Next-Gen Dressing

ACTOR ROWAN BLANCHARD PROVES SHE’S BECOMING A WOMAN TO WATCH IN REFRESHING TAKES ON CLASSIC SHAPES

- Stephanie Trong

The muffled blare of car horns barely registers through a thick floor-to-ceiling window. Barefoot and sitting in an oversized armchair is 16-year-old Rowan Blanchard, looking like a doll or maybe even a character out of a Sofia Coppola movie in a blue velour slip with ribbon straps. Blanchard’s mum, Elizabeth, her companion on this trip, has retired to the next room. Visiting New York from LA, her hometown, to promote her new book (Still Here) and recent movie (A Wrinkle in Time) in addition to attending various Fashion Week events, Blanchard enthusiastically recounts the previous night’s excitement at a New York University party. It was a notable occasion, not only because she did her own make-up and for the very first time liked the results, but, more crucially, because the college girls approved.

“I went to my friend’s dorm room beforehand, and they were like”—she feigns an air of aloofness—“‘Your make-up looks really good.’ And I was like”—equally aloof—“‘Yeah, thanks.’ But in my head I was going”—she fans herself—“‘Argggh! Thank you!’” She lets out a big, goofy laugh and crashes back into the cushions.

Blanchard, who has been acting since the age of five and starred in Disney’s