Anna Paquin for V Magazine

Posted on Jun 27, 2011 in Fashion

Darlings, you come here presumably because you’re kind of bitchy. And like fireflies in the night, bitchy people find themselves congregating with other bitchy people. So here’s something bitchy: Sookie goes retro and we think it’s the worst styling decision we’ve seen in ages.

Marc Jacobs Fall 2011

Anna Paquin in the July 7th issue of V Magazine
Photographed by Sebastian Faena
Syled by Sally Lyndley.

But first, actressalia:

On simulating sex with her husband Stephen Moyer on set: “Maybe it should be weird, simulating sex with your husband in front of people. But it’s really not. When it’s a love scene with someone you actually love it’s not ‘Can I touch him here, can I touch him there’ You know what your boundaries are, or aren’t I suppose.”

On her bisexuality: “Frankly no one had ever asked me before… There is a lot of prejudice against us but the more people talk about it, the less of a deal it will be. Who people choose to sleep with – or spend their lives with-shouldn’t matter, not that anyone particularly cares who I’m attracted to.”

On fans fawning all over her husband: “There is probably something wrong with me, but I find it amusing to watch these men and women fawn all over him. It’s not like anyone is really trying to do anything inappropriate. They just want him to hug them… or bite them.”

She seems inoffensive enough; considering she’s talking mostly about sex. We’re here to talk about the pictures:

Miu Miu Fall 2011 Collection/Model: Ginta Lapina (WOMEN)

Marc Jacobs Fall 2011 Collection/Model: Diana Dondoe

Marc Jacobs Fall 2011 Collection/Model: Hailey Clauson

Dolce & Gabbana Fall 2011 Collection/Model: Constance Jablonski

Marc Jacobs Fall 2011 Collection

We’re sorry; this just doesn’t work on any level. The clothes are great; fantastic in some cases, but everything they did north of the neck looks awful. There are any number of actresses who could rock a retro look, including the wigs, but one test shot should have made it clear that Anna’s not one of those gals. She’s much better when you do her up a little more glam, with a modern kind of runway feel to it. She’s got the kind of features that take well to really theatrical styling, but retro is definitely not in her repertoire; at least not this kind of retro.

[Photo Credit: , style.com]

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Anonymous

I 100% disagree. I’m in love with this editorial, so gorgeous.
- Anonymous
  
  I 100% agree with your disagreement! I don’t think the brunette wigs works as well as the Jean Harlowe looks…but all in all I think Sookie’s serving up some fierceness here! Sorry TLo
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37300827 Johnny Heffernan
  
  Exactly. And at the very least, it isn’t shockingly awful, as many of the comments would have you believe. For shame, fawns.
- http://profiles.google.com/sleepneeded Greg Polansky
  
  I agree. She is really spectacular in this editorial – both above and below the neck.
Anonymous

I 100% disagree. I’m in love with this editorial, so gorgeous.
Anonymous

Awful.

I usually have a little struggle to be fair – I despise that gap in her teeth and her usual open pout mouth – but in these pics you don’t even see the gap and I still hate the pics
http://twitter.com/HeckYeahHeckNo K

What?! I think she looks fantastic!
Anonymous

She looks a a little silly to me in the sexy screen siren makeup and poses. The last short almost works, but I keep thinking her head is on backwards for some reason.
- Anonymous
  
  Gorgeous clothes. No matter how hard they tried, she’s no sexy Hollywood babe and never will be. These would have looked great on Christina Hendricks, though she seems to be trying to get away from the retro typecasting lately.
- Anonymous
  
  Probably because her hair and chin are at the same level and are approximately the same distance from the center of the neck. She just doesn’t do anything positive for me.
Anonymous

I like those last two shots.
http://profiles.google.com/adj.blair Adriana Blair

Really? I think she looks good…especially in the yellow coat and green dress. Both of the B&W photo with the Marc Jacobs seem really forced though.
Anonymous

This is just all different ways of awful. I’m so sorry.
http://twitter.com/ajlobster Anna Jayne

I can’t concentrate on anything but those terrible wigs! Girl, where your lacefront at?
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1303837450 Lauren Dorsee Dillon

I love retro. But definitely not on Anna here.
Anonymous

Oh, this is sad. They made her look like a blowsy barfly from an old Twilight Zone episode. The only shot that looks sort of decent is the D&G dress. She has a really interesting look in general, but this styling plays to none of her strengths and highlights her flaws. Ugh.
MilaXX

She barely looks good with the blonde shade she normally wears, the white blonde wigs do her no favors at all. Odd thing is even the dark wig & D & G green dress don’t work. This entire shoot just falls flat.
http://twitter.com/RocknLox Khadijah James

Yikes… someone stake that creature.
lilibetp

Am I a bad person for not finding her in the least bit pretty?
- http://twitter.com/wrenaria Kimmy Hescock
  
  Ditto.
Anonymous

Oh come on, TLo. She looks good here. Perhaps there are others who could rock the look a little better, but Anna does fine. Perhaps she might look better in a more “modern” style, but what the hell does it mean to say that her head isn’t retro? Good grief. Perhaps you guys had a rough weekend?
Anonymous

All I see is the wigs. And therein lies the problem. They could have stuck me in those shots and they would have looked the same as Anna’s. Why didn’t they play up her rather quirky look and take it to a new level? It’s a fail.
Judy_J

I think she looks amazing in the green Dolce & Gabbana gown.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1214755227 Meira Niibori

I disagree. I’m not saying the photos are good, mind you, I just don’t think it’s the retro styling that’s necessarily the problem here – when I first saw the thumbnail, I thought it was January Jones, and of course more retro styles do suit her quite well. I think it’s more the cheap wigs, air of discomfort, and general awkwardness of her attempts at sex kitten posing that are “off” here.
Rebecca Johnson

She’s human on the show, right? So why is she dressed like a bloodless kabuki actor in Marilyn & Rita drag?
Anonymous

I must respectfully disagree. I really like her in this retro styling. It’s not perfect but I think the problems are more about some fit issues than any lacking on Ms. Paquins part. That yellow Mui Mui coat is swimming in her and the Marc Jacobs suit looks ill fitting as well. That green sequined gown, however, is fantastic!
http://www.facebook.com/izzzyy Dixie Murphy Ross

She’s gorgeous, but… yeah, just no. All I see here is a little girl playing dress up as Marilyn Monroe, which makes me go “what kind of mother lets a little girl DO that?”

Oh. My mother.

Sorry, Ma!
Anonymous

She looks so uncomfortable in the poses, it looks like this shoot was a real struggle.
http://twitter.com/apt9000 Tina O.

I love the profile shot, but I can leave all the others.

I’m a little in love with the Dolce & Gabanna, so much green & sparkly!
Anonymous

Unimpressed.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1464580879 Sarah Oleksyk

Oh man. I mean, it’s hard to make a beautiful woman who knows how to pose look BAD per se, but these styles are really working against her. She’s tiny and those huge bouffants are giving her lollipop-head. I do love the slinky green number, but only because that’s the one shot where her neck is visible at all. The last shot is nice as well but all the early ones make her look stiff, costumey and old.
Christine Marie

It’s striking. I mean, it’s not conventionally pretty but I’ll remember it later. I think they did a great job, even though she doesn’t look as beautiful as she could have
Anonymous

I like the last shot…she could be anyone. The clothes are great, but she is a tiny person! The clothes overwhelm her frame.
Mariah J

Agree…she just looks like Anna Paquin in a wig at a really bad Halloween party
http://www.joannao.blogspot.com JoannaOC

They took everything that is unique about her and hid it. That giant shoulder thing drowns her. The makeup makes in almost impossible for me to even tell who this is. She has a gorgeously proportioned body for someone of her height, and they hid it with the poses and the cropping. Blargh.
Joyce VG

The clothes are beautiful.
Anonymous

She fades in these clothes. She also looks like a different person in almost every photo.
Anonymous

Styling, schmyling, that miu miu coat dress is AWESOME.

I agree the retro does nothing special for her, but I don’t hate it. She looks like a lot of people in the original period probably looked – it’s the style and I’m going to do my best to wear it. Nowadays only people who can really make a retro work shine go for it whole hog, which is, I think, why she looks somewhat lacklustre.

I think the blonde wig works better than the brunette one(s). At least it’s *supposed* to looke entirely artificial.
mcarlson

All the shoes are hideous.
Glen Coleson

That green d&g dress is stunning, too bad the lipstick ruins the whole look.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1550881905 Hildegerd Haugen

Horrible.
Anne Slovin

She looks like she’s playing dress-up.
Anonymous

I love the deliberate fakeness of the hair. And affected actressy posing. I love the BRIGHT light too. And the clothes look pretty good on her. Over all win.
Anonymous

I don’t mind the brunette wig, it’s just the platinum blonde one that’s terrible. I also think the yellow coat is a monstrosity (well, its shoulders at least).
amanda crow

I love her in the Dolce and Gabbana. That picture is FAB. Otherwise I agree.
Anonymous

disagree! Disagree! DISAGREE!
Anonymous

wow, is this ever a badly done piece of fashion journalism. the clothes don’t fit or work at all. she looks SILLY, mostly.
Anonymous

Euuch. It really is a terrible look for her. The short, fingerwaved hair and severe makeup only serve to make her look even more pinched and gaunt than she already is.
http://twitter.com/margo8461 Marguerite

Yuck! Can’t get past the really bad wigs. Agree with your thoughts. I totally don’t get the decision to style her in retro Hollywood glam. It just doesn’t work. I agree that the clothes are beautiful on their own. But pairing them with the wigs and forced looking poses just makes me focus on everything that’s not working instead of their combined fabulosity.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=12500056 Joseph Lamour

Is it just me or does she look like a beautiful, beautiful drag queen in the yellow Miu Miu coat?
http://twitter.com/susanpcollier Susan Collier

Great clothes but, yeah, the hair looks like a bad wig. The effect is totally “local Marilyn impersonator”.
Jill Roberts

Head ferrets don’t flatter anyone.
Alyson Lamble

That MiuMiu coatdress is fifteen different kinds of hideous. I hate mustard yellow and anything in that color that’s not *actually* mustard should be banned from life.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=502834383 Jennifer Marie Wegmann-Gabb

She looks like she is playing dress up…it just feels disconnected. The clothes and the styling all look like they’re from two different eras…30s and 40s hair, 70s and 80s clothes.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_YUCKYO6XWXUGMNPDNGCYGKTCVA Shelby

I’m reminded of Austin Scarlett. It’s all I can think of.
Kelly Barnes

The last shot is okay, but the rest are pretty weak. Who approved the use of the full body shot in the Marc Jacobs? She looks like she’s about to fall over! Terrible.
Shawn Hill

Ditto to the Hayworth/Ava Gardner love. She looks like she’s having fun to me.
Jillian Kroos

Seriously, if there were anyone who could rock the crazy fashion as art stuff, it’s her. Isn’t she one of McQueen’s darlings?
http://profiles.google.com/galalefey Gabriella Ripoll

Yellow coat dress: she looks like a man in drag. Not working for me.
http://profiles.google.com/galalefey Gabriella Ripoll

Yellow coat dress: she looks like a man in drag. Not working for me.
http://www.kittenmasks.com/ kittenmasks

What in holy hell of all things gone wrong…
April MacFarlan

She looks a little like Jennifer Jason Leigh in these shots and not in a good way…
April MacFarlan

She looks a little like Jennifer Jason Leigh in these shots and not in a good way…
- http://profiles.google.com/denise.alden Denise Alden
  
  That’s the first thing I thought! And I’m not a fan of JJL, either.
Anonymous

I dunno…I kind of like it! The last two shots are pretty captivating. I don’t think the concept is a bad one for her, but that blond wig does look pretty bad in the head-on shots, which I agree look sort of ridiculous. But, um…I like that mustard Miu Miu coat on her…
Anonymous

Well, cripes. Everything looks two sizes too big and that fright wig is a crime.
Anonymous

The brown wig is reminiscent of Viola Swamp from Miss Nelson is Missing.
- Anonymous
  
  I KNEW there was something familiar there!
http://twitter.com/indigowolf Carrie Jo

I think the shot of her in the yellow dress is ok and the last head shot is ok too, but the other ones look silly.
Anonymous

Well, I kind of like this spread. I don’t watch the show so I’m not prejudiced as to what I think she *ought* to look like. She’s a beautiful woman and she rocks the blonde and the brunette locks both. Don’t like the Marc Jacobs on the model but love Anna’s photos in it. The D&G is gorgeous. No to Miu Miu and that ugly toothbrush spatter painted shoe.
Robert Sanchez

I like the one pic of her in the yello Miu Miu. The lighting on her face is fantastic, creating gorgeous bone structure.
- Anonymous
  
  I still don’t like the Miu Miu, but I will give you the lighting comment thumbs up, I missed that.
margaret meyers

The wig work is awful. Did they want it to be apparent she was wearing wigs? Was that the look they wanted with all those plastic hair-ed, badly fitted wigs?
- Anonymous
  
  Just curious, I’m not being snarky, what evidence do you see that makes the wigs look badly fitted?
http://profiles.google.com/shannonlstewart Shannon Stewart

I could see her in retro, if it had been the common woman retro. This glam retro doesn’t work for me, in part because I just don’t think old-school glam really works on Anna Paquin at all. I like her in more sleek stuff with a bit of an edge or in more casual looks.
Anonymous

Oooooo, but I like her in the green D&G. Truly sexy.
http://profiles.google.com/roseofthestage Emily Rose

Those are some of the worst wigs I’ve ever seen. I mean really, you can afford Marc Jacobs clothing for the shoot, but can’t even splurge on a lace-front wig? Come on.
http://profiles.google.com/sntierney Shannon Tierney

She looks so fake in all of them. And uncomfortable. Compare these with the gorgoeous Hitchcock-themed spread Amber Valetta did a few months back and it’s no contest.
- http://profiles.google.com/denise.alden Denise Alden
  
  Very true. Although that spread was a little creepy with her son in it. Maybe that’s just me?
- http://profiles.google.com/denise.alden Denise Alden
  
  Very true. Although that spread was a little creepy with her son in it. Maybe that’s just me?
Anonymous

I’m not feeling this at all. This is not the person for a retro fashion editorial.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3AJ237ND3GAHDQJZ4TLCO4WLRA Emily

Love the clothes, and it’s too bad they messed it up with those wigs.
Rand Ortega

Team TLo!
Everything below the neck– Brilliant!
BTN– overdone, overwrought, over toned.
- Rand Ortega
  
  Oops! I meant ATN– Above The Neck.
Lisa

I have to agree – below the neck is glamorous! Above the neck – it just doesn’t work for her.
Lisa

I have to agree – below the neck is glamorous! Above the neck – it just doesn’t work for her.
Lisa

I have to agree – below the neck is glamorous! Above the neck – it just doesn’t work for her.
Anonymous

I like it. It’s not perfect and especially some of the wigs look hiddy, but I give Anna BIG POINTS for trying with the poses. She looks good in most of the clothes- not an easy trick for the shortish gal. Come on TLo, ease up.
Anonymous

I think they should have gone MORE retro, way more. Like Marie Antionette in three-foot-tall powdered wigs.
http://vhanna26.typepad.com Vera

I’ve been a fan of Anna since The Piano, but this editorial like she’s playing dress up.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Catherine-Rhodes/602850414 Catherine Rhodes

It’s hard to pin down why it’s not working, but it just isn’t.
http://twitter.com/JudysNotebook Judy

Too many negatories on that story. She looks fine. Just fine.
Anonymous

Strange wigs, but the green dress is amazing! I like the last shot too, despite the silly wig. Otherwise, this is just distressing. I feel like the shoot should have been about her, not about trying to make her look like someone else.
http://profiles.google.com/thisiscelia Celia

I agree, this is terrible. She’s not a model, for one. And the “looks” are wearing her, not the other way around.

Aside from the fashion, this isn’t the first time we’re hearing about her bisexuality, contrary to what she’s saying. Didn’t she “out” herself over a year ago, around the time she got engaged? Even Stephen Moyer talked about it in interviews. I’m puzzled as to why she’s saying this is news.
- http://profiles.google.com/sara.e.munoz Sara Munoz
  
  Take note of the ellipses (. . .) There was more to that quote, to the effect of, “nobody ever asked me about it before I started talking about it”.
http://profiles.google.com/insertbrackets Tory Adkisson

I know it’s an editorial, but there’s something dissonant about the theatricality of these looks. Maybe it’s the stiffness of the hair, or the coloring, but it just doesn’t work altogether. She looks stiff, and worse, like she is self-conscious about the “role” she’s playing here. She just doesn’t have Betty Draper fierceness…
Anonymous

Those wigs are horrible. The cover pic and accompanying B&W one look like glamour shots for a drag queen.
http://shortgirlsays.blogspot.com DiscoBra

Eurgh I love Anna Paquin but that hair/wig action is all kinds of nasty could they not have just styled her natural hair?! Clothes are pretty fabulous.
vmcdanie

She’s actually kind of interesting in that interview. She was a real snooze when she was on Fresh Air last year.

I don’t hate the pix. If they had done the whole thing in black and white, the wigs would have looked much better. But then we couldn’t see the clothes. I agree, it’s not her best look. Wasn’t she in some kind of supermarket editorial thing last year or so? She looked superfly in those.

God, I want that Marc Jacobs outfit. The runway version.
http://www.facebook.com/Nestor.Chocolato NesTtor Chocolato

crazy bitche i thik she looks fantastic
Anonymous

everybody LOVES that dolce dress…
Anonymous

OUCH.
These clothes are TO DIE.
She, however, is not.
Doesn’t work at all.
akprincess72

Whoever thought of this concept should have their stylist license revoked, they should create such a thing just so it can be taken away…
Jeremy Porta

Where the FUCK did they get those wigs?

I’m so over this whole ’60′s retro bullshit. It was fun for a while, but it’s run its course.

Out of all of them the Dolce & Gabbana is the only good one, and it could be vastly improved by a wig that isn’t frizzed the fuck out. It looks like polyester for christ’s sake.
Anonymous

Ms. Stackhouse looks lovely most of the time… I just don’t dig her as a bleach blond. Not to mention, that mustard colored Miu Miu jacket ain’t for sitting down in pictures. It pokes out weird across her chest… it looks better on the model, simply because the bitch is walking and not sitting down.
http://twitter.com/justonesock Lo West

You’re crazy, T Lo! I LOVE this look on her!
selene santiago de nasseri

i think paquin is hidgeous…no two ugly ways about it. i literally have a gross out every time i see her face. furthermore, she looks like a high school kid dressed up for halloween complete with cheap ass blonde wig. JUST, NO. go away, paquin, and take your disgusting mouth with you.

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Anna Paquin for V Magazine

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