As well as the professional recognition she started receiving from the early days of her career as an actress and a singer, Jennifer was soon also being lauded for her movie-star good looks.
Her fresh-faced appeal and natural curves made her popular with fans, as well as the notoriously hard-to-please fashion world, and lucrative modelling contracts and style accolades began to come her way.
British magazine Glamour crowned Jennifer the best-dressed woman in the world in its ‘50 Best Dressed Women 2014’ list. The magazine said that she effortlessly made a Dior gown look as comfortable as sweatpants, and that she somehow pulled off looking equally great in both.
But she has never let the praise go to her head and Jennifer always manages to remain modest about her looks, claiming none of it comes naturally. At one awards show she joked: ‘Oh, it takes about four and a half hours and hundreds of dollars and professionals. You too can look like this,’ she told Entertainment Tonight when asked for details of her red carpet preparations. ‘I have an amazing team at Dior and I have a whole pit crew that put their blood, sweat and tears into making me look like this.’
Even when she had her long hair cut into a shoulder-length bob, which sparked headlines across the world, she made a typically self-deprecating joke about how bad it looked, saying: ‘It grew to an awkward gross length, and I kept putting it back in a bun and I was like, “I don’t want to do this,” so I just cut it off,’ adding, ‘It couldn’t get any uglier.’
As a child Jennifer was never particularly girly and so, as stunning as she may appear on the red carpet these days, she found dressing up for glamorous fashion-heavy events awkward and uncomfortable when she first found herself in the public eye: ‘I hated dressing up for my first red carpets, because I never felt comfortable in these glamorous dresses,’ she told French magazine Madame Figaro.
Growing up in Kentucky, she spent her time riding horses and wrestling with her brothers Ben and Blaine, not fawning over fashion magazines and the latest looks.
‘In Louisville, when I was a child, I inherited clothes from my two older brothers that I put together with things that my mother dug out of yard sales,’ she confessed, adding, ‘I was a true tomboy.’
So when she was approached to be the face of Dior – talks began in 2011 and she was offered millions to appear in their global fashion and accessories advertising campaigns for at least the next three years – Jennifer hesitated at first: ‘At the beginning I told everyone, “I’m an actress. I’m not a model. I don’t want to do it.”’
But eventually she agreed, choosing Dior over dozens of other endorsement deals that she was being offered at the time, and she has been under contract to the French luxury house since 2012, when it was announced that she would replace actress Mila Kunis as the face of the Miss Dior handbag line. As well as the $3 million she was paid, Jennifer was also given her pick of the designer’s dresses and handbags, which she is seen wearing to almost every high-profile event she attends.
Some of those in the fashion industry were surprised by Dior’s choice, as Jennifer had not been known for being particularly on-trend until then, but chief designer Raf Simons said of his choice at the time that he had been stunned by Jennifer: ‘Her youth and her classic beauty, but also her force of character and also the feminine strength and complexity she’s capable of embodying at such a young age are for me very unique and very appealing.’
Jennifer may not have been the obvious choice at the time, but gradually she has settled into her role as a high-profile spokesmodel. ‘Now I get the haute couture thing,’ she explained later. ‘It’s a big deal. I don’t know what “haute” means, but I have to say it.
‘It is only recently that I discovered the beauty of haute couture. The first Dior collection I attended by Raf Simons blew me away.’
When the first set of campaign shots, taken by legendary fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier, were released in 2013, Jennifer looked amazing. But she was suitably modest when it emerged that the photos had been controversially retouched to enhance her figure – Dior was accused of digitally altering Jennifer’s shoulders to make them appear drastically narrower in a campaign.
But while many critics were outraged by the move, Jennifer herself was delighted, and she told Access Hollywood: ‘I love Photoshop more than anything in the world. Of course it’s Photoshop – people don’t look like that.’
Now, despite her jokes, wearing high fashion has become second nature to Jennifer, and, like many other women, she has even found herself unable to live without an oversized purse on her arm: ‘I have an enormous one, nicknamed “The Flagship”, which I lug around everywhere and everything is in there,’ she admitted. ‘My basics? Lollipops for my nephews, my wallet, my passport, my phone, and a collection of lip balms and pens. Since they always fall to the bottom, I forget and buy new ones, non-stop.’
In another campaign for Be Dior, launched in February 2015, Jennifer looked stunning in the photos by Paolo Roversi, but admitted that she is surprisingly very low maintenance for a movie star who has reluctantly become a style icon. Asked again what she keeps in her designer handbag, she told Woman’s Wear Daily: ‘Wallet, phone, keys – if I can remember them – ChapStick and a little perfume.’
The pictures also caused amusement since Jennifer could be seen relaxing on a white staircase, and the New York Post joked: ‘It’s been two years since Jennifer Lawrence’s infamous trip on the stairs at the Academy Awards in her Dior gown – and the actress is finally ready to conquer the steps once and for all in the brand’s Spring/Summer 2015 campaign.’
The official Dior website also raved about the photos, saying: ‘An architecturally pure and minimalist location was the one chosen by Italian photographer Paolo Roversi as the perfect setting for a series of portraits in which he sought to capture the natural aura of Jennifer Lawrence, the Oscar-winning Christian Dior muse.’
By this time she was being taken so seriously by the fashion elite it was announced Jennifer would co-chair the glitziest event in the style calendar: the Met Gala in May 2015. ‘Chinese Whispers’ was the theme for the annual ball: Tales of the East in Art, Film and Fashion. US Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, Chinese actress Gong Li, Wendi Murdoch (former wife of the newspaper magnate) and Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer would be joining Jennifer in the co-chairing duties for the event, which is always attended by a galaxy of A-list stars.
The previous year, Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker and Jennifer’s favourite co-star Bradley Cooper had co-chaired the annual red carpet extravaganza.
Part of Jennifer’s huge popularity has been put down to the fact that she appears to have such a normal attitude to her body, and her decision to avoid extreme diets and food fads, and to steer completely clear of plastic surgery or the latest beauty crazes has endeared her to millions.
She has a naturally toned figure, and does not appear super-skinny, like so many Hollywood actresses. While other stars subject themselves to punishing diets and gruelling workout regimes, Jennifer has spoken out many times about how she refuses to bow to pressure to lose weight for a role, and is refreshingly honest, especially by celebrity standards, when she openly admits that she actually enjoys eating junk food and drinking alcohol.
A self-confessed lover of junk food, including pizza and burgers, she once revealed how she was told she would not get an acting job unless she immediately went on a diet to lose a few pounds, to which she replied: ‘You can go fuck yourself.’
Indeed Jennifer often talks happily about her healthy appetite and love of food. In an interview alongside Liam Hemsworth she once recalled: ‘Do you remember that one time I was at your house and we ate a whole pizza and then I stopped at McDonald’s and got a double quarter pounder?
‘Then I passed out in a food coma and a ketchup packet stuck to my ass.’
She has also revealed a love of unhealthy snacks, which is a rare admission in body-conscious Hollywood: ‘Cool Ranch Doritos are my girl. I’ve been trying to wean myself off Cool Ranch Doritos and move on to Pirate’s Booty [snack food]. It’s just not doing the trick,’ she grinned.
This refreshing attitude to eating has led to Jennifer being seen as a positive role model for young girls wanting to break into show business without having to resort to drastic measures to alter their appearances. She is all too aware of the impact her words have on vulnerable young girls who aspire to be like her, so she makes sure she chooses carefully, and is always keen to advocate a healthy attitude to diet and exercise. ‘There’s that Kate Moss quote that nothing tastes as good as skinny feels,’ she said. ‘I can name a lot of things that taste better than skinny feels – potatoes, bread, Philly cheesesteak and fries.
‘We see these unobtainable perfect bodies and that’s what we are comparing ourselves to. I would rather look chubby on screen and like a person in real life.’
Although she jokes about her passion for eating and drinking whatever she likes, Jennifer has also spoken out about how furious it makes her when women are labelled fat. ‘Because why is humiliating people funny? I get it and I do it too, we all do it,’ she told Barbara Walters in a frank TV interview in December 2013. ‘But I think when it comes to the media, the media needs to take responsibility for the effect it has on our younger generation, on these girls who are watching these television shows, and picking up how to talk and how to be cool.
‘So then all of a sudden being funny is making fun of the girl that’s wearing an ugly dress – and the word fat. I just think it should be illegal to call somebody fat on TV.
‘If we’re regulating cigarettes and sex and cuss words because of the effect they have on our younger generation, why aren’t we regulating things like calling people fat?’
Jennifer has never forgotten the first time she encountered that attitude. ‘I was young,’ she told Bazaar magazine. ‘It was just the kind of stuff that actresses have to go through. Somebody told me I was fat, that I was going to get fired if I didn’t lose a certain amount of weight. Someone brought it up recently, they thought that because of the way my career had gone, it wouldn’t still hurt me. That somehow, after I won an Oscar, I’m above it all. “You really still care about that?” Yeah, I was a little girl. I was hurt. It doesn’t matter what accolades you get.’
While she herself certainly has never appeared chubby, and landed several modelling jobs as a teenager, thanks to her toned and athletic-looking figure, she admits that she has always been too curvy to be taken seriously as a catwalk model in the fashion world. ‘I always ate too much to be a model,’ she said. ‘Food is one of my favourite parts of the day.’
And unlike many of her contemporaries, Jennifer has no problem admitting that she drinks alcohol – and is often spotted sipping wine or cocktails. When asked by Marie Claire magazine how she was going to prepare for a 4am start she joked: ‘I’m going to have a bottle of red wine tonight.’
And in a later interview with Yahoo she added that strict diets to conform to stereotypes have never been on her agenda: ‘What are you going to do? Be hungry every single day to make other people happy? That’s just dumb.
‘I’m really sick of all these actresses looking like birds.’
While growing up, Jennifer experienced eating disorders and vowed to be more sensible. ‘I’m just so sick of these young girls with diets,’ she told Seventeen. ‘I remember when I was thirteen and it was cool to pretend to have an eating disorder because there were rumours that Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Richie were anorexic. I thought it was crazy. I went home and told my mom, “Nobody’s eating bread – I just had to finish everyone’s burgers!”’
For her role as Katniss in The Hunger Games, Jennifer was required to be at the peak of physical fitness to have the high levels of stamina required to perform difficult stunts and skills. In the run-up to filming she had to follow a series of stringent workouts to ensure she would be flexible and strong enough for the demanding role, but losing weight was not on the agenda.
A routine exercise plan was laid out to ensure she was physically and mentally fit enough, so she hired an expert personal trailer to keep her routine on track. Dr Joe Horrigan, who specialises in chiropractic sports medicine, is always in huge demand in Hollywood, having previously worked with many other big name stars.
He set up a specific exercise plan that was moulded to fit Jennifer’s style and habits. According to Horrigan, the actress’s exercise model was composed of five parts. Her regular workout included cardio, strength training, yoga, routine and attitude training, all designed to prepare her for the running and fight scenes that were required in the script.
Dr Horrigan told Teen Vogue that strength training was a big part of the process. But rather than relying on weights alone, he encouraged Jennifer to endure a routine consisting of ‘bodyweight squats, push-ups, and sit-ups all performed in a circuit’.
He added: ‘If you can do any of these exercises for 20 minutes at high intensity, you will see results.
‘Jennifer was never late. She never missed a workout. She never complained. She did everything that was asked of her and she usually did so with a smile.’
However, Jennifer argued that she didn’t really enjoy the workouts, saying she only did them because she had to for the job: ‘I hate saying I like exercising – I want to punch people who say that in the face,’ she told US OK! magazine. ‘Sometimes I exercise – but I never want to be one of those people who says, “I just don’t feel good unless I don’t work out”! I just watch reality TV. I love The Real Housewives, Intervention and I’m obsessed with Shark Tank.
‘I am keeping up! I am always keeping up. I do exercise! You can’t work when you’re hungry, you know?’
She told Elle magazine that when preparing for the role she was conscious about looking ‘fit and strong – not thin and underfed’, especially with so many young women watching closely, and wanting to emulate her look: ‘I run, I do yoga and stuff like that but it’s not what I do every day. If I don’t have anything to do all day I might not even put my pants [trousers] on.’
Even though Jennifer has joked that by Hollywood standards she is an ‘obese’ actress who can find nothing to motivate her to work out, she is always happy to be put through her paces to prepare for upcoming films that require her to be in healthy-looking shape, and she would always rather exercise than deprive herself of her favourite foods: ‘In Hollywood I’m obese, I’m never going to starve myself for a part,’ she told Elle. ‘I keep waiting for that one role to come along that scares me enough into dieting, and it just can’t happen. I’m invincible.
‘I don’t want little girls to be like, “Oh, I want to look like Katniss, so I’m going to skip dinner.” That’s something I was really conscious of during training, when you’re trying to get your body to look exactly right. I was trying to get my body to look fit and strong – not thin and underfed. I’ll be the only actress who doesn’t have anorexia rumours.’
Jennifer is always concerned that her fans will copy her, and has given words of advice when asked how to follow in her footsteps: ‘Be strong. Don’t be a follower, and always do the right thing,’ she said in an interview with Parade magazine. ‘If you have a choice between the right thing and the wrong thing, the right way is always the less stressful.’
Nevertheless, plus-size model Ashley Graham, who has appeared in Vogue and Elle, lambasted Hollywood’s treatment of women’s bodies in an essay for Net-a-Porter’s online magazine, The Edit, suggesting it was ridiculous that someone as slim as Jennifer Lawrence should be considered curvy. The model, who is a UK size 14, wrote: ‘I think that you can be healthy at any size and my goal is to help and educate women on that. It doesn’t matter if you’re a size two or 22 as long as you’re taking care of your body, working out, and telling yourself, “I love you” instead of taking in the negativity of beauty standards.’
Though she acknowledged that Hollywood starlets like Marilyn Monroe and Jennifer Lopez have worn their curves with confidence over the years, Graham went on to say that she believes girls need to see more women on TV and in magazines with healthy figures: ‘Young girls don’t have much to look at, curvy women are not on covers of magazines, they’re not talked about on social media as much as other celebrities. Jennifer Lawrence is the media’s poster girl for curves – she’s tiny!’
Many commentators have made a point of highlighting the massive difference between Jennifer – who loves meat, sugar and alcohol – and Chris Martin’s ex, Gwyneth Paltrow, who is known for following a strict macrobiotic and gluten-free diet. And so it caused quite a storm when Jennifer was somewhat dismissive of precisely those food intolerances in an interview with Vanity Fair. ‘The gluten-free diet is the new, cool eating disorder, the “basically I just don’t eat carbs,”’ she said.
And the gluten-free community was none too thrilled by Jennifer’s comments either: ‘Being gluten-free is not an eating disorder,’ Cynthia Kupper, executive director for the Gluten Intolerance Group and a registered dietician, told FOX411. ‘When I think of an eating disorder, I think anorexia, bulimia or strange eating patterns. Jennifer’s comments make me angry.’
In the photo shoot that accompanied the Vanity Fair interview and which took place at a private mansion in the Hollywood Hills, Jennifer proved she has no hang-ups about her body as she revealed almost every inch of it when she posed covered by nothing but a snake. She fearlessly stripped naked for the revealing photos by Patrick Demarchelier and apparently did not flinch at the idea of being draped in a giant – and strategically placed – Colombian red-tailed boa constrictor, somehow managing to remain relaxed throughout.
In the sexy images, Jennifer can be seen lying on her stomach, her feet pointing in the air and her back arched, while being covered by a boa constrictor that is draped across her neck.
As always, she looked flawless and had an air of old-school Hollywood glamour, with curled hair and a smouldering look. It was considered to be her most provocative shoot to date, especially coming so soon after she had complained about nude photos of herself being seen by millions in the hacking scandal.
‘Jennifer has the perfect combination of strength, sexuality, and humor, and, above all, tomboy to pull this off,’ explained shoot stylist Jessica Diehl.
Apparently the actress only expressed discomfort when the snake began to coil more closely to her, after which it was returned to a perforated storage container. Luckily, she is not afraid of snakes. When asked about her greatest fear she replied: ‘Spiders, I’m very afraid of spiders – and ghosts. I wouldn’t say I’m as afraid of ghosts as I am paranoid of ghosts.’
The shot is in homage to the iconic 1981 portrait of Nastassja Kinski, taken by photographer Richard Avedon for Vogue magazine. Entitled ‘Nastassja Kinski and the Serpent’, the shot captured the naked actress adopting a similar pose as the serpent, an enormous Burmese python, worked its way across her back. Avedon’s image was later marketed as a poster and sold across the world. The original eventually sold at auction for $74,500 in 2014.
Jennifer’s raunchy shoot was part of Vanity Fair’s annual Hollywood issue, which also featured a number of British Oscar nominees such as David Oyelowo, Felicity Jones, Benedict Cumberbatch and Best Actor winner Eddie Redmayne.
As well as having a coveted figure, Jennifer has also become much admired for her beautiful face and flawless complexion. Her skincare facialist Sonya Dakar has told how she is very strict with the actress, but Jennifer loves her for it. In the run-up to high-profile events, Sonya devises a six-week beauty boot camp for Jennifer, to ensure her skin is red carpet ready.
She issues the actress with skin-perfecting beauty tips to ensure a mega-watt glow, and says: ‘If you follow these tips there’s no way on the planet you are not going to look years younger, sexier, healthier, and more beautiful.’
Unlike many other stars, Jennifer has not yet dared inject her face with Botox or fillers. Sonya explains why she herself has banned them: ‘My philosophy and my concept means there is no way clients can go get injectables and then ask me to make it more natural.
‘So I put my foot down and say, “You cannot do anything like this.” I don’t care who the client is. I don’t care if it’s Queen Elizabeth. At that point, it is ten steps forward and nine backwards. Absolutely not! It has to be me alone with my work and my technology.’
Working with Jennifer, Sonya says she has seen first-hand the link between diet, exercise and healthy skin – ‘I tell clients, drink water and watch your diet. Be super gluten-free for the week of the Oscars, stay away from bulky food, and please exercise.’
Several weeks before Jennifer is due to appear at an event, Sonya works on ridding her skin of any problems, and one of her favourite treatments is the Diamond Peel: ‘It is sixteen different diamond-tipped wands focusing on texture. What it does is resurface, remove lines, and acne on face, neck and chest. I also do arms because a lot of my celebrities wear beautiful gowns.’
Jennifer also has regular facials, using a variety of techniques to transform her skin, including radio frequency, LED lights and even stem cells. ‘The stem cells come from a rare Swiss apple and offer specific benefit – getting rid of all the pores, anti-aging and making skin flawless,’ added Sonya.
She also warns the actress not to have any extreme treatments before the main event, which could cause raw, red skin. Jennifer usually has her last treatment forty-eight hours before walking down the red carpet: ‘Two days before, I do the red light LED, some oxygen and a light peel,’ Sonya said. ‘I will not take a risk, not even a tiny risk. It has to be gorgeous when you walk out. You’ll be camera-ready from the second you leave here.’
Serums and oils add an extra glow to the actress’s skin: ‘The liquid gold omega serum is the magic secret weapon. Before make-up, they just use two drops and tap it into skin.
‘The secret is to do your homework. My clients have seven to eight products they have to use every single night – masks, flash facials, moisturisers,’ she explained. ‘You cannot change your face for the better, unless you take care of it every day.’
While she is clearly at the peak of her style and beauty, Jennifer admitted in an interview with Us Weekly that she was still far from confident about her looks or her onscreen success. ‘I’m constantly waiting for things to fall apart,’ she said about her unexpected popularity. ‘Every time the phone rings, I’m like, “It’s over!”’ But despite her doubts, she was named the Sexiest Woman in the World 2014 by men’s magazine FHM. She was also included in lists of the best bodies by lingerie giant Victoria’s Secret, being named as the celebrity with the sexiest hair in 2014 and sexiest eyes in 2012.
Esquire magazine named her The Best Celebrity for its October 2013 issue as it celebrated its 80th anniversary. And she and football star David Beckham were named as the two most desired celebrities to have a selfie with on Valentine’s Day, according to a survey. Smartphone giant HTC asked 2,000 UK residents who they would most like to take a photo of themselves with, and the most desirable female was Jennifer, beating off competition from pop stars Rihanna and Katy Perry to take the top spot. The highest-placed Brit on the female list was Kelly Brook in sixth place.
Those surveyed were also asked to name the famous selfie they would most like to recreate, with Ellen DeGeneres’ celebrated Oscar selfie – which of course included Jennifer, alongside the likes of Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Kevin Spacey – coming out on top. Taken in February 2014, the famous photo got a record 779,295 re-tweets on Twitter in the first half hour alone, causing the social media site to temporarily crash.
That selfie, which also featured Bradley Cooper, Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep, was chosen ahead of Germany striker Lukas Podolski’s World Cup selfie of the German team all shirtless in the changing room following a match, and model Cara Delevingne’s ‘ugly’ shot in which she contorted her normally beautiful face by making goofy cross eyes and a turned-up pig nose!
Jennifer has explained that her young fans would rather take a selfie than have an autograph, and according to statistics, the selfie is a still-growing craze, with an estimated 11 million eighteen- to thirty-year-olds posting selfies in 2014, making up more than a billion in total. The average person in that age group takes 100 selfies a year, posting at least one a week to social media.
But the art of the selfie was dealt a blow in April 2015 when the organisers of the prestigious Cannes Film Festival tried to ban selfies on the red carpet, branding them ‘ridiculous and grotesque’. One organiser added: ‘Honestly, you’re never as ugly as on a selfie.’
It’s no wonder, then, that the results show that the humble autograph no longer interests celebrity spotters, with over half of those asked (55 per cent) saying they would choose having a selfie with their favourite celebrity over anything else, with only 22 per cent saying they would ask for an autograph. A third of men said they would ask their celebrity crush on a date or for a kiss if they met them, while only 11 per cent of women said the same.
On top of all this, Jennifer was so enduringly popular that she was named the most-searched-for celebrity of 2014 by Google. While many thought that reality star Kim Kardashian would top the poll, following her naked photo shoot for Paper magazine that was entitled ‘Break the Internet’, Jennifer was the surprise winner.
And every time she tries out a new style or even gets a haircut, it makes headlines. In early 2014, when she had her trademark blonde mane cut into a stylish cropped pixie bob, photos were beamed around the world, and the look was immediately copied by thousands of women.
Even Victoria’s Secret model Karlie Kloss confessed that she was jealous, and wished she could change her style as effortlessly as Jennifer. ‘I thought Jennifer Lawrence looked amazing when she cut her hair short. I’m always envious when anyone tries out a new style,’ she explained.
Scores of celebrity admirers and professional critics appear utterly devoted to the actress, admiring every fashion choice and style selection she makes. And it seems Jennifer can only get more and more popular as she matures into a sophisticated young woman, gradually becoming ever more confident as she gets used to living this extraordinary life under the glare of the spotlight.