Brooke Shields Went Backstage at Chloé and Saw Herself on the Mood Board

Brooke Shields hasn’t attended many fashion shows, despite modeling in her youth. But today, at her first official Paris Fashion Week outing, she went to Chloé, dressed in a funnel neck trench and an asymmetrically draped skirt from the Spring 2026 collection—and was overcome with emotion. She loved the clash of feminine and masculine elements, the hard leather and the soft silk chiffon, the nostalgic quirk to it all. But then she went backstage and saw someone familiar on the mood board: herself. Chloé’s creative director, Chemena Kamali, was inspired by stills from old films that Shields starred in and images of her younger self at Studio 54. Being a fashion muse is new territory for Shields (at least, to her knowledge). “As a model, I was a conduit,” she says. “But to have been a part of the imagery, that makes me feel like I was contributing to a narrative.” Now, at 60 years old, she’s finally discovering and enjoying cultivating her own taste, having fun with the fashion that started merely as a vehicle for her career.

Ahead, we caught up with Shields after the show to discuss her relationship with fashion and style, her take on nostalgia, and becoming a Chloé girl for the day.

How was the show?

It was absolutely sublime. Someone asked me for a word to describe the collection, and I said, “Well, it’s strength, but it’s femininity, but femininity, in my opinion, really is strength.” And that sounds like I’m trying to be acerbic, but I mean it. There was a delicateness to it. And then there was this strength and other elements that grounded what was more refined. I had never experienced anything quite like that. It was emotional with the music and the atmosphere. And it was unaffected. It wasn’t begging for attention.

Tell me about the mood board. Which images of you were on it?

There were many from Pretty Baby. There were a few from King of the Gypsies. There were some from Studio 54. There were some of me being silly and just me being me in the late ’70s. Obviously, I wasn’t the only person on the board. There were many, many other images, but they all fit together in a narrative.

Does it make you think about how you were dressing in that moment?

The thing that is interesting is that I wasn’t even really considered a muse. As a model, I was a conduit. We were workhorses who took on and represented, but that was it. So I don’t feel as if I had anything to do with [the style of the time]. But to have been a part of the imagery makes me feel like I was contributing to a narrative.

What role has fashion played in your life?

I always avoided it because I was never really able to cultivate my own sense of style. Every time I did anything, whether it was a photo shoot or a movie, I took off the persona, and I put my jeans on and my loafers or whatever, and I went back to my life. I never really indulged in it. What was fascinating to me today was that it was the first time I saw a whole part of my personality in front of me walking by. I would wear 90% of what I saw today. Fashion, to me, started off as a job, a way to have a better life. I never nurtured my own taste. It’s only been in later years—way later years—that I’ve realized how much of an expression in real life it actually can be. I wish I could have learned it a little earlier.

There’s a sort of idolization of celebrities from the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, pre-phone, who dressed like they didn’t care. Do you think there’s anything special about seeing photos of yourself when you were just getting dressed and doing your thing, not thinking too hard about an image?

I struggled with seeing what was in my closet and trying to make it look like things in the magazines. Sure, I was going to Italy and shooting for Italian Vogue or Harper’s Bazaar, but I didn’t own any of those clothes. I can’t in good conscience look back and say, “Oh, I knew exactly what I was doing, and I had a sensibility that was slightly 70s.” No, my mom bought all my clothes at thrift shops. We didn’t get anything for free. It wasn’t about style. It was: you got one pair of jeans for the whole year, and when you outgrew them, you made them into shorts, and that was my association.

Also, what I’m understanding and seeing in my industry, as well as the fashion industry, is that it’s not just nostalgia, but it is a desire or a need to find familiarity. You find something that already exists, and you modernize it. It’s not retro or “what’s hot now.” There’s less of an affect to it. It’s clothes you can actually wear, but it’s also going back to a time that felt simpler—even though it wasn’t.

Is it emotional, or funny even, to watch trends circle back around, especially with young adult daughters?

You mean every time they go to my closet and steal something? If I had been so attached to fashion in any way, then it would probably be a bit more emotional to see my children in things I wore. Beyond the fact that they wear my clothes all the time—oh, it can be annoying at times—now they are starting to have conversations with me about certain eras in my life that they are now wanting to repeat. Even though I didn’t set any of those trends, there is something very connecting about it. And that, to me, feels emotional.

The show notes talk about the passed-down traditions behind the making of a garment, the special-ness of it. What’s the most special piece of clothing that you have?

I was never really attached to any one item of clothing. I never really had anything fancy, but I started wearing certain things that my mother got from [Mitsuhiro] Matsuda, an Asian designer with a different sort of take on a tailoring house. I’m starting to wear those pieces again. There are outfits that my mom got at thrift shops for important moments in her life that I’ve retrofitted. And now, my oldest daughter has refitted the dress I wore the first time I was nominated for a Golden Globe and worn it to her prom. It’s that continuity that I’m more attached to.

Now, a fun question: What did you wear to the show? Did you enjoy dressing like a Chloé girl?

It felt so comfortable being a Chloé girl, I have to say. I didn’t expect it. There was a youthfulness that I appreciated. There was a sexiness that I was like, “God, I wish I had felt this all the time.” And then there was a strength in these beautiful hues, beautiful materials. Getting ready in a robe in a hotel suite—I swear, I felt like I was getting married. And then they take a picture of the bag on the bed with the shoes, and you’re like, “It’s like a wedding.”

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