Liza Koshy Hasn’t Purchased Anything New In Over Two Years

Before she was sitting in glam for hours and strutting out on the red carpet in next season’s finest, actor and TV personality, Liza Koshy, used fashion to get into character. Pre-internet fame, pre-red-carpet regularity, she was assigning appearances to her various YouTube roles, forming their personalities with pieces from her personal closet. One of her male characters routinely donned a red bowtie and button-down. “He was a real dapper guy that was dressed up for no reason,” she reflects, massaging his characteristics into place. “It helps me step into a different skin of the person I want to play,” she explains. “And the same goes for the acting that I do now.” For her recent role in Netflix’s Players, in theaters today, it was a quirky rotation of quotidien, work-appropriate separates to adapt to the story of Ashley, the classically eccentric colleague.

At times, she takes the costume assignment literally in her personal life, as well. To interview Barack Obama—” don't mind me with the name-drop”— in 2018, she wore pumps that said vote on them and a now-stained Zara cape-blazer that will forever hang in her closet. But strip away the characters, peel back the glam, and who is Liza Koshy herself? “I'm currently wearing MeUndies,” she tells me later via phone. “I think these are my ex's pajama pants, and I'm wearing a Sabrina Carpenter merch from her tour.” The high-profile star enjoys a world of little pressure where a worn-in graphic tee suffices. She collects easy vintage leather jackets, Dr. Martens, and baseball hats, most of which she buys used.

“I've kept that promise to myself for almost two-and-a-half years to never buy anything new.” Or at least new clothing, she corrects herself, specifically referring to the Balenciaga boots purchased “while drunk in Vegas.” (Accessories don’t count in this pledge.) A favorite checkered mini dress, worn for this shoot, came from a $10 bucket at a thrift store. She buys Celine from The RealReal and vintage from Crossroads.

In fact, Koshy could effectively fashion a thrift store out of her own closet—nothing gets tossed. “My mom trained me to never let anything go–grudges, everything,” she laughs. “I've raided her closet several times as trends come and go, and I totally understand the value in keeping shit for my babies so my spawn can inherit it.” Both a prom and a homecoming dress have retained residence in the wardrobe—the latter she swears she’ll wear again. The former, she drew on her Indian heritage to select a dress from a Western brand she swears is sari-inspired—think: embroidery and a one-shoulder silhouette. The tikka, an accessory worn along the part of your hair, she added for flair. (She calls Indian weddings the “red carpets” of her childhood.)

Today, she’s dialed up the intensity, swapping mall brands for Louis Vuitton and Fendi, but, of course, the person behind the characters remains the same. Her own style? “That perfect balance between feminine and masculine,” which she attributes to her status as “Gen Z cusp. There's no binary in your clothing; it is just clothing for a human. It's neither menswear nor womenswear. It's their wear.”