Style Lessons to Learn from ‘Bonnie and Clyde’

Maybe history's most infamous couple, they are sure cinema's fave: Bonnie and Clyde may be controversial style icons, but icons they are. 

Directed by Arthur Penn in 1967, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway perfectly portray the looks-could-kill pair. With Bonnie’s berets changing the face of fashion since she first donned one in 1933, Dunaway’s femme fatale flair inspires designers to this day. To grasp the lasting impact you only need peak at Dior’s AW17 show and you can tell Maria Grazia Chiuri had Penn’s movie on loop. Completing looks with Bonnie-worthy berets and redefining femininity with softly tailored fabrics, it’s a collection she’d be seen dead in, no pun intended. In celebration of Faye Dunaway’s 78th birthday today, we take a look back at Bonnie and Clyde so you too can learn some serious style lessons…

cowboy hats add a spark to any look

Breaking convention from the get-go, Bonnie’s cowboy hat and knit print combo exemplify her clashing nature: put-together psycho chic.

berets keep your hair slick even with the roof down

Bonnie and Clyde’s impressive range of hats are the perfect mix of style and substance. Whist her beret completes the francophile vibes of her soft grey look, it also does double the job by keeping those sharp and glossy locks in place. Driving with the top down doesn’t always have to be a bad-hair-cliché.

match your accessories to your colour palette

There’s nothing like a colour accent and accessory match to tie a look together, and Bonnie’s elegant matches will have anyone believing she’s an innocent. Whether a silk neckscarf or cinched belt, or of course that impressive collection of hats, her accessorising is as on point as her shots.

suits and cigars don’t have to stay in the gentleman’s club

The real deal was penned by the press as “a cigar smoking gun moll” after an image – not unlike the still above – of Bonnie Parker was printed. Cigar in one hand and gun in another, her nonchalant lean and unforgiving stare became how she was known: unafraid to reject expectations of femininity and live out her adventure.

tap into the pink power

A sharp tongue doesn’t have to mean a matching lip. Break expectations like Bonnie by keeping make up bombshell-worthy with warm pinks and fluttering lashes: true femme fatale fashion.

words
Kitty Robson
images
'Bonnie and Clyde' via Warner Bros