“When I work on a film, I pay attention to the way my characters dress, because it’s a big part of the creation process,” says 28-year-old Astrid Bergès-Frisbey. The Franco-Spanish model and actress, whose first English language role was the mermaid Syrena in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, often imagines a thread weaving through her assigned ensembles. For her turn as Sofi in this summer’s molecular-biology thriller I Origins alongside Michael Pitt and Brit Marling, she and director Mike Cahill focused on pink, blue, and orange set against a black silhouette. “I’m not going to tell why,” says Bergès-Frisbey, “but we wanted something recognizable and special,” though subtle enough to notice Sofi’s spirit, and not her outfit. “It’s always a delicate point . . . finding the balance.”
Bergès-Frisbey’s daily uniform is unostentatious as well: a T-shirt (her sister, and roommate, teases her about her ample collection of white tees) under a tweed jacket, jeans, flats, and a hat. She explains, “When I’m in between shoots, I need to feel [like] myself . . . and [not] think, ‘Is this right or not?’ in the morning.”
Despite her sought-after gamine style, she marvels at New York City women. “Probably the most beautiful thing about New York is [that] it’s a city with four seasons, and there’s something very playful about [that] . . . Right now, you can dream of the day that you will put on a winter hat,” she says, dubbing Paris “a city where everybody dresses kind of the same.” She avers Parisians are critical of those who are bizarrely attired—or too done-up. “[In] New York, people accept one another. How you dress doesn’t matter; it’s who you are and what you do, and [whether] you’re good at what you do.”
Being at ease is paramount even on the red carpet (“You can find haute couture that is supercomfortable,” she insists) and allows for the actress to present herself apart from the silver screen with a sense of effortless chic. “Half the time, I live under [the guise of] my characters, so if I start to create an ‘official character’ for myself, it would be exhausting,” she sighs. She remains loyal to a small group of designers, mentioning Maxime Simoëns, and Rupert Sanderson for his feminine shoes, and of course, Karl Lagerfeld, for whom she has modeled—a professional relationship she came by honestly, thanks to her mother, a Chanel employee.
“I know pretty much any branch of [the] brand and I love to be able to see the couture salon [along with] the back of the shop where my mom works,” Bergès-Frisbey says. “I’m just impressed by how Karl reinvents Chanel again and again and again, and for so long, using the same codes, but reinventing it [for] fashion now,” she continues, noting that she was photographed for The Little Black Jacket book. “I have such respect for him. He does [everything] with the same eyes and the same energy as a kid.”
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