Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: BackGrid, Getty Images
I recently returned to work after giving birth to my first child. Among all the new things on my mind, like when to pump in between meetings or how to get my baby to sleep through the night, I have another dilemma: I need pants. I have only one pair that fits at the moment — dark, oversize Citizens of Humanity jeans — but it’s not just my size that’s the issue. An unexpected consequence of parenthood is that I want to dress more adventurously. I want to do better than a white button-down and dark jeans. And specifically, I want to dress like Jennifer Lawrence.
Photo: MMVV/Diamond / BACKGRID
During all those nights I spent holding a baby in a dark room and scrolling to keep myself awake, Lawrence’s paparazzi pictures gave me a jolt of inspiration. She’s been a superfan of The Row’s minimalist precision for years, but her style shifted when she became a mom for the second time earlier this year. On the red carpet, she still wears dramatic Dior gowns, but off-duty on the streets of Tribeca, when Lawrence doesn’t work with a stylist, you’ll find her in bright-red roomy pants, a vintage graphic T-shirt, and a silk bucket hat. Or in a boxy leather jacket over a long slip skirt topped with a Twilight: Breaking Dawn baseball hat. Everything she wears is oversize but layered with dainty pendant necklaces. Her favorite colors are preschool-friendly pops of bright reds and blues. Her hair is always messy. She barely wears any makeup. There is a playful, boyish charm to how she pulls her looks together. Forget tomboy. I’m calling it momboy style, for the women who love the contrast between a leopard-print calfskin coat and gorpy Salomon sneakers.
From left: Photo: MMVV/Diamond / BACKGRIDPhoto: ULRA, REES/Ulices Ramales / BACKGRID
From top: Photo: MMVV/Diamond / BACKGRIDPhoto: ULRA, REES/Ulices Ramales / BACKGRID
Of course, you don’t have to be a mom, or a mom of boys, to embrace the momboy ethos. (Recently, model Alex Consani called out Lawrence’s style as her “current hyperfixation.”) But there’s a long history of cool-mom uniforms, especially in this city, where trends can be particularly contagious and influential as each new generation of women tries to figure out how to dress like adults. Pieces like the pandemic-era Amazon coat with the pockets or the No. 6 clogs can become drop-off status symbols. Ten years ago, the cool moms loved skinny jeans and Equipment shirts, or Lululemon leggings paired with designer bags, or semi-distressed sweaters with moto jackets. More recently, we’ve seen the frilly, feminine Hill House–style nap-dress wave, the Jenni Kayne mania with their cashmere sweaters and pointed mules, and the viral knit pants from High Sport (you know, the $800 ones) and Donni (a more casual alternative).
From left: Photo: XNY/Star Max/GC ImagesPhoto: MMVV/Diamond / BACKGRID
From top: Photo: XNY/Star Max/GC ImagesPhoto: MMVV/Diamond / BACKGRID
But I’m beiged out. And as much as I love the return of frilly femininity on the runways, that’s not something I want to wear in my day-to-day life. To break down what makes Lawrence’s style so seductive and how to replicate it, I spoke to Elyse Winter, an L.A.-based personal stylist whose clients often ask her for help dressing specifically like Lawrence. “She has this L.A.–meets–New York, everyday, approachable street style,” she says.
From left: Photo: MMVV/Diamond / BACKGRIDPhoto: REES, ULRA/Fernando Ramales / BACKGRID
From top: Photo: MMVV/Diamond / BACKGRIDPhoto: REES, ULRA/Fernando Ramales / BACKGRID
The key to momboy style is an oversize silhouette that subverts conventional ideas of what looks flattering on a woman’s body. “A lot of women that I work with, and in general that are shopping, used to be fixated on What’s the smallest size jean I can get?” Winter says. “Wearing volume on volume takes balls” — even if you’re one of the world’s most beautiful people. We all know big pants are in right now. What else makes the momboy look work?
Lawrence loves soft, sleek bias-cut pants that no one would confuse for pajamas but feel just as comfortable — especially for those of us still figuring out our postpartum size. The designer version is The Row’s Gala pant, but recently, Lawrence has been rewearing the Colby style from La Ligne, which comes in her favorite accent color, bright red.
She’ll do crewneck, she’ll do V-neck, she’ll do collared. She’ll do navy and she’ll do cobalt blue. But Lawrence loves to top skirts, straight-leg jeans, and her drapey pants with a rich, roomy sweater. Hers are from The Row and La Ligne, but yours can be from Cos or Uniqlo.
While Lawrence prefers solids, she also goes for a vintage-style embroidery or an animal print, especially leopard. This year, she repeatedly wore two different leopard-print coats — her recent favorite, a La Ligne style, is sold out — and even a leopard-print pillbox hat.
Nothing adds a dose of drama to an outfit like a giant, brightly colored scarf wrapped around the neck. Lawrence likes to wear a red one with her biggest coats.
Lawrence’s style often has sporty details — she loves track pants, for example, and chunky sneakers. Her collection of eBay-worthy baseball hats adds a playful touch to simpler outfits while also covering up her typically messy hair. If you can’t get your hands on Breaking Dawn merch like Lawrence, eBay has plenty of alternatives for cinephiles.
Lawrence sometimes breaks up her volume-on-volume silhouette by layering creatively. She might wrap a flannel shirt or scarf around her hips or add a slip skirt under an oversize T-shirt.
This summer, Lawrence got a lot of wear out of a pair of Paloma Wool sheer trousers that came with a matching wrap skirt on top. The style was unusual and sexy without being tight or overly revealing (meaning no visible underwear).
Lawrence’s style is full of quirky details that read a bit wrong, especially in her footwear. “It’s either a sneaker or some ugly, weird, bizarre shoe,” Winter says, like chunky sneakers worn with a delicate silk coat or beaded mesh slippers with a quarter-zip sweatshirt.
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