Stealing Angelina Jolie's Style
Some women would kill to have Angelina Jolie's long dark tresses and sleek fashion sense. With his new Style Network show "Style Her Famous," style guru Jay Manuel has taken criminal charges completely out of the equation.
Since the show's debut on Sept. 4, the "America's Next Top Model" stylist (he'll be back for season seven, which begins tonight on The CW) has been giving everyday women new looks inspired by their favorite celebs such as Halle Berry and Sarah Jessica Parker.
"It's a really remarkable makeover show. I hate the word makeover, because really what we're really doing is these are life makeovers, inspired by the makeover candidate's favorite celebrity," he tells The ShowBuzz. "What we're really teaching these women is how to take the key style elements of their favorite celebrity and adopting it to themselves."
Tyra Banks, Jennifer Lopez, Kim Cattrall, Alicia Silverstone, Iman, and Vanessa Williams are just some of the famous women Manuel has worked with over the years. In the first episode of his show, he helps an engaged store clerk mimic Jolie's effortless style.
"When we look at Angelina Jolie, she's such a confident, accomplished woman," he says. "We cut her hair similar to Angelina, we brought dimension back to her hair, putting in highlights and lowlights. Taught her how to do her makeup very soft and natural like Angelina. But most importantly, we took those style elements, because Angelina is so amazing at pulling this sleek sophisticated look together."
Who are some of the other most-requested celebrities? "Lindsay is just turning into this little style icon at 20-year-old. I mean, it's killing me," Manuel says. "Again, Lindsay Lohan has gone all over the place with her hair color. She's really fearless in playing with fashion, and fashion is really supposed to be fun. So, if we found the right person. Let's say they were really drab and had a wardrobe that didn't have much variety in it, what I would do is teach them and go to the stores."
Manuel hopes the show will inspire women to step out of the box when it comes to their style choices.
"I think it's really important for every woman out there to learn how to go out and shop for themselves on a day-to-day basis," he says. "To realize that, for instance, with clothing a lot of them don't have hanger appeal, it's about saying 'OK, this might not look great on the hanger … I know that works on my body, let me just try it.' A lot of women just kind of skim by things on the racks thinking, 'Oh, that's just not me.' That's what I'm here to do, to just help people get it for themselves."
Manuel realizes that a celebrity's budget may be considerably bigger than that of the average woman.
"Often (celebrities) get things loaned to them or are given things," he admits. "One of the things we do in every episode, we pull clothing from stores that are within their price range so that they can go back to those stores and find those same style elements and silhouettes for themselves on a day to day."
Even with all the fun he's been having glamming-up women on "Style Her Famous" Manuel can't wait to get back to the ultimate style competition that is "America's Next Top Model," where he coaches the aspiring models through their photo shoots.
"Personally, this season is my favorite," Manuel says of the seventh cycle which begins on The CW tonight at 8 p.m. ET. "And I'm not just saying that because it's coming up! We had the youngest cast ever, the most beautiful cast of girls ever, and the most drama that we've ever had."
By Amy Bonawitz