Blake Lively Wore This Mall Brand on the Red Carpet and Pretended It Was Vintage

Blake Lively Dior show 1280
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The actress reveals she used to say her Forever 21 outfits were secondhand treasures because she felt shamed.

Blake Lively admits she used to tell a little fashion lie to avoid feeling shamed. 

The 31-year-old actress revealed in an interview for InStyle, conducted by The Handmaid’s Tale actress Sydney Sweeney, who counts Lively as her style icon, that she used to wear the affordable mall brand Forever 21 on the red carpet and pretend it was vintage. 

"I wore Forever 21 much longer than I admitted," Lively told Sweeney. "I just started saying it was vintage because I was so shamed for it. [laughs] For me, fashion is a form of self-expression. It also really takes me out of my comfort zone. One of the reasons I'm an actor is that I’m naturally very shy, so it's liberating to dress up and pretend to be someone else." 

Lively also spoke on her choice to style herself -- a rare move among Hollywood's elite. 

"You just want to represent yourself properly, so that's why I chose to style myself. I also had the very fortunate and unique opportunity of being on Gossip Girl, where fashion was a main character. So I started developing relationships with designers, and then I’d get their email addresses. It all happened organically." 

When Sweeney asked who gives Lively the most honest opinion on outfits, Lively credited her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and her daughters, 2-year-old Inez and 4-year-old James. 

"It used to be just my husband [actor Ryan Reynolds], but now it’s my kids too," she shared. "And kids do not filter. [laughs]" 

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