#her stylist is so good at her job WE LOVE YOU JEANANN WILLIAMS

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⋆˙⟡♡ some of my favorite monica looks!

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Alumna Styles The Stars In Couture 

Jeanann Williams and Naomi Watts. Photo courtesy of Jeanann Williams

This story was reprinted with permission of the Ole Miss Alumni Review.

Meeting an A-list actress for a wardrobe fitting, contacting top couture designers to get pieces from their latest collections, attending a magazine photo shoot and boarding a plane to London for a film premiere are all in a typical day’s work for Jeanann Williams (BSFCS 03), stylist for actress Naomi Watts.

“I don’t know if you can ever really envision where you’ll be, but that’s what is so fun about it,” says Williams. “I’m always waiting for the next job to come through and stay abreast of everything just because I truly love it. I’m proud of what I do. It’s a really fun, passionate, exciting industry, and I’m lucky to be in it.”

A native of Springfield, Ill., Williams was unsure about where she wanted to receive her college education. She knew she needed a change and started applying to schools across the country.

“I really wanted to get out of Illinois and experience something new,” she says. “After applying to several different schools, Ole Miss came through. I really didn’t know that much about it until I came for orientation, and I thought, ‘Sure, this sounds great!’”

Williams graduated from high school in 1999 and enrolled at Ole Miss the following fall to major in fashion merchandising.

“I always knew I wanted to study fashion, and there’s definitely fashion in Mississippi,” she says. “I found that women in the South love to be women and, of course, dress up for football games.”

After contemplating different avenues she could pursue within the industry, Williams’ career took an unexpected turn.

“I was going to start my own company, and then Naomi Watts asked me to style her.”

Dynamic Duo 

Williams met Watts through her brother, Ben Watts, photographer and father to Williams’ young daughter, Ruby.

“Ben and I met at a Gap fashion event during New York Fashion Week in September 2006,” says Williams. “On our first date, he took me to dinner with Naomi and [her partner, actor] Liev [Schreiber]. Tat’s how I met Naomi.”

Williams’ career took off after dressing Watts for the internationally acclaimed Venice Film Festival in 2012. With little to go on other than contacts she made in the PR world, Williams dove right in, gathering different looks for Watts to choose from.

“It was definitely fake it until you make it, so I wrote all of my friends who are editors, asking for contacts at Jimmy Choo and this and that,” says Williams. “They immediately sent me a list of about 25 people, and I was able to send her dresses and shoes. She ended up wearing Marchesa and looked gorgeous.

Around the same time, her film “The Impossible” (2012) was coming out, so within the next couple of weeks, I went with her to Toronto. All of a sudden, I was a full-time stylist.” Having watched Williams grow through the years, Reid knew that transitioning from PR to styling would be a perfect match for her friend.

“She did PR for so long, but anyone who knows her can see that she’s always had such an amazing sense of style,” says Reid. “She is so good at putting anything and everything together for an event and has always had this sort of easy chicness to her.”

August 2014 will mark two years since Williams started styling Watts, and she couldn’t be happier with her newfound career.

“We’re very good friends, like sisters,” Williams says. “I travel with her everywhere, so it’s great to be able to share special moments with her and be at all of her premieres. It’s a great fit in my life. I absolutely love styling and truly have a passion for it.”

Daughter Ruby, Williams’ unofficial assistant, seems to have a passion for fashion just like her sophisticated mom.

“She likes to layer on the jewels and try on all the shoes,” Williams says laughing. “It’s quite cute. We recently went to a Ralph Lauren children’s fashion show. She had on her fanciest dress and said, ‘Mommy, I’m just wearing a cardigan and this purse.’ She even had a little star ring and headband on like ‘this is my fashion show look.’”

It’s important for Williams to stay passionate about styling as she may dress Watts in five different outfits in one day for press events, in addition to dressing other clients including actresses Emily Mortimer, Natalie Dormer and Suki Waterhouse.

She says that the best part of her job is being able to work so intimately with the ladies she styles.

“I get to work closely with all of these amazing women and celebrate and support them,” Williams says. “They’re truly outstanding and inspiring women.”

While she enjoys her work, styling is at times a hectic profession filled with extreme highs and lows. In an industry where everyone is a critic and best and worst dressed lists abound, it’s important to have thick skin and take the good with the bad.

“You get different reviews, but the only one I care about at the end of the day comes from the person I’m dressing,” says Williams. “I guess that’s my most important job is making them feel really confident. It’s always great to be recognized on a best dressed list, but you also remember you’re only as good as your last job.”

Best Dressed 

As it turns out, Williams is quite good at her job, having recently made The Hollywood Reporter’s 25 Most Powerful Stylists list for the second year in a row, a coveted list that profiles the industry’s top stylists.

“Where she is in her career now seems like that thing that we were all sort of waiting to happen,” Reid says. “It makes perfect sense. It’s been really exciting to see her grow, not only because she’s so good at what she does but also the notoriety that’s come with it. It’s like she’s blossomed into herself.”

It seems the sky is the limit for Williams and her styling career as she continues to charge forward in an industry that’s constantly changing and in a city with endless opportunities. “I would definitely like to take on more clients,” says Williams. “I also want to style men, films and work more on a consultancy level for designers’ collections. I may even want to start my own line at some point. There’s definitely a lot more to come … that I’m sure of.”

By Annie Rhoades

This story was reprinted with permission from the Ole Miss Alumni Review. The Alumni Review is published quarterly for members of the Ole Miss Alumni Association. Join or renew your membership with the Alumni Association today, and don’t miss a single issue.

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