Yara Shahidi on finding her feet with fashion and embracing to her true self

How do you decide which brands you want to work with?

“It’s quite straightforward actually because it always comes from an authentic space of ‘What do I gravitate towards?’, ‘What do I genuinely wear?’ – I always make sure I have an experience with the brand personally before I do anything publicly. When it came to Max Mara, it is twofold because not only do I love the clothes (they just create the best classics) but I also really align with the brand in what they stand for in how much they support the arts. It creates a very natural bridge – once you realise that you share the same values, a partnership becomes very easy.”

How involved do you tend to be with the styling process?

“I am very involved – and I think Jason and I really have our rhythm. On the one hand, he knows me so well. I am never worried about walking into a fitting because I know that he will already have taken into consideration everything that is important to me. On the macro sense, he knows my design aesthetic, but he knows every micro detail too– that I am going to want to be able to move around, how high my shoes should be, that I like pockets. He knows all that simple stuff that you learn from spending so much time with someone.

“And then, when we’re doing something custom, it’s a fun meeting of the minds. We love a great historical reference or to pay homage to something – we always have something in our heads that’s inspiring what we’re creating, but there’s lots of back and forth because we never want it to be too on the nose. Sometimes it will just be an element from a certain picture that we want to capture, even if it’s just someone’s attitude.

“The other thing is that we really want to have fun – I am only 24 years old and I have lots of time to be serious or super sophisticated so we definitely want to take advantage of that – why not be loud, playful and experimental right now?”

What kind of fashion makes you feel your most confident?

“I really do like to play around – I find myself in all black a lot of the time because all black is extremely chic, but when I pop something bright on, I do actually feel that lighter energy so now I do often like to have at least a little pop of colour somewhere in my looks. And then there are other things that I am really drawn to like androgynous silhouettes, which I turn to a lot. There is just something really fun about that, wearing something that is typically considered to be a masculine silhouette. That’s why tonight’s look really speaks my language. And away from the red carpet, that is what a wear – a lot of trousers and white button-downs. For my Ted Talk, for example, I had to turn to what would make me feel so comfortable, and it was very obvious that I wanted to stick to that sort of vibe.”

How has your style evolved over the years?

“It’s hard to nail down anything that has really changed, but obviously over time I have figured out what I am comfortable in. There are just certain things about my own personal comfort – from what body parts I will show off or what shoes I will wear to how tight I want clothes to be – that have developed as I’ve got older. I feel like I’ve got more room to play now, I have more of an idea of what I am comfortable in and what my fashion boundaries are.”

What has been your most memorable fashion moment in recent years and why?

“Fashion really is tied to milestones and life moments – and so that’s what always sticks out. In the last year, I’d say the Met really was a big one – we had been stalking this top for months, it was almost a year in the making working with the Jean Paul Gaultier team so that was really special. And then my Ted Talk was huge for me like I said, and working with Max Mara on their Women In Film event – that was such an honour.”

Whose style have you always admired and why?

“I always point to Solange – she just has this authenticity. She never lets the dress wear her and she changes the entire energy of the space with how she shows up. I always love that – people who are fun and playful on the red carpet.”

What is your ideal getting-ready set-up?

“A non-negotiable is a decent playlist, but whenever I start to get ready, I feel like I have never made a good playlist in my life. I’ll look through them all, have 20 to choose from and will just think that none of them truly capture the moment, so I will always end up making one right before a big event. And then, it’s honestly just about the people, having nice people around you. It should feel easy – it is such a privilege to get to do this, and it really is not that serious, so that’s the atmosphere I want when I am getting ready for a big event.”

When do you feel most beautiful?

“Whenever I have my hair and make-up done, I always joke that I need to make the most of it – where am I going? Because I cannot waste the magic that has been created. That is always special, and so much work from so many people has gone into it, but – and I know this sounds cliché – I do think I feel my most beautiful when I am the most myself. And, actually, I have really been trying to get back to me as much as possible. Of late, I have definitely been on a personal journey to make sure that I don’t need to two hours of glam and all these skincare routines to feel good about myself. I don’t need to have perfect skin to feel my own value. I just hadn’t been giving myself time to breathe and so I want to create habits and patterns where I feel great about myself when it is not contingent on that very long process.”

Fashion has a reputation for being frivolous, but why does what we wear matter?

“I understand the sentiment, but when I work with brands, I always feel like we are uniting over a shared love of art, of the fashion they create or even of the work that they do that I align with. And when I think about something like one of the recent Max Mara shows, which was based on this forgotten feminist moment in history (the land girls), it was so interesting to me because they were putting that front and centre, drawing so many people’s attention to that. There has always been a history of fashion and its connection to politics and an ability to make statements. As an industry, I think it is about trying to find the balance with that. For me and Jason, a lot of the mission with what we do has been finding partners we’re attached to, where it feels like we are united in a love of this world that we live in.”