How Diane Keaton Invented Her Particular Design: Audacious, Gutsy and Independent

She was the supreme cool lady who specified menswear-influenced design in the 1970s, and practically a half-century later on Diane Keaton stayed the supreme cool female both onscreen and off, making design declarations in movies and on red carpets that were equivalent parts unusual, enjoyable and age-appropriate, and which constantly felt completely genuine to her character.

Keaton, who died on October 11 at the age of 79, was currently a star before 1977’s Annie Hall, with functions that consisted of 1972’s The Godfather and its 1974 follow up, in addition to Woody Allen movies like 1972’s Play It Once Again, Sam (after starring in Allen’s Broadway play by the very same name) and 1973’s Sleeper However it was Annie Hall that rose Keaton into double stratospheres of acting and design, winning a finest starlet Oscar for the titular function of the free-spirited female keen on tossing off an expression like “la-di-da,” though it’s simple to make the case that her style because movie made a bigger contribution to her tradition. The androgynous Annie Hall look, a layering of menswear-inspired pieces that felt artistic yet unexpected, not just ended up being a vital style pattern of the late 1970s, it likewise continues to be referenced in collections to this day.

Keaton’s contributions to her appearance in Annie Hall triggered a dispute with the movie’s outfit designer, Ruth Morley, who at first pictured a character who wasn’t so completely formed from a design point of view. Having actually composed both the character and the movie based upon Keaton and his relationship with her in the late 1960s through early ’70s, Allen stepped in and asked Morley to let Keaton manage her own onscreen design throughout shooting; the resulting closet mixed pieces from classic shops and Keaton’s own closet, in addition to separates contributed by Ralph Lauren.

In the summer season following the movie’s release in April 1977, The New York City Times highlighted the pattern– “the Annie Hall appearance is now turning up on the streets with fantastic frequency,” it announced– and consisted of an interview with Morley. “The appearance was created for a lady who didn’t rather understand who she was,” stated Morley, who passed away in 1991. “The lady is little baffled however not a hippy; she’s uncommon, she’s searching for herself … [b] ut despite the fact that she didn’t yet understand who she was, she had creativity and she was imaginative.”

That last quote likewise may use to Keaton in general, with one exception: she understood precisely who she was, and throughout her life she frequently made that declaration through what she used. The actress-director-producer’s signature design led to a 2024 book, Diane Keaton: Style First (Rizzoli, $55), in which Keaton credits her mom as her design motivation. Her moms and dads’ names? Jack and Dorothy Hall. “She was dolled up no matter what,” Keaton composed of her mom. “And I was following right behind her, caring every minute of it.”

Lauren penned the book’s foreword, keeping in mind that Keaton attended his style reveals long before she ended up being popular. “I am frequently credited with dressing Diane in her Oscar-winning function as Annie Hall Not so,” he composed. “Annie’s design was Diane’s design. Really diverse. She liked floppy hats and extra-large guys’s coats. She liked dangly neckties and layers of sweatshirts and vests and cowboy boots. Around the very same time, I sent out designs down the runway dressed like that. We shared a perceptiveness, however she had a design that was all her own.”.

Right after Keaton’s death was revealed, Lauren published a declaration to his brand name’s social networks: “Diane constantly marched to the beat of her own drum– in the method she lived, the method she saw the world, and the method she made everybody feel,” he stated. “She was genuine, distinct and filled with heart. She was constantly herself– one of a kind.”

It wasn’t challenging to see Keaton’s individual design in her onscreen appearances. The information are all there, from menswear motivations exposed through customized pants and coats, the latter frequently cinched with a large belt, to a gratitude for devices, hats in specific. She included that self-identity to her character’s business appearance in 1987’s Infant Boom and to the polished, customized pieces she used in 1990’s The Godfather Part III (though undoubtedly Milena Canonero’s outfits struck lots of movie and style critics as being rather anachronistic, feeling more present than the movie’s period of late 1970s/early 1980s).

More just recently, Keaton’s functions likewise ended up being a motivation for females who preferred to feel elegant and positive when they were no longer in their 20s and 30s, particularly as style traditionally has actually avoided older demographics in favor of youth. Customizing was crucial to her character in movies like 1996’s The Very First Partners Club, while in 2003’s Something’s Got ta Provide, a white turtleneck– another offscreen preferred piece– not just assisted specify her character, it likewise ended up being a plot point, with Jack Nicholson cutting the sweatshirt off her as a little comical foreplay in their climactic love scene. In 2014’s 5 Flights Up, Keaton is both cute and elegant as the partner of Morgan Freeman in this story of an older couple who should browse choices and the next stage of their life while offering their walk-up apartment or condo in Brooklyn. Via an uncomplicated mix of sweatshirts, customized coats, headscarfs and a kicky beret, Keaton’s appearance may have ended up being design objectives for females years her junior.

Keaton revealed her individual design most completely on red carpets, and she was confident to have a good time with it– undoubtedly, “eccentric” was an adjective design experts used to explain a few of her occasion looks. When a coat was coupled with a skirt, either slim and pencil-shaped or rupturing in ballerina tulle, it was constantly belted and used with declaration shoes. Bowler hats and berets were vital devices, and she frequently used gloves, an information likewise consisted of in the wedding event scene of 1991’s Daddy of the Bride-to-be Ralph Lauren stayed a preferred designer, consisting of a Charlie Chaplin-inspired match he produced for her to use at the 2004 Academy Awards, when she was chosen for finest starlet for Something’s Got ta Provide, and a velour tuxedo Keaton used to the 2014 Golden World Awards, when she accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award for Allen, who notoriously has actually prevented awards events throughout his profession.

When Keaton won the very best starlet Oscar for Annie Hall at the 1978 Academy Awards, she used an appearance by Giorgio Armani. Today Armani is thought about an essential of awards-show design, however his try to find Keaton, a tan double-breasted coat layered over a striped ankle-length skirt, was the very first time the famous Italian designer had actually dressed a star for the red carpet. In 2020, Armani kept in mind in an interview with Grazia that Keaton “had an entirely various concept of what the image of fame ought to be– she wished to be a relatable individual initially, a star 2nd,” he stated. “You can see how Diane makes a customized coat– in a design typically connected with a male’s match– look completely contemporary and private.” In a 2021 Instagram post, your house of Armani likewise kept in mind that the designer, who passed away in September 2025, added to the outfits Keaton used in Daddy of the Bride-to-be

While Lauren stayed a preferred, in the last few years Keaton likewise showed a choice for Thom Browne, whose slim and forward-thinking menswear visual similarly appeared custom-made for the starlet. Last September she selected a striped Thom Browne match for the statement of a glasses partnership she was making with Connecticut-based Appearance Optic– due to the fact that Keaton’s glasses, like her waist-cinching belts, customized coats and bowler hats, likewise were important to her signature design.

Some might question whether the injection of Keaton’s individual taste into her character’s outfits ever may have felt inauthentic, when in fact the reverse holds true, for one crucial factor: She mostly played females who either radiated strength throughout their stories or, when it comes to movies like Infant Boom or Something’s Got ta Provide or The Very First Partners Club, they discovered their strength and self-confidence throughout that journey. They may not have actually stated “la-di-da,” however each discovered her inner Annie Hall by the time the credits rolled, and in doing so ended up being motivations, in both design and perceptiveness, for females of every age.