Christina Hendricks is a woman of many talents. But until now, fashion designer wasn’t one of them.
The flame-haired actor, producer and style icon has received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Critics’ Choice Awards and six Emmy nominations (for her ground-breaking role as Joanie, in Mad Men) for her work on stage and screen. This week, she takes on a new role. In a collaboration with the B Corp-certified British fashion brand Joanie Clothing, Hendricks is launching a capsule collection, Christina Hendricks x Joanie, featuring 12 glamorous modern tea dresses, inspired by Hendricks’ iconic personal style and the glamour of Old Hollywood.
Inspired By Nature
Some pieces feature voluptuous floral prints such as water lily and honeysuckle. The concept for each ties into heady floral notes–i.e., bergamot, neroli, flowering jasmine–popular in fragrance, and the sensuality these essences evoke. Hendricks took a lifelong love of nature and applied it to the design of the soulful Joanie collection. “I grew up with a father who worked for the forest service,” Hendricks says. “Both my parents knew all the names of the wildflowers where we would camp throughout my childhood and they taught me. My mother made pressed flower art and bookmarks as gifts. I used to want to own a flower shop. Flowers have always represented something wild and romantic and happy to me. And the fact that these gorgeous little gifts from the earth also smell like heaven itself? Pure magic.”
Opulent chinoiserie prints, sensuous shapes and a 1920s speakeasy vibe thread through the fitted silhouettes, all created from softly draped recycled and responsibly sourced fabrics that can take the wearer anywhere, from a work day to an evening gala.
Long drawn to vintage looks, when working on the collection, shape and silhouette were top of mind for Hendricks. “I’m always about ‘fit,’” she says. “I had to learn that through my job. I used to just buy something because it was beautiful on the hanger but I started to realize that very few modern pieces were made for my type of figure. The vintage pieces I would find were more about flattering the form and about details of buttons, pleats, tucks; taking the extra time to make something unique and special.”
Sustainability and Sultry Style
An arbiter of taste early on, Hendricks had a strong sense of style at a young age. Born blonde in Knoxville, Tennessee, the actor has been coloring her hair red—now her iconic look—since she was nine years old. An avid reader, she became obsessed with the novel Anne of Green Gables. “I decided I was Anne of Green Gables. There was something that spoke to me about her, and I wanted to have her beautiful red hair. So my mother said, ‘Let’s just go to the drugstore and get one of those cover-the-gray rinses!’ My hair was very blond at the time, but it went carrot red. And I was over the moon. I went to school the next day and felt like myself. And then I went back to that color over and over again.” And still does.
Joanie founder Lucy Gledhill chose to work with Hendricks not only because she is “extraordinarily showstopping beautiful,” says Gledhill. “Christina’s personal style and taste levels are exquisite, she doesn’t save stuff for best, she uses the best for everyday. She is an avid vintage clothing collector, she is switched on to current affairs and environmental issues and worked with us to learn more, and changed her expectations accordingly–and that’s rare in this business.”
And the timing was right. As Hendricks tells it, around the time Gledhill approached her about the Christina Hendricks x Joanie collection, she had just seen a documentary on fast fashion and the damage it is doing to the planet. “I was already concerned with this, growing up with an environmentalist father, but to see the images in the way that I did really shook it into reality. Working on this project has taught me so much about sustainability and the ways we can get the same look on a garment but with elements that protect our earth.”
Hendricks quotes designer Vivienne Westwood who said, “Buy less. Choose well. Make it last. Quality, not quantity.” “As I learn more and more about the destruction fast fashion has caused, and have moved towards wearing used consignment pieces or choosing very specific new pieces myself, I am proud of what Joanie values in their company and production,” she says.
The Future of Ethical Fashion
Gledhill believes the future of ethical fashion is bright, and “it’s great to see more clothing companies thinking more responsibly, and embracing sustainable practices, but there is a lot more that could be done,” she says.
She chose to pursue B Corp-certification because “it aligns perfectly with our principles as a business, offering a tangible and transparent framework of standards that will help us continue to grow and improve further. B Corp shows your team, shareholders, customers, and, ultimately, the world exactly what you stand for.” In this case, responsibly sourced fabrics, a more sustainable supply chain, a commitment to reducing waste and reducing the environmental impact, while still creating beautiful designs.
“It’s about not doing things the way you’ve always done them but rather making a conscious choice to do better for the planet and society as a whole,” she says.
Meanwhile, Christina Hendricks can currently be seen in Good American Family on Hulu and the Buccaneers Season 2 on Apple. And she’s ready for her next role. In three weeks, she says, she’s heading to Ireland “to do a beautiful film.” Stay tuned.