The Essentials With Christina Hendricks: Edinburgh Escapes, Rose Face Mist and Dressing the Part
The Buccaneers star shares her vintage habits, beauty rituals, favorite Edinburgh escapes and the one accessory she refuses to retire.
Read More
From her Emmy-nominated turn as Joan Holloway in the 1960s-set Mad Men to her current role as socialite Patricia St. George in the Gilded Age period drama The Buccaneers, Christina Hendricks has found some of her most memorable onscreen characters in period dramas—dressed in the historical garments to match. But her love for vintage clothing goes back to her childhood in Twin Falls, Idaho, and has remained a favorite pastime wherever her work takes her. It was this lifelong appreciation, paired with Hendricks’ detailed approach to fashion and her penchant for theme-inspired dressing, that made her the perfect collaborator for the vintage-style brand, Joanie.
“The company reached out to me with this really beautiful, well-researched sort of deck of my own style and how they thought that we could work together,” Hendricks tells Observer of her first introduction to the U.K.-based brand. “I became really intrigued when I realized they were going to let me design and they weren’t just going to slap my name on something.” After conducting her own research into Joanie’s manufacturing practices (the company is B Corp-certified) and customer reactions, Hendricks was all in. She worked with Joanie founder, Lucy Gledhill, for nearly two years to perfect her 12-dress collection.
“We were really specific about our patterns, and we were going to different artists with inspiration images that I had found that were vintage fabrics and old pieces of clothing I had collected through the years,” Hendricks shares. “I’m sort of a weirdo, and I keep a back stock of things that maybe don’t fit anymore or that I’ve always wanted to recreate.”
Among the pieces that inspired the collection was a dress from Hendricks’ elementary school days, which she reimagined as a breezy yellow wrap dress. “I had this dress in fifth grade that was very Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby to me, and so we wanted that sort of fluttery top that reminded me of that.” Floral print also features heavily throughout the collection, inspired by Hendricks’ passion for interiors. (She currently documents her renovations for her and husband, George Bianchini’s, home in Upstate New York on Instagram.) “I’m obsessed with wallpaper, and the pink Wallflower dress has this sort of growing vine that reminded me of de Gournay hand-painted Chinoiserie wallpaper—I can’t afford to have that wallpaper, so I put it on a dress.”
Rather than referencing any of the characters she has portrayed on-screen, the actress wanted the line of size-inclusive dresses to represent her own take on fashion, which often involves creating a character. “Maybe it’s the actor in me, but I’ve always loved that fashion lets you create a character in a way; who do you want to be today? What part of yourself do you want to present to the public tonight?” Hendricks explains. “If you’re going to a beautiful, historic bar, you might dress in something that you would feel like you were a part of the scene,” she says. “Or, some people really want to stand out and be the opposite in that space, and I think that’s an interesting choice, too.”
With the collection now available to ship worldwide, Christina Hendricks shared her current essentials with Observer—from the piece she’s wearing on repeat from her collection to the Edinburgh hotel and restaurants that became fast favorites while filming The Buccaneers in Scotland.
Her morning routine
If I’m at home and I don’t have to work, I like to ease into the day. We have a routine in the house, which is really sweet: My husband gets up earlier than I do, so he knows that when the music comes on in the house, that means I’m up, and he’ll bring me coffee to bed. And then my doggies will come and cuddle with me while I check out my emails and all of that stuff. Pre-coffee, I usually do a morning spritz of Fresh Rose Hydration Mist all over my face and just wipe my face with cotton and let it breathe while I’m having my coffee. Then, I go in with this Charlotte Tilbury hydro cream that I’m loving, and I let my Elta sunblock sink in for hopefully at least an hour before I start to do any makeup or anything like that.
What she’s reading
I just finished a book called The Coddling of the American Mind. It’s probably directed more for parents to a certain degree, which I’m not, but I just found it so interesting about how we’ve overprotected a generation of children in the United States and how it’s sort of backfiring. And then I’m also reading A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin. I know a lot of people read it years ago, but I’m reading it for the first time, and it’s a gorgeous book of short stories.
What she’s binge-watching
Right now, I’m watching Task. I did a film with Brad Ingelsby, who is the writer on that and Mare of Easttown, called American Woman; I think we might have been one of the first ones to do his scripts. I loved the film that I worked on with him, and I like how he captures that area of the country, so we’re enjoying Task right now. And then, of course, I love that show Couples Therapy. I find it a very interesting study of humans; you watch real people do couples therapy, and it’s so interesting to sit there and watch people’s progress and hear them speak to one another in real terms.
Favorite vacation spot
I’m going to say Edinburgh right now, which is where I get to spend a lot of time when we’re doing Buccaneers. I had never spent a lot of time there before the show, and it’s just stolen my heart completely. My husband and I like to go up to the Highlands and stay at The Fife Arms, which is an extraordinary boutique hotel owned by [Hauser & Wirth co-founders] Iwan and Manuela Wirth. They’re extraordinary art collectors as well, so it’s got beautiful Picassos and Freuds and stuff within this Victorian building. Our favorite restaurant is Timberyard. They create this entire experience that’s sort of this zen theater that’s just unbelievable. The food is extraordinary, and they burn palo santo wood; it’s candlelit, the music is perfect—it just transforms wherever you are. And The Palmerston in Edinburgh is another big spot for us. That’s like our neighborhood restaurant, but it’s just really gorgeous, high-end food, and everyone there is cool, young chefs, and they’re just always experimenting with something new and great.
What she’s traveling with
I definitely like to plan ahead and have fun with fashion, so there’s no way I’m getting on with a carry-on. You know if I’m in Scotland, I’ve got every kind of tartan, or tweed, or little cap or any kind of boot that seems like it’s perfectly Scottish—I have to put together the whole look. I am a loyal Samsonite girl when it comes to my large bag, and for my carry-ons, I like Away because they turn really well and they’re easy to guide. On the plane, I will always have my JBL headphones because I play podcasts or music almost the entire time; I have to have my Burt’s Bees Rose chapstick, which I can use on my cheeks and my lips, so that narrows down the makeup I need to touch up at the end; and then I like the Maybelline under-eye concealer.
Her favorite local spots
I go between Los Angeles and upstate New York, but one of my favorite places that I’ve discovered around our New York home is a place called Stissing House. It’s a beautiful old, historic building with extraordinary food—I hear it’s Martha Stewart’s favorite place, so it must be good. And then I really enjoy Clay, which is at the Auberge Wildflower Farms. It’s beautiful Hudson Valley scenery and extraordinary food, but it also looks like it could be in Wyoming. It’s just got this very sort of rustic, cabin, sleek design. It’s really fantastic, and the food is awesome.
Go-to Christina Hendricks x Joanie dress
The smoking jacket midi dress has this boudoir-to-the-streets kind of influence that’s still quirky and unusual; that’s the most Christina. It has sort of a men’s tie pattern, and we put a shawl collar on it so it would feel like a robe—to me, it’s all the elements of who I am in one dress.
Her vintage shopping tips
Generally, when I go out looking, it’s usually for jewelry or accessories. My absolute favorite vintage store is in London, and it’s called Grays. It’s got all sorts of different vendors on several different floors, and it’s just unbelievable. And then there’s a woman who, she’s got her own site, but on Instagram she’s called @antiqueanimaljewelry. She’s also based in south London, but she sells online, and has really great Georgian jewelry, Victorian jewelry; I like the stuff that looks like it could have come out of a pirate ship or like it could have been in The Goonies—maybe it’s got some sort of magical quality. I find that when you go to a lot of the vintage shops that have clothing, it’s either tiny, tiny sizes that are too small for me, or everything is sort of in protective plastic and it’s hard to get through, so I’ll look for clothing on eBay where everything is measured out, and I know my measurements and all that.
The one thing in her wardrobe she refuses to part with
I have this little black silk clutch from Express that has gone with more outfits throughout the years. We always joke about it because we pull out these beautiful Jimmy Choo or Tom Ford bags and hold it up, and we’re like, ‘Which one is better?’ And it’s the Express bag. It doesn’t have any hardware on it, so it never clashes with anything, it’s a perfect size—you can get your phone, you can get your lipstick, you can get everything in it—and it goes with everything. I’m wearing it to the bone, but this inexpensive little purse has lasted me at least 20 years.
