Winona Ryder Breaks Down 15 Looks, From Beetlejuice to Stranger Things

I'm Winona Ryder, and this is my Life In Looks.

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This picture was taken at one

of my very early auditions.

I didn't get the part.

Partially, I think because of my look,

a lot of people mistook me for a boy.

I felt like to be an entrepreneur,

or if I did have the look,

it would've been not really me.

So I was kind of oddly perfectly happy being

more of a character, an actor.

But I remember taking a trip to LA

and back then, you had to sort of, if you didn't have

any credit, you had to come up with like a monologue to do.

And I sort of put this,

the Salinger novella, Franny from Frannie and Zoe.

I adapted into a long monologue, sort of obsessed

with the Glass Family to this day.

Ah, Beetlejuice, I credit Tim

and this movie with really helping sort of launch my career.

I completely identified with it.

They didn't have to do much to me

to make me look the way that I did.

I recently found a picture of me and my brother

and my friend from a few months before I auditioned.

And I looked very much the same as Lydia.

I was super pale

and I had dyed my hair, L'Oreal blue, black.

I mean, there were such great lines.

My whole life was a dark room, one big dark room.

Obviously the wardrobe was incredible.

I hadn't seen that in any type

of studio movie.

I just really remember feeling surprised

and just so excited and grateful

to be treated as a collaborator, you know?

And it meant a lot to me.

Okay, Veronica Sawyer.

Heathers is another one of my favorites.

I think it's a masterpiece.

I absolutely was just in love with the script, in love

with the character, the language.

I mean, I was just, you don't have to pay me.

I just need to say these lines.

Each Heather is a different color,

and they're actually very different girls,

but they're part of this clique.

We decided on blue for Veronica.

Blue to me, it's almost bruised, you know?

And I felt like she was going through a lot of emotional,

like bruising.

You know, be it from JD or the girls or her own conscience.

It made the most sense, and I identified with that color.

I've been also huge Joni Mitchell fan.

The term in the sort of, oh, I've got the blues.

Like, I was sort of, there was a lot

of different little things that I had in my head

that I just kept for myself that had to do with blue.

Oh, Veronica.

It was returning from Edward Scissorhands.

Out of frame is Tim Burton,

and this was back when the paparazzi could wait

literally at the gate.

It was always so embarrassing

because you'd have this long walk

and everyone would be looking like, who are you,

photo, you know.

I still have this Stegosaurus briefcase,

or it's like a mini suitcase, and I still use it.

I do think it does capture the mood you're in

when you're like greeted by paparazzi.

It also reminds me of that time,

which was a really nice time.

Yes.

This was taken at the premier of The Commitments.

Last minute, got it.

You know, invited, just literally wearing

my old Doc Martens,

my precious Tom Wades t-shirt that I wear all the time.

Leather jacket, which I think it was my mom's.

I wonder if I still have it.

I probably do.

My dad was right out of frame.

This was the brilliant Eiko Ishioka

who did these incredible costumes.

It was my first experience in corsets,

which was intense.

Really, really helped

in terms of like building the character

and how you carry yourself, how women were sort of forced

to carry themselves with these clothes.

The great Andre Leon Talley was there.

We had, you know, these little breaks

because back then we filmed with film

and when it would run out, they'd have to reload.

And so you'd have about 20 minutes,

and Andre was so wonderful and patient,

but he'd steal us away.

It was a really fun day.

I really loved him.

This was sort of the time

where everyone was wearing those little slip dresses.

I was suddenly considered attractive.

I wasn't playing, like, the weirdo.

Something shifted

and I was suddenly sort of like a leading lady,

you know, which I kind of didn't see coming.

But back then, you know, you're so focused on the work

that you are not really thinking about your persona.

I do remember this being like, oh my-

It was like, on the cover of Vogue.

If you had told me that a few years prior, I would've like

never, ever believed it.

It was definitely a switch, a switch for me.

The Age of Innocence.

Another favorite of mine, obviously to work

with Scorsese.

Any actor's dream

to work with Daniel Day-Lewis.

I mean, it doesn't get better than that.

There's this scene where I sort of come in

and I'm taking my hat off and I embrace him.

Marty had me switch the hat pin.

So I literally looks like I could stab him.

And there's this great line.

Richard E. Grant says it where he says

that my character has eyes with a lot of lashes.

And I just always thought that was such a incredible line.

The costumes were very important

and very detailed.

This was at the Academy Awards,

was the first time I was nominated.

I do remember sitting there, I was actually quite scared

to win because I always felt like there was like,

there would be a backlash and I was young.

And yeah, it was like kinda a little bit

of a stressful night.

But I also was very nervous about sitting

and not breaking the beads.

It was just very,

I was just trying to take care of the beads.

And then, ah, Susanna from Girl, Interrupted.

My gosh, I still have this shirt.

This movie meant a lot to me.

It was a very complex role

and it was a true story

and I very much wanted

to do it justice to Susanna Kaysen,

who I play the wardrobe was very, very crucial, you know,

because of, it was at the end of the 60s.

It was a weird time

because people just, were not talking about anything to do

with mental illness.

I wanted to sort of start some sort

of dialogue about making people feel a little bit less like,

it's just them and that, you know, they're crazy.

This is a beautiful vintage Pauline Trier dress.

I've worn it a few times 'cause it's so beautiful.

I wore it once without the cape.

It's just a stunning dress.

This is Mark Jacobs.

This was the time I went to the Met Gala

and I went with Mark.

You can be in this beautiful velvet dress.

It was a really nice night, yeah.

Okay, Joyce Byers.

So the look was inspired

by the movie Silkwood and Meryl Streep.

There's a scene where I'm wearing like the [indistinct]

same type of leather jacket that she wears.

It's always very important to me with all of the work

that I do, that I'm dressing in a way that

of what my character can afford.

On Stranger Things,

I do a lot of repeats over the last five seasons.

I'm still wearing a lot of the same stuff

because I mean, she's working two jobs.

I grew up in a home that, you know, we didn't,

was hand me downs and stuff like that.

I very much wanted to incorporate that into it.

Okay, This is one of my favorite things I've worn.

It's Dior.

Gorgeous piece.

It's sort of a blazer over a dress,

but you can't really.

It's almost incorporated into the dress

and it has these sort of almost, I don't know how to,

they look like feathers, but they're material.

It was just absolutely beautiful.

I felt beautiful.

It was comfortable.

Got to wear my boots underneath.

I love that.

I wanted to keep her essence,

but she has a kid now and obviously her life has changed.

Colleen Atwood, who's just so brilliant,

I mean a true genius.

One of the best costume artists I've ever known,

and I've known her since Edward Scissorhands.

And she, little women for me,

and she, I mean, we've just worked together

so many times, but she really, really helped me

to keep Lydia,

but also bring her more into where she is in the movie,

which is struggling a bit.

All right.

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And that is my Life In Looks.

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