Chloe Sevigny is nothing if not cool. The reigning It Girl of the 1990s is still very much a popular fixture in fashion and film. Born on November 18, 1974, the model turned actress and fashion designer who is known to have an assorted fashion sense has had a successful career spanning over fifteen years. Sevigny reached the pinnacle of her career in the latter half of the 1990s when she was the most popular It Girl in America. Crowned as the world’s coolest girl by The New Yorker’s Jay Mclnerney when she was nineteen, the title is as relevant as it was in 1994.
Massachusetts born and Connecticut raised Sevigny was a theatre buffs since she was younger and always inclined towards acting. After a rebellious phase, which involved her shaving off all her hair, cigarettes and experiments with drugs, she grabbed the attention of a Sassy Magazine editor who offered her a modeling job. Sevigny went on to intern at the magazine and later appeared in its pages as well which paved the path for her exciting future in the entertainment industry. In 1995, she began a relationship with director and screenwriter Harmony Korine who wrote her debut film. They separated some time later in the decade after which Sevigny was romantically linked with men like singer Jarvis Cocker and A.R.E. Weapons’ Matt McAuley. She ended her relationship with McAuley after eight years together, in 2008. Sevigny presently resides in Brooklyn, New York.
In 1993, Sevigny appeared in the music video for Sugar Kane by Sonic Youth. That year she graduated from Darien High School and moved out on her own to Brooklyn. The Lemonheads featured her in their music video for Big Gay Heart in 1994 and she also appeared on the cover of Gigolo Aunts album, Flippin’ Out. She had met Harmony Korine a year earlier in New York, which led her to be cast in his indie movie, Kids in 1995. Her performance was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. After this success, Sevigny made more than a few apperances in other critically acclaimed independent films in the remaining years of the decade which helped established her reputation as a bonafide indie film actress. By the end of the decade, she had received eight awards for acting and cemented her status in the indie film circle. She appeared in her first mainstream film, Boys Don’t Cry, which brought her nominations for an Academy Award for Best Actress as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. She made further appearances in indie movies such as American Psycho in 2000 and Party Monster in 2003. In 2002, she had a starring role in Olivier Assayas’ Demonlover with Connie Nielsen. In 2003, she starred in The Brown Bunny, which fueled a controversy as she appeared in an explicit scene. Roles in several other films followed such as Melinda and Melinda, Manderlay, and Zodiac. In 2006, she turned her attention towards television and starred in the television drama Big Love that premiered on HBO for the next five years. Sevigny was awarded the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for this role in 2010. She has also appeared in Hit & Miss and had a recurring role in the supernatural horror series American Horror Story: Asylum in 2013. In 2015, she will be returning to television on American Horror Story: Hotel.
Sevigny has also made a name for herself in the fashion industry. She has worked as a model for several renowned fashion houses like Chloe, Louis Vuitton, H&M and MiuMiu. She herself has also dabbled in fashion designing. She has appeared in music videos of Doug Aitken, Palace Music, Beck, Coconut Records, Smog, The Slits and Beastie Boys.