Kate Bosworth Makes Getting Ready for Dior a Family Affair

“Do you live in L.A.?” asked Kate Bosworth, as she sat in the lobby of a waterfront Santa Monica hotel. “I love being at the beach, and I barely come here. I live here!”

It was Thursday afternoon, just hours before Dior’s Resort 2018 show and Bosworth was beginning to get dolled up for the big night. As she looked around her surroundings, she continued her train of thought.

“You know, when it’s right at your doorstep, you hardly ever use it,” she said. “As a tourist, you’re always going to the beach, if you’re coming to L.A. It’s so nice here right now, and I think the show is going to be beautiful.”

She was referring to the French house’s choice of location to stage their cruise extravaganza, that most au courant of West Coast destinations these days—Calabasas, best known around these parts as the land of the Kardashians and their lookalikes.

But Dior is not a label to do the predictable, and there was nary a Kardashian in sight.

“I thought, ‘well, they must be cooking up something pretty special,’” Bosworth said. “As Dior does.”

The 34-year- old actress had on a black, velvet corseted dress and matching choker. “And I’m going to wear a powdery blue, very Dior, ’50s, kind of Grace Kelly coat,” she said.

Bosworth, a veteran of the front row, is decisive, she shared, when it comes to her fashion choices (“I really love velvet, and I know it’s not spring appropriate, but I just love the texture of it, and it just felt right.”), and like many, in the end, it usually comes down to her mood.

“With today, I was feeling a little more understated, just because of the environment,” she said. “I always keep in mind where I am, what I’m trying to say and who I’m with. If I’m in

Paris and going to a couture show, it can literally range from wanting to feel super understated Parisian or really, really go for it, and it really depends on how I’m feeling, honestly.”

One thing that’s consistent, she likes to work with the same glam team as much as possible, she said. Today, it’s with hairstylist Bridget Brager and makeup artist Mario Dedivanovic. For makeup, she wanted to “keep it fresh,” she said, and when it came to hair, she was looking for something slightly romantic and relaxed.

“Not too much of a do, and I have a feeling we’re going to be in a large field or something, so I didn’t want to feel too done up—just a little disheveled—in case we’re battling the elements, it’ll look like I’m prepared,” she added with a laugh.

“I’ve worked with them for a long time,” she said of Brager and Dedivanovic. “It’s just a very effortless, shorthand dialogue when it comes to discussing a look. They know my face, what works and doesn’t work, and they’re just very kind people.”

Bosworth invited her 19-year- old stepdaughter, Jasper (a fan of Dedivanovic, known for his work with Kim Kardashian), to join her and her husband, filmmaker Michael Polish, to the show.

“She’s such a fan of Mario,” said Bosworth. “She couldn’t believe that he was doing my makeup. I don’t think she quite knows what’s in store for her yet, but she’s so excited. It’s a first for her.”

That newfound excitement has rubbed off on her too, shared Bosworth.

“I’m excited myself, because I get to bring Jasper, and it’s her first experience, so it’s special,” she said. “It really is special to get to watch her and see how she feels about everything.”

“It’s always an experience right, whenever you’re with Dior,” she continued. “It feels like something much larger than a show. Like a spectacle, its own world. They obviously spend a lot of time and thought and energy into creating the visual for the collection, and it feels quite cinematic actually when you’re involved and able to participate and observe it personally.”

What advice would she give her younger self in those early years of attending fashion shows?

“I was a lot more nervous,” Bosworth said. “I think just with experience, you gain knowledge and less angst, hopefully. But it’s been the case for me. You just realize that everyone feels the same way. Now, I take in more, because I’m not feeling so self-conscious. When you’re younger, there’s a slight insecurity that inhabits you regardless of your environment. And now, I feel I look more outward at what is being put on, you know, now I’ll really take in the Dior show. The cliché living in the moment, for sure.”

Bosworth recently wrapped a film, Nona, with Polish. The two tied the knot in Montana, after he directed her in Big Sur, and have been working on projects together since.

“It’s a movie we financed ourselves, produced, he wrote and directed,” she said. “It centers around a young girl, who has been sold into sex trafficking. Human trafficking is the number one black market in the world, and it’s truly devastating, and we wanted to bring awareness, and the way we know how to do that is to create art, and it was 100 percent of every part of ourselves in this project. We’re in post production now.”

They’re also currently producing two TV shows, one of which is Crackle’s newly announced pilot series The Row.

“It’s sci-fi meets a prison show,” she said. “It’s unique and original, but also a throwback to _The Right Stuf_f, The Silence of the Lambs, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, if you can imagine the insanity of that triangle, but I promise you it works, there’s a balance to it.”

Becoming more involved behind the lens is what she loves, she said: “He’s teaching me to shoot now, and I’m loving that. I’m really loving producing. I know him so well that it’s a natural fit to step in as his producing partner. He’s so creative and visual that my hope is that he just focuses on the vision for what we’re working on, and I can take over a lot of the other producing responsibilities.”

What has it been like both living and working so closely together?

“Sometimes you have tough days, sometimes you have great days, but you have to be able to roll with the punches together, so I never take anything personally,” she said. “I think that’s one of the keys to making everything work. I understand the emotional kind of roller coaster that is starting with a concept and making it through a delivery. It’s truly like a birth. And alternately, he’s here for me for something like today. He’s just as supportive, and we really pass the baton quite equally back and forth.”

Today, Polish was acting as photographer, a role he plays often, shooting her getting ready for the show.

“He’s constantly shooting, and having Jasper here is really special, so we were happy just to have photos, regardless,” she said. “But he did say, ‘Oh it’s a little more pressure now for W.’ Someone who you know and love can get more intimate moments than most people, you know? It’s a total joy.”

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