DIANE KEATON

The actress's style was as charming as it was disarming

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The phrase “style icon” gets bandied around more than it merits, but the actress Diane Keaton truly deserved the descriptor.

She was 31 when she appeared in Woody Allen’s 1977 film Annie Hall, the breakout role that won her an Academy Award and saw her menswear-coded trouser suits, waistcoats, turtlenecks, wide-brimmed hats and clompy shoes not merely influence a generation of women but shift the dial for generations to come.

Ralph Lauren, who supplied a blazer and a tie for Diane in Annie Hall, regarded her personal style as being so perfectly formed that it couldn't be improved upon.

She always dressed like herself, with a dedication that seems all the more refreshing now, in an era of cookie-cutter fashion. That her style barely changed throughout her career is a rarity, particularly in image-obsessed Hollywood.

Her signature style was as charming as it was disarming, flying in the face of convention but not in a pointedly defiant way. Raised by a fashion-loving photographer mother who took her thrift shopping and encouraged her to express her creativity, it was simply who she was.

DRESSING FOR HERSELF