Something Wild : Actress Jennifer Tilly Shows Off Her Singular Style

Jennifer Tilly can explain why people dress wild: It’s a disguise for shyness, she says. “If you dress like a Christmas tree, you can’t act like a wallflower.” Tilly hauls a beat-up suitcase to fashion photo sessions. It’s crammed with things from her own closet: old pocketbooks embroidered with poodles, frowzy silk flowers, a mound of tangled pearls and chains, and at least half a dozen funky old hats. “Sometimes I go through classical, elegant-dress phases,” she says. “But I get over that.” You can see a physical resemblance to her actress-sister, Meg, but Jennifer will tell you that the likeness stops there. “People make assumptions about siblings in show business,” she begins, visibly uncomfortable with the subject. “They assume it opens doors, but it doesn’t. And they assume there is sibling rivalry, but that’s seldom the case.” With her soft voice and dizzy-dame sense of humor, she is more often compared to Judy Holliday, the ‘50s comedienne, than to her sister. Even the titles of her movies sound a little wacky. There is “Rented Lips” with Martin Mull and “High Spirits” with Peter O’Toole, both due this summer. “I don’t want people to think I’m like the girl next door,” Tilly says. From the look of things, there isn’t much danger of that.

Photographed by Cory Graves; hair and makeup by Agostina Lombardo/Celestine-Cloutier; styling by Joanna Dendel