Throughout this fall-winter season, Katie Holmes has been captivating fashion insiders with her off-duty street style—and I just discovered her secret sauce: dressing like Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
It took me a while to come to this conclusion, but there’s something distinctly Olsen about her most recent style era, down to her big baggy layers, cumbersome carryalls, and elegant air of nonchalance. All became clear on December 11, when the 45-year-old actor was photographed in Midtown Manhattan wearing three items that define the Olsen uniform: a well-worn luxury bag, an effortlessly wrapped scarf, and perhaps most unexpectedly, a baggy beanie.
While many recovering hipsters left their slouchy beanies in their 2013 dorm rooms, the Olsen twins have remained devoted to the cozy winter accessory, which serves to add an additional touch of warmth to layered looks of sumptuous knitwear and oversized tailoring, regardless of the season.
In this case, even Katie Holmes’s Le Cambon tote by Manu Atelier feels like a nod to The Row’s Margeaux, which you know the twins wouldn’t mind getting wet in the rain. Two days earlier, she even paired the cozy accessory with a long tailored coat, the quintessential layer for many of the Olsen twins’ most memorable looks.
From there, the connection between Katie Holmes’s current aesthetic flashed through my brain like an episode of Sherlock. Even without the beanie, she has clearly mastered their coveted layering formula while continuing to play with color and proportion.
