Diane Keaton’s Singular Fashion: Audacious, Gutsy and Impartial

She was the last word cool woman who outlined menswear-influenced fashion within the Nineteen Seventies, and nearly a half-century later Diane Keaton remained the last word cool lady each onscreen and off, making fashion statements in movies and on purple carpets that have been equal components unusual, enjoyable and age-appropriate, and which all the time felt wholly genuine to her persona.

Keaton, who handed away on October 11 on the age of 79, was already a star earlier than 1977’s Annie Corridor, with roles that included 1972’s The Godfather and its 1974 sequel, in addition to Woody Allen movies like 1972’s Play It Once more, Sam (after starring in Allen’s Broadway play by the identical title) and 1973’s Sleeper. But it surely was Annie Corridor that vaulted Keaton into twin stratospheres of performing and magnificence, profitable a finest actress Oscar for the titular position of the free-spirited lady keen on tossing off a phrase like “la-di-da,” although it’s straightforward to make the case that her vogue in that movie made a bigger contribution to her legacy. The androgynous Annie Corridor look, a layering of menswear-inspired items that felt suave but unplanned, not solely turned an important vogue pattern of the late Nineteen Seventies, it additionally continues to be referenced in collections to today.

Keaton’s contributions to her look in Annie Corridor prompted a battle with the movie’s costume designer, Ruth Morley, who initially envisioned a personality who wasn’t so totally shaped from a mode perspective. Having written each the character and the movie based mostly on Keaton and his relationship together with her within the late Nineteen Sixties by means of early ’70s, Allen intervened and requested Morley to let Keaton management her personal onscreen fashion throughout filming; the ensuing wardrobe blended items from classic shops and Keaton’s personal closet, in addition to separates contributed by Ralph Lauren.

In the summertime following the movie’s launch in April 1977, The New York Instances highlighted the pattern — “the Annie Corridor look is now popping up on the streets with wonderful frequency,” it proclaimed — and included an interview with Morley. “The look was designed for a lady who didn’t fairly know who she was,” mentioned Morley, who died in 1991. “The woman is little confused however not a hippy; she’s uncommon, she’s looking for herself … [b]ut regardless that she didn’t but know who she was, she had originality and he or she was artistic.”

That final quote additionally would possibly apply to Keaton general, with one exception: she knew precisely who she was, and all through her life she usually made that assertion by way of what she wore. The actress-director-producer’s signature fashion resulted in a 2024 e book, Diane Keaton: Style First (Rizzoli, $55), by which Keaton credit her mom as her fashion inspiration. Her mother and father’ names? Jack and Dorothy Corridor. “She was dolled up it doesn’t matter what,” Keaton wrote of her mom. “And I used to be following proper behind her, loving each minute of it.”

Lauren penned the e book’s foreword, noting that Keaton attended his vogue reveals lengthy earlier than she turned well-known. “I’m usually credited with dressing Diane in her Oscar-winning position as Annie Corridor. Not so,” he wrote. “Annie’s fashion was Diane’s fashion. Very eclectic. She cherished floppy hats and outsized males’s jackets. She cherished dangly neckties and layers of sweaters and vests and cowboy boots. Across the similar time, I despatched fashions down the runway dressed like that. We shared a sensibility, however she had a mode that was all her personal.” 

Quickly after Keaton’s dying was introduced, Lauren posted an announcement to his model’s social media: “Diane all the time marched to the beat of her personal drum — in the best way she lived, the best way she noticed the world, and the best way she made all of us really feel,” he mentioned. “She was genuine, distinctive and filled with coronary heart. She was all the time herself—certainly one of a form.”

It wasn’t troublesome to see Keaton’s private fashion in her onscreen appears. The main points are all there, from menswear inspirations revealed by means of tailor-made trousers and jackets, the latter usually cinched with a large belt, to an appreciation for equipment, hats specifically. She added that self-identity to her character’s company look in 1987’s Child Increase and to the polished, tailor-made items she wore in 1990’s The Godfather Half III (although admittedly Milena Canonero’s costumes struck many movie and vogue critics as being considerably anachronistic, feeling extra present than the movie’s time interval of late Nineteen Seventies/early Eighties).

Extra just lately, Keaton’s roles additionally turned an inspiration for ladies who desired to really feel fashionable and assured after they have been not of their 20s and 30s, particularly as vogue traditionally has eschewed older demographics in favor of youth. Tailoring was key to her character in movies like 1996’s The First Wives Membership, whereas in 2003’s One thing’s Gotta Give, a white turtleneck — one other offscreen favourite piece — not solely helped outline her character, it additionally turned a plot level, with Jack Nicholson slicing the sweater off her as a little bit of comedic foreplay of their climactic love scene. In 2014’s 5 Flights Up, Keaton is each cute and trendy because the spouse of Morgan Freeman on this story of an older couple who should navigate choices and the following section of their life whereas promoting their walk-up residence in Brooklyn. By way of a simple mix of sweaters, tailor-made jackets, scarves and a kicky beret, Keaton’s look might need turn into fashion objectives for ladies a long time her junior.

Keaton expressed her private fashion most totally on purple carpets, and he or she was unafraid to have enjoyable with it — certainly, “quirky” was an adjective fashion pundits employed to explain a few of her occasion appears. When a jacket was paired with a skirt, both slim and pencil-shaped or bursting in ballerina tulle, it was all the time belted and worn with assertion sneakers. Bowler hats and berets have been important equipment, and he or she usually wore gloves, a element additionally included within the wedding ceremony scene of 1991’s Father of the Bride. Ralph Lauren remained a favourite designer, together with a Charlie Chaplin-inspired swimsuit he created for her to put on on the 2004 Academy Awards, when she was nominated for finest actress for One thing’s Gotta Give, and a velvet tuxedo Keaton wore to the 2014 Golden Globe Awards, when she accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award for Allen, who famously has averted awards ceremonies all through his profession.

When Keaton received the most effective actress Oscar for Annie Corridor on the 1978 Academy Awards, she wore a glance by Giorgio Armani. Immediately Armani is taken into account a mainstay of awards-show fashion, however his search for Keaton, a tan double-breasted jacket layered over a striped ankle-length skirt, was the primary time the legendary Italian designer had dressed a star for the purple carpet. In 2020, Armani famous in an interview with Grazia that Keaton “had a very completely different concept of what the picture of stardom needs to be — she wished to be a relatable individual first, a star second,” he mentioned. “You may see how Diane makes a tailor-made jacket — in a mode usually related to a person’s swimsuit — look totally fashionable and particular person.” In a 2021 Instagram put up, the home of Armani additionally famous that the designer, who died in September 2025, contributed to the costumes Keaton wore in Father of the Bride.

Whereas Lauren remained a favourite, lately Keaton additionally exhibited a desire for Thom Browne, whose slim and forward-thinking menswear aesthetic likewise appeared tailored for the actress. Final September she selected a striped Thom Browne swimsuit for the announcement of an eyewear collaboration she was doing with Connecticut-based Look Optic — as a result of Keaton’s glasses, like her waist-cinching belts, tailor-made jackets and bowler hats, additionally have been integral to her signature fashion.

Some could wonder if the injection of Keaton’s private style into her character’s costumes ever might need felt inauthentic, when truly the alternative is true, for one key cause: She primarily performed girls who both exuded energy all through their tales or, within the case of movies like Child Increase or One thing’s Gotta Give or The First Wives Membership, they discovered their energy and confidence over the course of that journey. They may not have mentioned “la-di-da,” however every discovered her interior Annie Corridor by the point the credit rolled, and in doing so turned inspirations, in each fashion and sensibilities, for ladies of all ages.