Elle Fanning: Campaign Outfits of the Week

As mentioned at the start of the week, Elle Fanning is on a roll. And it hasn’t just been this week – but this week was big, with Predator: Badlands topping the box office and Sentimental Value doing really well in limited release as an Oscar contender. Joachim Trier’s film has been in the Oscar race since Cannes and the four actors in the movie all have a good chance at nominations. 

Right now, Elle is actually in the top five on most expert prediction lists for a Best Supporting Actress nomination. But rewind to 2024 and you’ll see that she’s had a great run this entire year. Because twelve months ago, she was part of the A Complete Unknown award season campaign. Timothée Chalamet and Monica Barbaro (deservedly, and Sarah made the earliest call on this one) ended up being singled out – but looking back, you might say that Elle was laying track and preparing for 2025. 

Of course, part of that work is also fashion. With all these premieres and appearances, and campaigning for a possible nomination at the same time, there, of course, have to have been conversations about her wardrobe over the last several weeks and months to come. Up until this year, Elle’s style vibe, at least to me, has been Disney princess. When I picture her on a red carpet, it’s usually in a ballgown. This is what she wore to her first Oscars back in March. 

It’s a great choice for a night you want to remember. I wonder, though, how she’ll approach this coming Oscars (even if she herself isn’t nominated, Sentimental Value will contend in multiple categories and she’d be invited as a representative of the film) because it feels like she’s moved away from the Disney princess vibe this year and this may just be a natural progression as she’s matured. But it may also be strategic, to be seen as an artist who has evolved from kid actor into a proper Oscar contender. 

Here she is at the LACMA gala a couple of weeks ago channelling Old Hollywood, a time when the actresses never looked girly, the image was always grown woman. 

And here’s Elle earlier this week at the Chanel party in honour of Sofia Coppola – I LOVE her in this shimmery two piece (from Mathieu Blazy’s first collection), it’s slinky and elegant but with a hint of flapper femme fatale. 

Finally, Elle in a cream coat and pants, with a gorgeous blue shirt underneath, another look that plays with the past, this time it’s giving Bugsy Seigel, 1940s Hollywood, men’s suits with sharp upturned lapels. 

It’s such a fun style direction for her, at this inflection point in her career, dipping into new style lanes through Hollywood era, just as she expands her own professional range. Elle Fanning in a Predator movie? It makes a lot more sense now than when it was first announced – and it turns out, she had it mapped out all along.