Hathaway’s breakout role as Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries (2001), which is still one of her most memorable today, launched her career and opened the doors to events and red carpet appearances. At its California premiere, she donned a Y2K-meets-royal look, consisting of a simple mauve strapless dress with a belt detail, shoes and a boxy clutch in a similar tone, and a chic diamond necklace and earrings to accentuate her elegant chignon.

After portraying another iconic role as Andrea Sachs, a graduate who gets a glamorous makeover after landing a job at a fashion magazine “a million girls would kill for” in The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Hathaway continued to bring the same It-girl energy in her event looks—but with a more refined touch. She wore a mid-aughts combination of sheer prom dress with rocker chic chokers and a fringe hairdo to the Olympus Fashion Week in 2006, better known today as the New York Fashion Week.

At the 2011 Academy Awards, Hathaway embraced a classic silhouette in a romantic red Valentino gown, complete with a floral train that contrasted beautifully with the strapless bodice. This marks the early days of her relationship with the maison, who she would turn to for designing her wedding gown the next year.

Following a string of major movies that solidified Hathaway’s position as a A-lister in Hollywood, including Les Misérables (2012), The Dark Knight Rises (2012) and Interstellar (2014), she started to wear increasingly bold looks that still has a touch of her signature elegance. For the 2015 Met Gala, for which the theme was China: Through the Looking Glass, she wore a striking Ralph Lauren gold gown. Hathaway nailed the hooded gown look years before it emerged as a trend in 2022—now she is setting trends instead of following them.

After delivering the commercial success Ocean’s 8 in 2018, Hathaway attended the Annual Hollywood Film Awards that same year in a white, relaxed Valentino number with voluminous sleeves and skirt. But the pleating at the waist added structure to the dress, giving it a chic, stylish twist.

As Hathaway continued her relationship with Valentino, she started to have more fun with colours and silhouettes, and rocked this powerful and feminine head-to-toe sparkly pink look at the maison’s Haute Couture autumn-winter 2023 show in Rome. Miranda Priestly would have approved.

In 2023, Hathaway wore this vivid Versace number that supermodel Claudia Schiffer wore down the runway during the showcase for the maison’s spring-summer 2024 collection. In this look, we see the amalgamation of the elements that make Hathaway’s style so sophisticated: a timeless silhouette that emphasises her height, bold colours and metallic shine that brighten her features and a funky pattern that shows she’s not lost her sense of fun with fashion.

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