Amid red carpets with more action than the films they’re celebrating, and paparazzi images that blur the line between the runway and street style, it’s refreshing to see someone with good old-fashioned style. Who gracefully wears the same jeans and T-shirts over and over, who knows how to wrap a sweatshirt around their waist with ease. Who can make a tank top look like a considered choice.
Someone like Katie Holmes.
Holmes, who became America’s disaffected sweetheart in the teen melodrama “Dawson’s Creek,” is certainly not the first name that comes to mind when thinking about the great fashion icons of our time — the Rihannas, Zendayas and Sarah Jessica Parkers. She has not been to the Met Gala since 2019, and she attends only a handful of fashion shows each season. You will not see her in the most outrageous runway stunts — a kooky hat or a corset, though she does have a nose ring — and she rarely wears obvious logos, though her look has too much sex appeal to fall into the quiet luxury category that has put countless women in beige cashmere sweaters and oversize greige trousers. Nor does she dress like a fashion influencer, appearing to be perennially going and coming from the gym or a private jet in expensive workout gear.
Her clothes can look unremarkable, yet she is, in her way, an influencer. And now Holmes, 45, is officially cementing her imprint on fashion: She is releasing a line of clothing with A.P.C., the French brand beloved for its exacting wardrobe staples.
A.P.C., which Jean Touitou founded in 1987 and runs with his wife, Judith, has since 2019 done two dozen collaborations — what the Touitous call “interactions” — with Jane Birkin and Catherine Deneuve, as well as Goop, Kid Cudi and Carhartt. (The Touitous sold a majority share of the company to private equity firm L Catterton last year, but Judith remains in her role as artistic director and Jean as founder.) The couple had long admired Holmes’s style, spotting a number of the brand’s pieces in the actress’s paparazzi ensembles, and when discussing future collaborators, “I suggested, ‘Why not ask Katie Holmes?’” Judith Touitou said in a recent joint Zoom interview with the actress. “Because her style is so amazing, and maybe she would say yes because she’s a customer.”
Holmes, wearing boxy eyeglasses and a striped top from the forthcoming collection, said she has spent hours with friends in A.P.C. dressing rooms, “solving life’s problems.” A costume designer on a long-ago film introduced her to the line. “It’s so stylish, but it’s not trying to catch a trend,” she said. “And I feel like in daily life, it’s very wearable, and it’s very in tune with what women want, and men want.”
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The collection, which goes on sale Thursday, is a tightly edited wardrobe of pieces, pragmatic and slightly romantic, such as a T-shirt with a slightly elongated cuff sleeve that recalls a 1970s gym shirt; a kicky, throw-it-on double-breasted suit; slinky knits; and a ladylike bag and shoes.
Mostly, the pieces are reinterpretations of items from A.P.C.’s extensive archive, with touches of biography: Holmes drew on the soft but unsentimental colors of Agnès Varda films. The shirt she wore during our Zoom was a tribute to a piece from 1977’s “One Sings, the Other Doesn’t.”
There’s also a charm necklace that copies her own favorite jewelry, and a blanket based on one made by Holmes’s mother. “My mom has made me many quilts, all of my siblings and [her] grandkids. And there’s a difference when you’re sleeping under your mother’s work.”
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Why does Touitou find Holmes’s style so transfixing? “It feels super natural,” she said. “When I see a picture of her, even in a fancy gown, she always looks like herself. She never seems to be a character — no one else but herself. It’s always a tiny bit, I wouldn’t say odd — in French we would say ‘telegraphed.’”
Touitou compares Holmes’s look to Sofia Coppola’s: “Girls that have their own style, but it’s not so far [removed] from the rest of the world.” They make what all of us wear — jeans, T-shirts, a blazer — look like something truly special.
Holmes’s nonchalant, low-key way of throwing together basics — silky slips with sneakers, sundresses with charm necklaces, slightly wacky jeans with a tank top — consistently draws the attention of the internet, shoppers and fashion designers. (She and stylist Jeanne Yang briefly had a clothing line, Holmes & Yang, that sold at outposts including Barneys New York.)
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When, in 2019, she was photographed hailing a cab in New York with a sumptuous cardigan falling off her shoulders to reveal a matching bralette, the look went viral for its sultry coziness. The pieces, by Khaite, quickly sold out, putting the now-red-hot label on the map.
Vogue called her “fall’s ultimate fashion it girl.” The magazine’s website regularly chronicles the star’s outfits, stories that the site’s editor, Chloe Malle, said perform extremely well. “There are a lot of celebrities that the Vogue audience is very enthusiastic about, but Katie Holmes is the ne plus ultra Vogue audience crowd-pleaser,” Malle said. “She’s not fashion’s favorite dresser, but everything she wears sells out within an hour.”
Holmes has maintained an extraordinarily sequestered profile since her 2012 divorce from Tom Cruise — flying under the radar for the past decade, teaching women how to dress in a cosmopolitan American way. “People were very protective of her when the Tom Cruise debacle went down, and really rooted for her,” Malle added. “She’s become the iconic downtown New York City single mother.”
Holmes said her style has been shaped by her efforts to live as an everyday New Yorker as much as by her career. “I think living in New York definitely influences the way that I dress. I’m inspired by the people that I see on the street, and I want to fit in with people on the street, and I want to fit in with other New York women and be cool and appropriate and not necessarily stick out, but look, you know, good.” She laughed. “Or, just, have some sort of sense of what’s going on in the world.”
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“It’s not really about the clothes,” Touitou said. “The way you choose your proportions, Katie, I always find super-interesting. You’re not trying to have very skinny clothes. There’s always a sense of style.”
“Room for imagination!” Holmes laughed.
Touitou and Holmes say the line is a celebration of the beauty of style over fashion. Stylist Brie Welch, who works with Holmes for red carpet events, also lends her eye to her personal wardrobe. But Holmes’s lack of fussiness — of pretentiousness, and even the occasional moment of scruffiness — is probably what draws women to her.
Perhaps Holmes, a woman whose personal life has been made highly public in the past, helps women find themselves in the comforting allure of a sweater or a good pair of jeans.
“I think you can see that the way she wears her clothes makes her happy,” Touitou said. “It might sound stupid, but I think a lot of girls don’t dress to make themselves happy. And it takes a lot of, I think, wisdom and time to be sure of yourself, and to have that self-confidence.”
