The first time I ever met Faye was when I was a sales associate at Anthropologie on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica years ago. She absolutely loved me and always requested I assist her in shopping for her niece. I knew it was Faye Dunaway the first moment I met her, but it was obvious she was no longer the beautiful Bonnie Parker. She had aged dramatically. Almost harshly. For as talented of an actress as she was, I was taken a back from years of not seeing her on the big screen. It seemed that she was the ideal example of Hollywood elevating a shining star during her beautiful years, dismissing her once age hit, and her grasping at that youth that was no longer hers through plastic surgery. As much as I liked her as a person, I also felt sympathy for Dunaway.
Her stunning beauty of the seventies will always be captured on film, however. Just like her elegant style. I absolutely love every single thing (including Bonnie's nightgown) Dunaway wears in Bonnie and Clyde. Even other films such as Chinatown (1974), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) and Network (1976) have her icy characters looking fashion forward. She makes the clothes feel easy. Maybe it's her slim figure. Maybe it's the way certain late sixties/ early seventies clothing had a flattering way of draping the body. Maybe it was merely her ability to exude a sexy confidence. Whatever it was about Dunaway that made her so appealing, I like to remember her as the lovely sexy actress that played Bonnie and not the woman that let Hollywood wear her down.
My version of Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde.
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