She is the official poster girl du jour for androgyny and works the look like no one else. In an industry that is saturated with conventionally attractive women, Tilda Swinton has broken all the rules. She has never conformed to any of the Hollywood stereotypes and is as radical as they come in the world of fashion. Yellow velvet at the Oscars anyone? Tilda has defined her career by playing experimental film roles and bending the gender rules. Most famously in Sally Potter’s adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, her character’s gender in the film changes from male to female and back again over a 400 year period. Effortlessly true to her aesthetic, she is artsy and sometimes bizarre, but never pretentious- shunning the need to flaunt her distinctive style. Lauded by the fashion elite (Vanity Fair placed her in the top ten of the best dressed women in the world) she is evidently also commercially viable, recently becoming the muse for big wigs Viktor and Rolf who designed an entire collection inspired by her. With an outstanding performance in new film We Need to Talk About Kevin, we’re going to be seeing even more of Tilda this year.
