Faye Dunaway Is a Style Icon, With a New Gucci Campaign to Prove It
Faye Dunaway Gucci Sylvie Campaign Photos
Faye Dunaway could kill you with a look. The actress, who has been turning heads since her on-screen debut in 1967’s The Happening, has the polish, the poise, the style of a true star. Her infallible Dunaway-ness is on full display in Gucci’s new campaign for its polished, poised, and stylish bag, the Sylvie. In the Petra Collins–lensed images, Dunaway plays a vamped-up version of herself, a Hollywood icon whose daughter in the series, played by Soko, is getting into the family business herself. “The character is a busy, successful Hollywood mother who has a special relationship with her daughter, played by the lovely Soko,” explained Dunaway over email, where she wrote her responses in electric fuchsia text. “Petra is a revelation, such a formidable force with a wonderful eye! Oh, to be so talented at such a young age; the bond between her and Gucci made it feel like we were working with family, and that is truly special. Her direction was all about the fun elements; it was a very happy set.”
It’s here where Dunaway corrects an oft-told rumor of her career, that she was one of the first models to shift gears to acting. “This one is a bit of a myth, actually. I made five films back-to-back at the beginning of my career, starting with The Happening, Bonnie and Clyde being the third, and I modeled in between,” says Dunaway. “I always give 100 percent regardless of the different mediums. The team behind the Gucci shoot [was] incredible, it was like working on a fully fledged movie shoot. I am genuinely happy that Alessandro and Gucci came to me at this point in my life—the timing is exactly right.”
What makes the partnership especially compelling is that for three years, since taking the reins at Gucci, creative director Alessandro Michele has been quietly—or sometimes not—referencing Dunaway’s style in his collections. For his very first show, Fall 2015, four models wore Dunaway’s iconic red beret, a staple in her personal wardrobe that she keeps in her closet to this day. “I recall traveling to Paris with Warren [Beatty] for the premiere of B&C, and I looked down from a balcony to see a sea of lovely French girls wearing berets and top and bottom eyelashes just like mine . . . what a compliment!” she remembers.
For Fall 2016, models stepped out in the lush fur coats of Dunaway’s character in Eyes of Laura Mars. “It’s lovely to think some of my characters are inspiring the young creatives. I feel very humbled by the idea that I have inspired Alessandro,” Dunaway says. “We labored over getting it right; I was a lucky woman, so I chose carefully how my characters would be remembered. I still have a strict eye for detail.”
As for her iconic costumes, she admits she’s kept just one: “Most of the costumes were kept by the productions and some are in museums, but I have a white bias-cut blouse from Bonnie and Clyde, the one I was killed in, actually.”
These days you are likely to see her around Hollywood in something new, probably by Gucci. “I really love the lace tracksuit I was given at the shoot, such a fantastic brilliant idea,” Dunaway says, noting that, at 77, she’s still as interested in fashion as ever. “It’s exciting, all generations seem to share tastes and styles, rules are being broken and redefined.”
What she won’t say is what she keeps in her new, ribbon-trimmed shoulder bag. With a winky emoticon, Dunaway signs off her message, “A lady never reveals what is kept in her Sylvie bag.”
