SALON

Thursday, Sep 6, 2012 5:00 PM UTC

Model Wiedemann opens her ‘best-dressed’ closet

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Model Wiedemann opens her 'best-dressed' closetThis Aug. 15, 2012 photo shows model Elettra Wiedemann laying out fashions from her closet at her apartment in New York. Wiedemann, daughter of Isabella Rossellini, landed on this year's Vanity Fair's International Best-Dressed dressed list. She's now keeping company with the Duchess of Cambridge, Diane Kruger and Jay-Z. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)(Credit: AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Model Elettra Wiedemann, daughter of style icon Isabella Rossellini, was surprised when she landed on Vanity Fair’s International Best-Dressed list this year.

She’s now keeping company with the Duchess of Cambridge, Diane Kruger and Jay-Z.

“I was shocked I was on the list. I have no idea how I got on it, but now the pressure is on!” she says.

Wiedemann makes some thoughtful wardrobe choices, and, yes, she has some close industry friends, but she’s pretty practical and spends a lot of time in workout and weekend clothes.

She opened up her closet to The Associated Press, sharing her secrets as a thrifty shopper, ideas about what might come after modeling and how she justifies her collection of pricey Repetto ballet flats. All the while, she’s casual and relaxed in bare feet, jean shorts and a red tank top.

“I’m not an impulse shopper,” says Wiedemann. “I will wait three days after I see something. Am I still thinking about (it)? Then I’ll get it.”

Those $200-plus Repettos? She wears them almost every day. “I’m not a Carrie Bradshaw.”

She indulges in good sneakers because she’s training for her third triathlon. Anyway, the kicks match the athletic gear she’s wearing most days. As a model, she explains, she’s largely paid to stay in shape and eat well. (She did complete a Master’s program in biomedicine from the London School of Economics, with a dissertation focusing of vertical farming and the future of agriculture.)

She took up Ironman-inspired exercise to try something new.

“I was so sick of training for ‘my job’ and doing ballet leg lifts — which are so boring,” she says. “If I’m going to be working out two hours a day, I may as well have a goal … and I’m pretty competitive by nature. A triathlon is a new fun thing.”

Not that she’s down on fashion. On this day, she’s headed to a launch party for Prabal Gurung’s new collection for ICB, and she’ll be in the front row at the shows of her friends at New York Fashion Week, which began Thursday.

Among her other recent wardrobe additions are knit Urban Zen pants and a canvas Lands End tote bag. When she does shop, she’s mostly looking for clothes that have multiple uses. “I want something to wear for lunch with my grandparents or for a night out with my husband.”

Her other favorites: luxurious silk Equipment-brand button-down shirtdresses in every color of the rainbow that, she says, are a traveler’s best friend, and a neon pink dress that she picked up at a vintage shop. A Rick Owens leather jacket is one of her most prized possessions. “I’m sad in the summer when I can’t wear it.”

She lives in a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan’s West Village with her husband, James Marshall. Given the small space, Wiedemann says she and Marshall don’t quite split it equally.

“My side is a little bigger, but I also have the sheets on my side,” she says with a smile, opening the doors to custom-made built-in storage units that fill about one-third of her room.

It’s all neatly arranged, and that’s part of her strategy.

“I think it’s part of my Swedish genes,” says 29-year-old Wiedemann, a granddaughter of the late Ingrid Bergman. “I like things clean, and I have a biannual clean-out of my apartment. I throw out raggedy things and things I never wear, and there’s a Goodwill around the corner for anything worthwhile.”

She adds, “I used to be more sentimental about ‘things’ but as I’ve gotten older that matters less.”

She’s also grown wiser about her sense of style, Wiedemann says, embracing the occasional “Wow!” piece and pop of color, but otherwise embracing chic dark sweaters, timeless denim and workhorse black trousers.

What you don’t see are a lot of evening gowns even though her calendar is booked with many black-tie events and celebrity parties. For those, she borrows from industry friends.

Where would she keep her own gowns? Wiedemann wonders aloud.

Back in May, wearing a red satin Sophie Theallet gown, she hosted a live stream of the red carpet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala — known in fashion circles as “the party of the year” — for Vogue and found herself interviewing A-list stars.

“When Vogue asked me to do it, I said, ‘Oh, yeah, sure. No problem.’ I’m glad I didn’t think about it because then I’m not sure I would have said yes, but I had gone to the Met ball as a guest before, and it’s one of the best nights,” she says.

It’s not like she’s hunting for a TV reality show, but, Wiedemann says, she wouldn’t rule out more hosting gigs. Hmmm, she muses: A change in careers would allow her to enjoy those calorie-laden daiquiris her husband seems to enjoy on their beach vacations.

The plan wasn’t necessarily for her to be a model. Yet, she says, she’s been financially independent thanks to her work in front of the camera since the age of 19.

And, as long as magazines, fashion houses and big beauty brands are willing to pay her, they won’t hear any complaints about what she’s asked to wear. “I don’t speak up if I’m working. As a model, no one pays me for my opinion,” she says. “I want to wear whatever will make a great photo, whether I like it or not. But if the shoes are too small, I will complain!”

More Samantha Critchell.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Journalists file suit against Manning's trial secrecy: Plaintiffs including Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange demand press, public access to trial and documents
140 points141 points | comment
vote
Report: Nearly a quarter of Americans struggle to afford food
121 points122 points | 12 comments
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
115 points116 points | 84 comments
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
105 points106 points | 29 comments
vote
Ted Cruz against the world - How the Junior Senator is igniting the GOP civil war
73 points74 points | 19 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations