Anya Taylor-Joy Looked Like a Porcelain Doll in Dior

Move over M3GAN, there’s a new doll in town, and she looks more lifelike than any of those that came before. Now, more than ever, Taylor-Joy seems to be embracing her unique features that can easily tend toward the hauntingly Victorian by dressing up like one of those storied women immortalized in a patinaed photograph or elegant painting. On Thursday night, the actress stepped out in a look fit for a very chic haunting to attend British Harpers Bazaar’s Women of the Year event.

Taylor-Joy was honored with the Actress of the Year award, and she accepted the title in a look from Dior’s spring 2023 ready to wear collection featuring a caged hoop skirt covered in off-white lace fabric, kept together by a ribbon wrapped around her waist. A matching bra top and string encircling her torso modernized the look slightly, but the necklace (also Dior), seemed to fit right into the vintage aesthetic. Maria Grazia Chiuri (who was honored as Designer of the Year) was actually inspired by Italian-noblewoman-turned-Queen-of-France Catherine de’ Medici when creating this collection, meaning it would be more fitting to reference the European Renaissance and Enlightenment when discussing this look, as the Victorian era came about 250 years after Medici’s death.

But enough with the history lesson. Taylor-Joy looks like a beautiful porcelain doll in the ensemble. You know, one of the ones your grandmother would bring back from Europe and present to you, but then insist was too fragile to play with, so it would just sit on a high shelf looking down on you in all its perfection. The ponytails definitely help to create this aesthetic, though they are fairly modern considering their pin-straight nature, and hair-wrapped elastics. Always the actress, Taylor-Joy seemed to really get into character in this look, and at one point was just photographed starring at herself in a mirror, a shot that could undoubtedly inspire a horror film in and of itself.

Later in the evening, Taylor-Joy popped on a more casual version of the ensemble, in order to better enjoy London’s nightlife. Keeping on the bra top, the actress swapped out the hoop cage skirt for a pair of lace shorts. She covered up in a textured, off-white blazer, took out her ponytails, and was instantly ready for a night on the town (or maybe, a night of haunting the current inhabitants of her former Piccadilly mansion).