It might surprise you to learn that there are actually *two* versions of Leighton Meester. There’s the one that everyone sees on-screen and attending fancy events, who wears designer dresses and pioneers new trends. Then there’s the actual version: just your average woman who admits to loving yoga pants, questionable aughts trends, and struggles to clean out her closet just as much as the next person.
Luckily, we had a chance to get to know the real Leighton over at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, where we talked about all of the above as well as her new show, Making History (more on that here). The star even revealed she has her own version of the KonMari method, and not only is it genius, the way she describes it is pretty hilarious, too.
How she’d describe her style:
“If I’m dressing up for an occasion or an event, I’ll use a stylist, and I’ll try to experiment and step outside of my comfort zone. My comfort zone truly does lie somewhere between yoga pants and jeans, occasionally a comfy dress that can go from day to night. I very rarely dress up more than that, and it’s mostly because I feel more comfortable. I live in L.A.—I feel like dressing up to the nines is not appropriate most places you go. Like, there will be some people who are dressed up a lot, but most of the time, you can get away with jeans. I feel the most comfortable like that, so that’s what I do.”
On early ’00s trends making a comeback:
“I have no idea if it’s coming back, and I doubt that it is, but do you remember that really shiny printed material, with flowers or whatever? I was really into that. Every second or third item of my clothing had some element of that going on. Spaghetti strap, blue-and-white, shiny daisy-print tank top. I don’t want it to come back, but it would make me feel nostalgic if it did.”
Her rule when cleaning out her closet:
“I recently have been hearing a lot about ‘hold an item, look at it, think if it brings you joy or not,’ right? Isn’t this a kind of tip people are circulating? KonMari. I actually think the best way, for me at least, is to have somebody helping you who is a little bit detached. Like a friend who is a little more cutthroat than you, and they hold the item up so you don’t have to touch it. I feel like if you touch something, you kind of go, ‘Oh, but it’s so soft, and I remember when I bought it, and I can hold it up, and maybe I can try it on,’ and it looks good. I actually think it’s better for you not to touch and not to remember how to be attached. I feel like they kind of do that in stores. They’re like, ‘Here, try it on, hold it, hang on to it,’ and you get attached to it. So I try not to do that. I try to have someone help me. You think, ‘I’ll be that girl! I’ll wear this to a wedding in Maine in the spring someday!’ And it’s like, no, you’re not. You won’t.”
On embracing a more natural makeup look:
“I used to wear makeup pretty much daily when I wasn’t working, and then, of course, when I work I wear makeup. And when I would look at my skin, I just felt like I needed to give myself a little break and get to know my face without makeup. There’s kind of a painful in-between period, and then suddenly, your skin can breathe. I feel like I just look like myself now, and I like myself without makeup. I think it’s sort of a cycle for me, where I can wear less makeup or no makeup, because I don’t wear makeup to begin with.”
