The petite actress is finally coming into her own

Jun 5, 2008 14:18 GMT  ·  By

The Olsen twins have always been a bit of an enigma for most of us. They're rich, famous, have been acting for their entire lives and fashion designers love them. And not just any designers - we're talking about the likes of Karl Lagerfeld and Diane von Furstenberg here. However, given their sometimes controversial style choices and mixed reactions from the audience, we can still say we don't know much about the petite fashionistas. The latest number of Elle magazine put Mary-Kate Olsen on the cover and talked to the actress about her relationship with her twin sister and her own sense of fashion.

"You're either on the worst-dressed list or you've started a fashion trend. I think there's a real disconnect between the media's perception of fashion and the fashion world's idea of fashion", Mary-Kate is quoted as saying. "I don't know why I wear some of the things I wear. I like wearing crazy things sometimes. I like being playful. Sometimes I feel like I'm playing dress-up and becoming a character. It's sort of like an art. It can change your mood or the way that people are attracted to you", she explains. The surprising part is that if we put this attitude together with what has come to be perceived as Mary-Kate's sometimes eccentric, sometimes over-the-top fashion sense, things finally start to make sense.

It's also interesting to discover what the big names in the fashion industry have to say about her and her visible transformation from silent and seemingly shy into a considerably more confident and sometimes-conventionally-fashionable young businesswoman who is not afraid to admit that she has had a lot to learn over the past years. Perhaps the best characterization of the pint-sized fashionista comes from Diane von Furstenberg, who reveals that "Mary-Kate is fragile yet strong... She's an old soul in a very young girl. Hers is a story that has just begun". And we'll surely be watching it all.

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