is almost the things not said.”
Clark had picked out the taffeta Vivienne Westwood dirndl dress (her “favorite from the start”), before the legendary designer died in December. “It was a pretty magical combination and nice [for Knightley] to be a British woman in New York, celebrating a British woman that deserves so much celebration,” Clark says. “That was pretty special.”
A feeling of effortlessness was important, conjured via the juxtaposition of Chanel lace with tailoring, or a feathered Valentino skirt worn with a slouchy cashmere jumper. A big fan of Simone Rocha’s designs, Clark pulled a look from the designer’s fall 2023 collection for Knightley’s spot on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, making the actor the first to wear the look fresh from the runway.
“I guess we just wanted to have fun and wanted to make it count,” Clark continues. “One of the great pleasures of doing this kind of work is when there’s a series. A standalone moment, of course, is wonderful, but it’s really fun when there’s a bunch of events close together and you’re creating a story. It was lovely to do that.”