Fashion Neurosis with Courteney Cox

0:01Support for this show comes from Pure Leaf Iced Tea. When you find yourself in the afternoon slump, you need the right thing to make you bounce back. You need pure leaf iced tea. It's real brewed tea made in a variety of bold flavors with just the right amount of naturally occurring caffeine. You're left feeling refreshed and revitalized so you can be ready to take on what's next. The next time you need to hit the reset button, grab a pure leaf iced tea. Time for a tea break. Time for a pure leaf.

0:32Rinse takes your laundry and hand delivers it to your door. Expertly cleaned and folded. So you could take the time once spent folding and sorting and waiting to finally pursue a whole new version of you. Like tea time you. Mmm. Or this tea time you. Or even this tea time you. So did you hear about Dave? Or even tea time, tea time, tea time you. Mmm. So update on Dave. It's up to you. We'll take the laundry. Rinse. It's time to be great.

1:10Hi, come in.

1:17Welcome to Fashion Neurosis, Courtney Cox. Thank you. So nice to be here. It's great to have you on the couch. Can I ask you why did you choose what you're wearing today? Well, you know, I live in Los Angeles and I'm the kind of person that I don't care if I go someplace for a month, a week, a day, I will never, ever check my luggage. So I really plan out, okay, if I brought this sweater, could I wear it more than once? If I just change the pants, I'm the most efficient packer. So I wore this today because it's loose, kind of jet lagged and tired. I chose it because these pants are so thin you can fold them up this big.

2:04So I just chose it because it was easy. You are literally the opposite of me. When I go somewhere for the weekend or a month, I take the same enormous suitcase that I can almost never fit everything in. I'm like an anxious packer. And I think when we were children, we traveled a lot and we had very little. So now I just always want to take everything and I've just given into it. You just know you're going to have to check. I love it. I just think, yep, in it goes. We're going to have to discuss that, Bella, because if we travel together, you're going to be dead weight to me. I got to get in. I got to get out.

2:46Coco packs so much. Johnny packs so much. I might not even wear all the clothes that I brought. I may have only brought like four outfits. I'm efficient. Well, I'm in awe because that's really, that's a lot about security, I think. It's more than just efficiency. It seems to be, because I know I'm not going to wear the stuff, but I still have to take it with me. Yeah, I want to know it's there. Yeah. I think mine's stupidity, actually, either way. I don't think anything to do with clothing is stupidity. I think it's had a bad rap and it's actually incredibly useful and it's like intelligence. Do you remember a piece of clothing that ever seemed to bestow almost magical qualities on either you or somebody else, something that seemed really perfect?

3:38Well, I mean, starting from when I was a kid, I mean, it's going to sound really crazy, but I was the youngest of four kids, and I always got the hand-me-downs. And I wanted to have my own things. I wanted my own clothes. And I saved up money to buy a pair of jeans that had red piping down the side. I mean, I don't know if you have Kmart over here. No. It was like, I can't think of a store that you have, but it didn't matter. I saved up. I wanted them so bad. So to me, they were magical. It cost me enough money to where, you know, I worked at this place when I was a kid calling out of the phone book for this foundation.

4:25And I got them. So I felt really magical when I wore them to school. But since then, if you're talking about more now, I don't know. I just love when I see people that are able to put things together so effortlessly, whether it's a beautiful Rick Owens skirt and a Belafroy jacket, just the way people can mix things. Mariam, my stylist who I met you through, Mariam Malikpour, she does that. Just everything's effortless. I walk in and say, well, just take it off. Whatever you're wearing, take it off because I'm going to have it now. Mariam dresses like, I mean, she dresses like one of those amazing women from, you know, the 70s, but so glamorous and so chic.

5:11But it's quite rock and roll as well. She's got this amazing hair and she's just got a great attitude. I remember it because, oh, talking about magical, I will say I walked into the store one day and you were wearing white cords and a white turtleneck. turtleneck, just cashmere, turtleneck, no, and nothing on it. And I went, okay, I have to have that outfit. And I bugged you and I bugged you to make me some pants. You know, the thin cords? Yes. Did I make them for you? You did. And now I want another pair because you know, you gain weight, you lose weight, you take them up, they're too short. So another magical outfit that I saw, someone was wearing a Rick Owens skirt with a, actually a Bella Freud jacket.

5:55And I copied it. I got the exact same thing, the same camisole. I had the jacket and I love the skirt so much and I love his stuff. I love his furniture. I love everything about him, but I am not a girl that can wear bias cut things. So that is the bummer. And I will try. I'll buy something in the bias cut. I will have it sewn. I will pull it down because my body's really long. And I hate to say this on camera because people don't realize how long my body is and how short my legs are. But bias cut's tough, I tell you. It is really tough. I'm the same. In fact, I can't wear bias cut. I have a similar proportion to you.

6:39And when you came into my shop and I was finding things, I suddenly realized that everything that suited me suited you. And then I felt so excited because I knew what to suggest. And then when I said like, wear this pale blue with this red, it looks surprising. I don't know why it works, but it works. And it did. But even though you have these amazing blue eyes and I've got dark browns, but there are things that I started to think, oh, yeah, I think I can, you know, suggest things that you like. Yeah. That's good to know. So now I can just ask you. Yes, you could definitely. I didn't know you had a long body.

7:19That's actually really helpful. Well, it's very interesting, this whole thing of how you dress and why you choose what to wear, because a lot of my clothes that I decided to wear or chose were about disguising because I was so self-conscious. now I'm older I don't care I feel thrilled to have like my body but when I was younger I had so many hang-ups and I just was so exacting and dismayed by the lack of you know regularity but it actually has been quite useful in I've been able to kind of make proportions that I think are really flattering and I like them anyway and I think they do a job and I I was going to ask you like when you dress are you looking to hide or you looking to reveal well that's interesting because well first of all your clothes the reason why it's perfect because you can kind of hide within your suits or your dresses but they fit so you can also show off your figure.

8:36So, you know, you can wear a sexy top and keep your jackets open or your dresses. I think they make me feel so good. But just in general, I used to hide my body. And I think that you're right. As I get older, I kind of feel more comfortable. I don't mean showing my skin because there are parts of my skin that I don't want anyone to see. But I don't know, there's something freeing as you get older. I don't know. I'm more comfortable in my, I don't want to say skin, but in my body, just the shape of it. I work out more or I don't eat the same kind of foods as I used to. Whatever it is, I feel more confident and I think I can take more risks and brighter colors.

9:18And I think I've changed in that way. I used to be more insecure and I don't feel that way anymore. Yeah. I, I find the same and it's so much fun. It's, You know, I feel like there is no time to lose now. So don't just hide under a leaf, you know, flaunt it, you know, have fun. And I mean, I'm quite sort of restrained anyway, in my demeanor. But within that, you know, I think, just dress up a bit more. And I have a better time. I just have a better time within myself. And it's about enjoyment, really, isn't it? Instead of fear of how it might be wrong or I might show something. That's so funny because you're kind of quiet, not reserved, but if you look around your home, you're very bright.

10:15I just bought this suit for me that it's this, I don't know the color, but it's definitely out of my wheelhouse and really out of my comfort zone. but I thought it's such a beautiful color and I'll have to ask you what colors to wear with it but um it's really low-waisted and it's you're just very your clothes can be out there but they're specifically just cool well that's a great compliment coming from you you seem so spontaneous and you're so funny and charming and I wondered how like when you're like getting an outfit together, where do you start from? Where do you kind of, the first thing you start with that sort of switches you on?

11:02Well, it just depends. The other day I was, I had to go to a book party, like someone was launching a book and I'm like, what do you wear to a book party? Is that a suit? It's not my book. Is it, and I just kind of go with first, is it my crowd? Do I feel comfortable or am I not going to know anybody. And I'm just doing it because I told somebody I would, and it's nice to show up for people. So where am I going to fit in? And I was going to wear a bright green, really bright Bella Freud dress. And I went, you know what? Love Bella. Just won't feel comfortable because it was old Hollywood, like not just old as an age, but people that had been in this business, my business for so long, I thought, oh yeah, you know what?

11:53I'm just going to have to disappear. But you know what? I didn't. I wore a white suit. I wore a Bella Freud. Oh my God. Now I'm just like talking about you the whole time. I do have other clothes, but I've got to be honest. I'm not, I don't have a million things. I really don't. I get rid of stuff. I don't, I'm not a pack rat. I don't like to save things. I don't know why I like to clean out, but I felt really, I felt good. I wore all cream. And even though I stood out because it wasn't black, I felt like I was hiding within my own comfort zone. That's a very good expression, actually. All cream is very old Hollywood, too.

12:32It's like Marlena Dietrich might have worn that. And it's cool, I can imagine. I think I might have been, well, me and my friend, which I didn't know she was wearing that, were the only two people in all white. So it was good. I find it very disconcerting in LA because people wear almost like rags almost. You know, I mean, everything costs a fortune, but it's a tattered T-shirt with frayed jeans. And when you wear anything more than that, it's like you're an object of fascination and curiosity. And that is really disconcerting in terms of like what to wear. I do have my pair of tattered jeans, you know, the ones with the holes in the knees, as if you've crawled the whole way around town and that happened.

13:20I don't get it. But every time you've been down to pick something up, they get more ripped. And then they just like, okay, no one wants to see this much of my knee. But, you know, I still wear. I like those type of things. Do you remember the first time you became aware of what it was that someone wore that you found attractive? I would say, I think that when people have confidence and they walk into a room, I can't think specifically of, I mean, a specific outfit except for like every single thing that Miriam wears I adore. I think it's all about confidence. You know, if you walk in, whether it's tattered or whether it's got pills on the sweater or it doesn't matter, people who own it, I just find that really attractive.

14:12And I remember that, and it doesn't matter where it's from. It doesn't matter if you're mixing Zara with Chanel. I, um, Mary, and when I first, I was, it was a Thanksgiving, and it was the first Thanksgiving that I'd spent with my partner, Johnny. And she put me in a Zara dress, like it was plaid with lace. And then she had some funky boots, I don't know what it was, and some blazer. And I was like, this is so not me, but I felt great in it. Like I was impressed with myself. I felt sexy. I felt cool. And I actually saved that dress. I will never wear it again, but there's something about it that I was kind of in awe of myself that day.

14:59And he loved it. Oh yeah. Well, I don't think he's a fashion person at all. I mean, he finds a pair of shoes that's comfortable. They can be all birds. I mean, look, let's know, be clear, all birds are comfortable. But is that a fashion statement? No. Does he have 500 pairs of the shoes? Yes. I'm like, can't we find some shoes that don't, I mean, you don't walk all over the city. You do have a car. So let's have some car shoes. You can have the comfortable all birds. But no, I think he thought it was pretty cool, though. At that point, I think he thinks everything I did was cool. Now, maybe not so much.

15:40Well, you're still going strong. Obviously, you're doing everything good. Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start? Thumbtack knows homes, so you don't have to. Don't know the difference between matte paint finish and satin? Or what that clunking sound from your dryer is? With Thumbtack, you don't have to be a home pro. You just have to hire one. You can hire top-rated pros, see price estimates, and read reviews all on the app. Download today. Was there anything that you wore for the first time to deliberately invite disapproval? And if you did do that, did it make you feel free or anxious?

16:25And like, were you a naughty girl or were you quite a good girl? Well, the naughty part. I think I might be a little more naughty than people might assume. I don't know about in my clothes. Sometimes I'll go out on a limb and sometimes I wear things that I think, oh, I don't know. This feels a little like I'm bringing attention to myself, but there's something that feels good about it. I think I am a little naughtier. It probably would be canceled if you really knew my personality. I always go, I'll say something, I'll go, shit, am I going to be canceled? Then I'm just like, it's a joke, it's a joke.

17:07I don't know. I think humor, if it doesn't offend me, probably doesn't make me laugh. I'm just that. You know, Ricky Gervais is one of my, I just think he is so fucking funny. And everything he says is so inappropriate, but that's just my sense of humor. Yeah. Well, I think it's most people's actually. It's so funny and intelligent. So it's kind of irresistible. But, you know, and I mean, you're so popular and beloved. I mean, when I was thinking about you while you were on your way and thinking, here we have this expression, the nation's sweetheart or - America's sweetheart. Yeah. And, you know, everyone like at work when I was talking, saying I was going to see you and you were going to do fashion neurosis today.

17:55I mean, the excitement and it was so great and it was so much fun and everyone just lightened up and brightened up at the thought of you and you just seem to handle that. You wear that very lightly and in the way you dress, it must be quite a lot of pressure. And I wondered, like, when you're on the red carpet, do you wear different things? Do you feel like you alter, you go into a sort of alter ego to handle that focus when that happens? That's a really interesting question. And thank you for that compliment. I do feel really lucky. I especially feel lucky that as I'm getting older, the show that made me the girl next door kind of character is still running.

18:44It's still on like multiple times during the day. And the fact that there are fans that are 10 years old and 60 years old is pretty remarkable, and I feel very lucky about that. I think that's just me, too. I'm from Alabama. I feel really comfortable, and I don't really think about, oh, I'm going out and maybe a paparazzi might see me. I mean, Jennifer always laughs at me like, why would you wear that? Even my workout clothes are so not thought out. They're the ugliest clothes in the world. but they're comfortable and I don't feel it changing before I leave. So I just don't think about it. And then I look at the picture later and go, yeah, that's probably a bad, bad idea.

19:26But when I go on a red carpet, it is a time to, you know, to really be, you know, to go out on a limb or do something you wouldn't normally do. And I have to admit, I have to have someone help me with that. It's always Miriam. She always finds something different that I would never, I wouldn't have it in my closet. I would have to get it for that event. And then also because I am a little girl from Alabama, I don't know how to stand. I just learned how to actually pose. I'm not great at it. But I learned from, do you know Tan France? Yes. Okay. I love that guy. He's such a sweet person. And he was over at my house one day.

20:08And I said, Tan, how do I know how to do a pose for the red carpet? Some people just know how to do it. They turn. They have the right angle. I was looking at Instagram, and I noticed that Victoria Beckham, she has a pose. And you kind of know the way I look at her. She has a great body. She's really pretty. And I watch. You just see people that they know how to do it. Well, Tan taught me how to put one leg in front of the other, kind of on your toes a little bit, just so you look. I can't do it when I'm sitting down. Like a positioning of your body. Yeah, there's a certain way. He said, just stand like this, and this can be better than any way you've ever stood.

20:51And it was helpful. God, what a great person to get a lesson from. I know, right? It's such an interesting thing to think about, and that no one would imagine that, like looking at someone on a red carpet, that how you stand is... It's so important. Yeah. I mean, I slouch and I got to remember to put my shoulders back, kind of have to arch your back a little bit. I just stand. I mean, it's not something I always say to Coco. Coco, put your shoulders back. Stand up straight. Imagine there's a string, that whole thing. You've got a shot. I don't have a shot anymore. This is it. This is the way I stand.

21:30Nobody, it doesn't look good. She has a shot to actually try and it may incorporate into a permanent stance. But it's hard. Standing straight is hard. You have good posture, though. Yeah, I was obsessed with posture. When I was a child, I was obsessed with the Spartans in Greek mythology. And they were very big on gymnastics and, you know, kind of rigor. And I became obsessed with very sort of strict regimes, which I suppose it was a way of like handling stuff. But I kind of never gave it up. So I even noticed that I have quite good post-ups. And no one told you to? You didn't have a nightclub?

22:17No, no one really told me to do anything like that. But I can also, I'm very slouchy and I love slouching and I can sleep anywhere. I can sleep on a chair. I can curl up into a small place and fall asleep if I have to. So that's not necessarily very good for clothes. How did your parents dress? And were you influenced by her or by him? My dad, the only thing that I have of my dad since he died is a belt. And it is not a cool belt. I think it's got like some horse hair or cow hide and little cutouts. I don't know, but it just reminds me of him. He wore polyester pants, golf shirts that were also polyester.

23:08Terrible style. My mom always looks sophisticated. But, yeah, I don't think I liked her style. Yeah, I don't think I do. She's also not with us. But why do people say that, with us? I mean, you didn't even know her. With us, the planet, the world. she's no longer with me now um anyway i know i feel almost like i become more and more she's dead now i mean yeah she's gone yeah yeah but i do miss her um yeah i my mom was very sophisticated in in alabama if we can be sophisticated now i bet much more kind of so almost than in a city where you're just more kind of casual. Well, I'm from Mountain Brook, this area that likens itself to what's just a very, I mean, that's cosmopolitan for Alabama.

24:10And if you fancy someone but you don't like something they're wearing, does it kill your attraction to them? It doesn't kill the attraction, but I might look at them and think They're really attractive. I probably in my mind already know that I'll try to ease in some other look. You know what I mean? If it's someone I was going to spend time with, I am kind of a fixer. I mean, I'm definitely type A, but I don't fancy myself as controlling, but I'm sure I am, but I'd somehow get in a different look going at some point. I'd start with the gift. That's a good point, actually, because I often think of that.

24:52I think, oh, I wish I could get them into Margiela menswear. I could find something like really low key that just enhanced them a bit better because I quite like men who don't dress, you know, you don't dress fashionably. So then if they're dressing quite badly, I think I could just get like a khaki Margiela shirt. But apart from it costing a fortune, you know, people don't like to be changed. Yeah, you just need to, yeah, that's what I do. I just start with the first nice sweater. And then they go, oh, this is, I like that. And then you just keep buying the gifts until that's their wardrobe. Well, Johnny looks pretty cool.

25:35He always looked like that. That's 10 years of work. Well, excellent work. Like, did you feel happy with your body when it changed from girl to adult? And did you change the way you dress? Did you decide what you wanted to show then? Or was there a bit of your body that you wanted to show? Like, I always remember thinking, because I read loads of novels, 19th century novels, and they were always talking about the back of the neck and the ankle and all this stuff in Jane Austen. So I was quite curious about that, and I wondered if you had, what was your transition like? Yeah, I find that my body has changed so much.

26:21I think I used to be self-conscious. I thought I had really wide hips, and I had wider hips. I don't know what happened, or maybe I still do, and I just don't know. But I used to have wider hips. I would always want to hide that. like I don't like when pockets are too far apart on pants. I always dream that I'll make the perfect jean because I don't like really small pockets and I don't like when they're too far. And I, I'm very, very specific with jeans, but I think I still feel that way, but I'm just, I don't know. I think when my body changed to also, not that, I mean, this is really personal, but I used to have implants.

27:03I used to love having boobs, even though the first time I did it, they were too big. And then I had them removed and had smaller ones put in. Because whenever you get your boobs done, the doctors, I feel like they always think, oh, they don't know what they want. They want big ones. They're just going to want them to be bigger. And I remember being, as you go under, just want to be... I woke up and I had this giant C boobs. And I was at this time pretty small, thin. And I couldn't believe it. I was like, oh no. And if you look at me in Ace Ventura, I was really thin and I had these knockers. And so I thought, okay, well, I kind of was feeling good about it for a while.

27:52I took them down. I went to a large B, but I think I was okay showing that part of myself for a while. And then I thought, you know what, I don't want that. And I got rid of my implants. And now I love being pretty flat chested. I kind of like to show that off now. I don't know why. Yeah. I've got a friend who had exactly the same experience. She had implants and And when she woke up, he said, oh, we've just popped a C in instead of a B. And she had the same kind of, it was like her whole wardrobe had to change. Yeah. I mean, you know you're not born that way when you're that small of a frame.

28:35They were just, yeah, that's annoying. Doctors don't necessarily know better. No, they don't. I mean, when I was pregnant, it was the only time I vaguely had more breasts than my normal kind of A plus or whatever. But it really changed my whole reflection. My face changed because the things I like to wear, which were boyish shirts, I looked a bit frumpy and matronly in these shirt things, like a kind of lady politician or something, which is my worst look. So, yeah, gosh, boobs. Well, they are fun. It must have been quite fun having boobs for just the moment. I felt sexy for a little bit, yeah.

29:16That's really exciting, having this extra bit of flesh. It's like now I just think flesh is the most wonderful thing ever. And, in fact, how do you feel about being naked? And if you can't be naked, what piece do you keep on that makes you feel naked? I'm not modest at all, so I actually feel pretty comfortable being naked. I used to look better naked, for sure. But I'd probably embarrass people because I just don't feel modest. Where if someone comes in and I'm about to take a shower, I might just say, oh, sorry, some of this doesn't look right, I'm sure. But I don't know why. I feel okay. That's really nice, though, because I'm the opposite.