Celebrity stylist Petra Flannery on bringing Bella Baxter into Emma Stone's wardrobe
With the Oscars now behind us, the busiest season for celebrity stylists is coming to an end, and for Petra Flannery, it was a particularly significant one. The Hollywood heavyweight looks after names including Reese Witherspoon, Claire Danes, Cindy Crawford and, of course, Emma Stone, who just had a particularly excellent award-season run that ended with her winning an Oscar in a peplum-hemmed Louis Vuitton gown.
“It is so amazing to work with Emma,” she tells me. “She is so talented and creative. When it comes to dressing, she is definitely involved in the process and she’s very spirited when we’re talking about fashion. Once we make decisions, she trusts me to follow through with the fine details. I really feel very lucky to have this relationship with her.”
With Stone picking up wins for her role as Bella Baxter in Poor Things, the duo decided – as so many actresses are doing right now – to employ a little method dressing on the red carpet. Letting Bella Baxter’s girly and eccentric style inspire her wardrobe, Stone wore a number of custom Louis Vuitton pieces with huge puffy sleeves, dramatic peplum hems and candy colours, while she also played around with suiting and embellishment.
“The approach was to play with colour, a lot of colour,” she says. “We wanted to incorporate a nod to Bella Baxter so we focussed on this, as well as bold shapes, exquisite fabrics and a touch of sheer.”
Stone also wore plenty of breathtaking jewellery on the red carpet, including a white gold, sapphire and diamond choker necklace for the Oscars, striking teardrop earrings for the Golden Globes and chunky studs to the Poor Things premiere.
“The right jewellery is so important because it really helps take the look to another level,” she explains. “The clothes should fit perfectly and the jewellery should complement the style. The embellishment of jewellery really creates personality – you can make a minimalist look artful by adding a necklace or freshen up a suit with a big hoop.”
Flannery is somewhat of an expert in jewellery, and has just created a collection – alongside her sister, Meehan – for Californian-based lab-grown diamond label, Vrai, and Stone has already worn it on the red carpet.
“We were inspired by the 1970s and that ease of dressing. We love diamonds, as well as statement gold pieces – and so we wanted to take the diamonds of Vrai and showcase their exquisite shapes by setting them in these gold dome designs. Hopefully, the result is a collection that has a nod to vintage but still feels fresh and modern.”
Although this was their first time designing jewellery, the process was not so different to her day job, Flannery says.
“It was similar to working on clothes in the sense that it’s all about details and how it feels and plays off the body. We knew we wanted statement pieces and doing that, we had to make sure the pieces felt light to touch but were still impactful.”
The collection features architectural gold styles with eight different geometric diamonds. There are chunky rings, hoops, earrings and a choker, which are designed for a elevated feel, whether you're heading onto the red carpet or to a cocktail party.
The Vrai x Petra & Meehan Flannery collection is available to shop here.
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