Hey, Upper East Siders, Life & Style here and boy, do we have a transformation for you! Blake Lively is by far one of the most dynamic, talented and beautiful women in Hollywood. That said, the longtime starlet has changed quite a bit since her days as Serena van der Woodsen on Gossip Girl and has had a complete metamorphosis over the years.
While Blake got her first big break in the 2005 film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, it was two years later when she rocketed to fame as the lead on Gossip Girl. Since Serena was one of the best dressed characters on TV — always dripping head to toe in designer clothes and accessories — Blake gained a reputation for always being on awards shows’ best dressed lists thanks to her own personal and impeccable taste in fashion.
The blonde beauty is regarded as a true fashionista by being one of the few Hollywood stars to not employ a stylist to help with her wardrobe needs. “It’s a lot of work [but] I mean, it’s not hard in that we all dress ourselves every morning,” she told Women’s Wear Daily in 2015.
“So, once you have the clothes, you just pick out what to wear like any other human being does. But it’s easier because you have access to clothes, and so, it’s not that hard. The hard part is going through all the fashion shows and screenshotting all the looks you like and calling them in. I have an assistant who helps in calling in the looks. But a lot of it is I have relationships with the designers,” Blake explained.
“I have control issues and a big ego — that’s probably the honest answer [for why I won’t hire a stylist],” she joked in the same interview, while adding with more seriousness, “I just like it. I love design and I love fashion and it’s a way to be creative. In my job I get to be creative, but it’s over a period of time, and so many other people are involved, whereas this is a beginning, middle and end, and I get to be creative and there’s an end date in the near future.”
Blake added, “It’s the same reason why I like doing my friends’ hair and makeup or cooking — you get to be creative and finish it. Whereas with my job you do it and then two years later it’s finished. It probably goes back to the control issues; it’s like, ‘Okay, I did it, I completed it, it’s done!’”
Scroll the gallery below to see Blake’s best looks in photos over the years!