Reese Witherspoon, Beige-est Celeb Ever, Wins People’s Best-Dressed

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L-R: Witherspoon wearing Calvin Klein at the 2015 Golden Globes, and Tom Ford at the 2015 Academy Awards. Photos: Rex USA.

Today, People announced that Reese Witherspoon is its best-dressed star of 2015. We can’t say we’re surprised, exactly — this is People, after all: provider of airport half-reading material, catalogers of T.Swift and Blake Lively’s every move, creator of crosswords with clues like “_____ Patrick Harris.” We weren’t exactly expecting edgy. Still, to choose a celeb who’s almost aggressively bland as best-dressed? Let’s just say it’s a missed opportunity.

The thing about Witherspoon’s style is it’s definitely not bad. She never risks looking unclassy by showing a lot of skin, like your Kims or Beyoncés. She doesn’t wear a confusing, Tumblr-barf trend salad like your Mileys or Katy Perrys. She’s not a mash-up artist, mixing thrift store finds, streetwear, and haute couture like Rihanna. Unlike Kristen Stewart or Dakota Johnson, she always brushes her hair, which is always loosely waved or, for formal events, in a tasteful chignon.

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Witherspoon out and about in Los Angeles in 2015. Photos: AKM-GSI.

Instead, Witherspoon wears — almost without fail — a retro-inflected, often off-shoulder long gown on the red carpet (always perfectly opaque, thankyouverymuch), or a cocktail dress plus heel (nothing too wacky) at less formal events. Off-duty, she favors the plaid shirts, skinny jeans, and booties that outfit every sorority girl from here to Timbuktu. Witherspoon is one of those girls who seems to actually prefer a heel, which she wears with the straight-backed, smiling, “I could run in these shoes!” poise of a Miss USA contestant (or a Tracy Flick). That Reese has recently rebranded herself as a “y’all”-dropping, Southern-pride lifestyle guru with her site Draper James is no accident — her risk-averse, totally un-ironic, not-a-hair-out-of-place femininity is Southern to its core.

Nothing against a formulaic look, of course — every style icon needs their signatures — but what fun is it when you more or less know exactly what a star’s going to show up wearing? Has anyone ever, in their life, sat down with a bowl of popcorn to watch the Emmys and though “Oooooh, what’s Reese Witherspoon going to wear?”

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Reese Witherspoon wears Mugler at a photocall for ‘Hot Pursuit.’ Photo: Rex USA.

Yet, for all its predictability, Witherspoon still somehow lacks an identifiable style. You can combine a bucket hat, crop top, and baggy jeans and have your Rihanna moment. Or, you can buy out Forever 21′s spandex pencil skirts and feel like Kim for a day. How would one copy Witherspoon, exactly? The essence of her looks is not really the pieces or the silhouettes she wears — it’s that every look is utterly, thuddingly appropriate. She’s not too high-end or downmarket, not too slutty, not too trendy, never absurd, will never ever inspire a slew of thinkpieces or Twitter memes. The outfit, anchored by a Mugler cocktail dress, that she wore recently at a Hot Pursuit photocall perfectly encapsulates her look: So matchy-matchy she’s practically all one color, from her hair to her heels. Call it Beigecore. 

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L-R: Rihanna in Giambattista Valli couture at the 2014 Emmys, Diane Kruger in Hugo Boss at the ‘Black Mass’ premiere. Photos: Rex USA.

We get it, not everyone can be a glorious, Rihanna-style boundary-pusher, or a Diane Kruger-style edgy couture princess. But “safe” doesn’t push the style conversation forward — the wild cards and loose cannons do. Reese may always be beautiful, always appropriate. But “best-dressed” shouldn’t be code for “always colors inside the lines.”

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