Woody Allen's most stylish heroines

Los Angeles, '30s. A young Jewish boy runs away from Brooklyn and from his boring family to go to the promise land: Hollywood. Once there, he hopes that his uncle, a successful film agent, helps him achieve a glamorous life, but everything gets complicated when he falls in love with the man's secretary.

This is the plot of Café Society, Woody Allen's latest work that a few days ago opened the 69th edition of Cannes Film Festival.

It took just a few pictures of the two female protagonists, Kristen Stewart and Blake Lively, to confirm the director's talent in painting women destined to become iconic, not only because of the camera or the screenplay, but also because of their costumes.

Diane Keaton, Scarlett Johansson, Mia Farrow, Meryl Streep and all the other Allen's muses have become authentic style icons through characters such as Annie Hall, Nola Rice, Eudora Nesbitt Fletcher or Jill Davis.

Seductive, funny, complicated, neurotic. They are full of shades and charm, all different, all beautiful, often recurrent archetypes.

In an old article on Indie Wire, in fact, the journalist identifies 9 recurring types of women in Allen's movies: the lovable clod, the brain over-analyser, the psycho, the unattainably complicated beauty, the oblivious wife, the self-medicating trainwreck, the restless floozy who throws herself at a man and the eagerly doting protégé.

Difficult to choose the most interesting one. Here's our top five (plus two special guests) of the most stylish female figures in Woody Allen's filmography.

#1 Annie Hall - Diane Keaton

«I stole what I wanted to wear from the cool-looking women on the streets of SoHo. Annie’s khaki pants, vest, and tie came from them. I stole the hat from Aurore Clément, Dean Tavoularis’s future wife, who showed up on the set of "The Godfather: Part II" one day wearing a man’s slouchy bolero pulled down low over her forehead. Aurore’s hat put the finishing touch on the so-called "Annie Hall" look».

So Diane Keaton describes to Vogue.com the birth of the style of one of the most iconic fashion characters in cinema history.

Because even if the costumes are by Ruth Morley, the real credit should go to the actress. It's the apotheosis of the tomboy style: khaki pants, button-down shirt, vest, tie and hat.

There is no girl who dosn't mention Annie Hall as a source of inspiration, A wonderful character to love and emulate.

 #2 Mia Farrow - Tina Vitale

Broadway Danny Rose is not the most famous among the 13 movies Allen shot with Farrow, his partner for a long time, as protagonist.

The actress' look for her role as Tina Vitale, the widow of a gangster and girlfriend of a singer in decline: big sunglasses, leopard printed blouse, high-waisted trousers and scarf among her voluminous hair. A perfect '70s woman.

#3 Mira Sorvino - Linda Ash

A little Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, a little teen prostitute as in Taxi Driver. In Mighty Aphrodite Mira Sorvino is a hooker and porn star part-time with a heart of gold. She has a flashy and confusing style, but her statuary image in denim shorts, trench coat and leather thigh-highs boots, both red, remains printed in the memory. 

Probably also in that of some Kardashian girls.

#4 Cate Blanchett - Jeanette "Jasmine" Francis

A lower class woman who elevates her status by marring a businessman, getting the elegant life she felt to belong to, and is then forced to return to her modest origins due to a series of frauds.

Cate Blanchett is perfect in giving body and soul to a bitter, tragic, in decline character. The clothes of this contemporary antiheroine, styled by costume designer Suzy Benzinger, are by Chanel, Alberta Ferretti, Lanvin, Valentino and the bag is obviously a Birkin.

They are Jasmine's mirror, the mirror image of what she is and what she would like to be.

#5 Emma Stone - Sophie Baker

Emma Stone: pale skin, ginger waves and a dream wardrobe inspired by Leo Gestel's paintings.

In Magic In The Moonlight she is Sophie, a clairvoyant in the '20s French Riviera gracefully wearing flapper dresses, cloche straw, silk blouses, pleated skirts and all the the jazz era classic. Simply adorable.

Special Guests

The women in Woody Allen's movies are unforgettable. For the actresses who play them - names such as Charlotte Rampling, Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz, Meryl Streep, Anjelica Huston and Marion Cotillard - for their personality, how they move, their facial expressions, their jokes. For their style.

We have to mention an amazing Dianne Wiest in Hannah and Her Sisters with an '80s cool look (to copy the oufit with varsity red and white) and the always beautiful Liv Tyler in a scene, then cut by the director to reduce the movie duration: Everyone Says I Love You.