“Don’t Wear These Clothes Again!”—Julia Louis-Dreyfus Relives Iconic Looks From Seinfeld, Veep, and More

[light music]

Hello, Vogue.

Oh, god.

[groaning]

Just FYI, I don't really like

looking at old pictures of myself,

so I may not be super well-suited for this exercise.

[chuckles]

I'm afraid I did have a lot of influence on Elaine's outfit.

I mean, we had a costume designer for sure,

but I mean, for instance,

that's the typical floral pattern

with the socks and the shoes.

I just thought that, at the time I thought,

there is nothing groovier than this look.

[laughs]

She definitely dictated her own style

and I think she was not somebody who

dressed super sexy.

That wasn't her vibe, man.

She was kinda, didn't need to do that,

she was a little tougher.

And frankly, I was pregnant twice during Seinfeld,

so all of these oversized clothing,

this clothing was very helpful to me

as a pregnant person, both getting more and more pregnant,

and then becoming less and less pregnant

after giving birth, you know,

'cause it takes a little time to get your body shape back.

Well, this image is [laughs]

a somewhat unfortunate image.

This is back from my Seinfeld days and this is early on.

You'll notice Jerry's bright, white sneakers.

But this jacket that I'm wearing is

a suede, Ralph Lauren jacket

that was actually mine, that I incorporated

into the Elaine wardrobe.

I still have this, 'cause I actually think

it's groovy as all hell.

When Seinfeld first started, I mean, that was the look.

It was sort of vintage, a lot of the jackets that I wore

with those skirts, those floral skirts,

those jackets were vintage jackets from the '40s and '50s.

That look with the bobby socks and the shoes,

I don't know if that was in or if I just thought it was in

or particularly au courant.

I have no idea.

And now it's making some sort of a comeback,

which I find inexplicable.

But I encourage you who are listening

to this little piece right now,

don't wear these clothes again.

Don't do it!

I made the mistake, learn from my mistakes.

The first time I ever went to the Emmy's, I wore black.

I had just given birth to my son three weeks earlier, okay?

I was not at my normal weight

and feeling very self-conscious.

I don't know why I'm saying this at Vogue, by the way,

this is a huge mistake on my part,

but I'll just go ahead and tell you guys

that as I was getting ready to go to the Emmy's,

my dress split.

So you can imagine my horror

and so they had to sew me into it.

I had just given birth to this gorgeous baby.

Anyway, whatever.

This was sort of pre- the days

that you would even have a stylist.

I don't believe, I think you dressed yourself.

That's my memory, anyway.

I want a red carpet dress to,

I don't want to worry about it,

so by the time I hit the red carpet,

I want to know that it works.

I don't want to have misgivings about it,

so that I can worry about other things.

'Cause I'm a worrier, so I need to go to the next thing

to worry about.

[laughs]

[light music]

So this is from 1995.

This is an Armani dress

and it was made of black velvet

and had an incredible construction.

This section of the dress,

there was a bone within it that kept this all in place.

And I remember running into

people from work on the red carpet,

and they didn't recognize me.

They didn't know it was me, I swear.

It's me, it's Julia, and they were like what?

They had no idea.

And I remember, also, that after I wore this,

I didn't win an Emmy that year,

but after I wore it, Mr. Armani wrote me a handwritten note,

saying thank you for wearing it

and that that was so nice and I kept the note,

'cause it was very meaningful to me, of course.

This was a departure for me to wear something like this

because it was so sexy.

I wouldn't say it's a retaliation,

but it's against the Elaine look,

but it was a way of kind of pushing

the edge of the envelope, for me, at that time.

And it was considered, in 1995, very risque.

I don't think this would be considered risque today,

but it was then.

[scoffs]

[upbeat music]

That's the Bob Mackie, oh my god.

Look at that!

Okay, first of all, it's Bob Mackie.

It was so exciting and I worked with him on this dress!

Literally.

I went to his studio and he measured me

and I loved pink, I still love pink.

I loved the idea of a corset

and I was, you can see I'm very pleased

[laughs] with myself in this outfit.

I think this is a great look.

He was divine to work with.

Very unassuming and very humble fellow,

considering his enormous success.

It was an honor for me to work with him.

I couldn't believe I was working with him.

Okay, yes.

My god.

This is so gorgeous.

I love this dress.

I'm sorry.

And I still have this dress and I love it with all my heart.

Yeah, this is the 2007 Emmy's.

And this dress was made by Narciso Rodriguez.

I was a huge fan of his work.

It was very glam, 'cause I flew to New York

once or twice to meet with him and get measured,

and we did a muslin fitting and we looked at fabrics,

and it was all very [gasps], you know,

inside fashion in a way that I had never

sort of been privy to in New York

and it was really exciting.

And I remember very distinctly

that he said to me that he wanted this dress

to look like a bullet.

And it sort of does, it has a sleekness like a bullet.

I won my second Emmy in this dress.

And I also have the sketch that he drew

of this dress for me, before he even made the dress,

and he signed it to me and I have that as a keepsake,

I still own that.

I have a lot of these bits and pieces of things

from the past that I've hung onto, actually.

Oh, yeah, Jesus, yeah.

So that's good.

So this is Oscar and I'm...

First of all, I love this dress so much.

It's navy and black, which is one of

my favorite color combinations.

I think it's sophisticated and glamorous at the same time.

It's all a piece.

So these is no seam on this dress.

And this is all this gorgeous lacework,

so they have to mold it for you.

I don't know how they do it.

I actually feel as if it's a magic trick,

that's what I think.

This dress is a magic trick.

That's what I'm gonna say about it.

This was a huge night for me at the Mark Twain Awards

and to be there looking fancy and

having this celebration with my family and friends

was quite a remarkable thing.

I was wearing a gorgeous pair of either

I think they were Manolo's,

but, unfortunately, they were too high,

and I had to do, essentially,

sort of a nod to the Elaine dance.

So it was a very big moment in the Kennedy Center,

but when I went to rehearsal,

I had kept falling over in the shoes.

And whilst they were absolutely gorgeous,

they didn't work for the comedy bit.

I'm gonna have to tell you,

these are Nordstrom signature shoes that I've got on,

on the red carpet.

So don't tell your boss.

[light music]

Yes.

Well, I have a lot to say about Veep.

This is a Dolce & Gabbana dress.

This is the first episode of season seven,

which is our final season of Veep.

Every single first episode of every single season on Veep,

I've worn a red dress.

Selina Meyer, the character I play,

she is somebody who wears clothes

and spends a lot of money on clothes and her look.

What's been very informative to me in playing this character

is that she is someone who feels constricted all the time

and is constricted all the time

because these dresses are tight.

And I wear a wig on the show, I wear high heels on the show,

I have tight dresses on the show, I am cinched in.

I mean, I don't dress up like this day to day.

I'm in the garden, I have flowers,

I'm wearing shorts and a big, wide hat.

On the other hand,

I love fashion, I do, in fact.

I like to present myself a certain way

and I want to feel confident.

I'm a girly girl!

I don't know how else to say it.

My son once said when I was getting ready for some event

and he said, My mom's upstairs getting fixed.

So I like getting fixed.