It wasn’t that Goldblum’s style was bad; the actor has long known how to fill out a suit. It was just that he often adhered to the aesthetic of a classic Hollywood gent and he rarely took risks. But that’s all changed now. Now, he can steal the spotlight on the red carpet in his bold Prada pieces and sleek Saint Laurent looks.
Experimenting with fashion has been a recent development, the actor explains over the phone from the U.K., where he’s shooting Jurassic World: Dominion, which releases in 2022. This style evolution began when he met his stylist Vottero on the set of a GQ shoot about six years ago. Since then, they’ve crafted Goldblum’s fashion renaissance (the Jeff-aissance, if you will) together. For this latest Jurassic Park project, Vottero even got involved in some of the film’s costumes, along with costume designer Joanna Johnston. “He’s so knowledgeable and creative, and we work well together,” Goldblum says of Vottero. “He digs my sensibility about minimalism in the closet. I’ve started paring away anything that we’re not in love with, or that’s unnecessary. Having said that, it’s getting to be a little bit of an accumulation.”
Most notable in that accumulation is a ton of Prada. Last year, Goldblum went through a phase of almost exclusively wearing the label, sporting its loud camp-collar shirts and sleeker suiting. “I have a bunch of their shirts in my closet, maybe 15 or so,” he says. “Sometimes I go through cycles of enthusiasm and passion for one thing, and then wake up and go, ‘Oh, boy, what was I thinking?’” His passion for Prada, however, is eternal, and began after he met designer Miuccia Prada at a party during the Venice Film Festival a couple of years ago. “She’s spectacular, and from what I gather about their whole creative process, and their social awareness and activism, I’m very excited about what they’re doing,” Goldblum says. The label exclusively dressed him for a tour that his jazz band, the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, in which Goldblum plays the piano, did in 2019.
But one designer does not a wardrobe make, and Goldblum has been trying on other designers. For example, he’s been wearing a Celine trench coat nonstop, but most unexpectedly, he’s been wearing a pair of Saint Laurent leather pants quite often. “Andrew and I flirted with these pants; I remember the first time we saw them, we let them go,” he says. “We said, ‘We’re not going to pull the trigger on them yet.’” Goldblum eventually ended up buying them, and has been wearing them almost every day. “I’ve been surprised at how comfortable they are,” he says. “They’re slim-fitting, but stretchy. I even wear them to work out in, believe it or not.” Shoe-wise, Goldblum has been into checkered Vans sneakers, and a pair of Rick Owens boots. “They’re a plain black boot-you know how extravagant he can be-but I get obsessed with shoe laces, so [I switched them].”
As for what the rest of the year holds for Goldbum? In November, the actor says he will launch into filming the second season of The World According to Jeff Goldblum, his docuseries where each episode explores something that people are obsessed with (from sneakers to ice cream). He’ll be home in Los Angeles, where he’ll be reunited with his closet. Godlblum says, “I have joy in fantasizing and dreaming about all the clothes that are waiting for me.”
