It was a style all her own – broad-brimmed hat; eyeglasses; vest; turtleneck, or blouse worn with a tie or scarf; wide, pleated pants, and a jacket, sometimes matching and sometimes tweed.
It was labeled “Annie Hall style,” but it really should have been called “Diane Keaton style,” for it is what made her an icon from the moment she appeared on the screen in that Woody Allen film, which won her an Oscar. Designers throughout the intervening almost five decades would often copy it, but there was only one original: Keaton, who died Saturday at age 79 and who remained true to her look throughout her life, even on the red carpet. There she sometimes would don mannish suits, or else full skirted dresses worn with a wide belt.
She sometimes appeared at fashion shows, including Ralph Lauren’s return to New York Fashion Week in September 2023 and Thom Browne’s at the couture shows in Paris that same year.
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Last year she published a book about her fashion sense, “Diane Keaton: Fashion First,” which had a foreword by Ralph Lauren – a longtime friend and admirer – and observations by everyone from Sarah Jessica Parker and Miley Cyrus to Candice Bergen (another style icon of the ’70s and beyond).
In an interview about the book with WWD’s Eye editor Leigh Nordstrom, Keaton said bluntly that she simply wears what she likes. Asked how her style had evolved over the years, she replied, “I still love a turtleneck, a hat and a jacket. I think I focus more on wearing suits daily than ever before. And wait…a wide belt.”
As for who inspired her fashion-wise, Keaton said: “People on the street, to be honest. If you are asking me about designers it would be people like Ralph Lauren, Thom Browne and Celine.”
But her taste went beyond fashion, and she also last year linked up with the California-based interiors brand Hudson Grace to design a line of tabletop and bedding products for the home – all in her signature black and white. The collection included a total of 109 pieces across kitchenware, entertaining essentials, bedding, decor and pet accessories ranging, in price from $18 to $595. Two years earlier she collaborated on a 50-plus design fabric line with Fabricut Inc. brand S. Harris and in 2019 she partnered with luxury furniture maker Aidan Gray on a lighting collection.
