Penelope Cruz Talks Her SAG Awards Look and Work as a Chanel Ambassador: “The Best Folks to Work With”

Penelope Cruz says she beloved each look when Chanel‘s Spring 2024 high fashion assortment debuted in Paris on Jan. 23, however one costume leaped out as her favourite: a cigaline model dancing costume in a candy-hued pink, that includes a hand-beaded flounced neckline worn off the shoulders, sequined bodice and ankle-length full skirt. The design was undeniably among the many highlights of the ballet-inspired assortment by Chanel inventive director Virginie Viard.

Cruz forwarded the picture to Chanel’s crew, requesting to put on the costume at an upcoming occasion, and it was shortly agreed that the design could be excellent for the Feb. 24 SAG Awards — the place she could be a greatest supporting actress nominee for Ferrari — and that crafting it in a special colour additionally elevated the look to one-of-a-kind standing for the actress.

“We talked concerning the potentialities, and all of us thought this tint of blue might be excellent,” Cruz, a Chanel ambassador since 2018, tells The Hollywood Reporter solely. “I feel it’s a really particular costume, so to put on it for such a special day, being nominated with a film that I actually love, and being nominated at SAG, which is all the time, for me, very particular and makes me really feel very grateful.”

The costume additionally could have resonated with Cruz as a result of it reminded her of her personal ballet background, learning for 9 years whereas she grew up outdoors of Madrid. Even then, to put on Chanel was excessive on her want listing.

“I’ve been a fan of the model since I used to be a little bit lady, when it was not doable for me to put on something, however I’d dream about it and I’d acquire photographs from magazines and from the reveals,” she says. “I all the time thought it was probably the most iconic model due to what they’ve constructed through the years … I’ve been an envoy of the model for a few years, however they’ve made me really feel like a part of the corporate for the reason that Nineties, for the reason that first present I went to see in 1999. I really feel like our relationship began that day, and they’re the best folks to work with … wonderful and really sort and really beneficiant.”

Now crafted in navy blue silk with a sequin-embroidered bodice in a shade christened “neptune blue,” Cruz seemed totally elegant within the customized costume on Saturday night time on the thirtieth annual Display screen Actors Guild Awards at L.A.’s Shrine Auditorium.

“I’m very honored to be right here and grateful for the nomination that comes from my very own friends, my very own colleagues,” she stated on the SAG Awards carpet. “It’s an emotional, stunning feeling, I actually didn’t count on this.”

To complete the look, Cruz once more was impressed by the navy silk. “I thought of earrings from [Chanel’s] excessive jewellery assortment that I had seen in blue and diamonds and knew these have been so excellent for this costume,” she notes.

Along with her Les Talismans Fascinante pendant earrings in 18-karat white gold, diamonds and blue enamel, the actress additionally wore a diamond and white gold ring from the home’s No. 5 jewellery assortment and the Icône Ruban ring, crafted of white gold, diamonds and pearls, from the 2023 Tweed de Chanel high-jewelry assortment.

Finally, Chanel is a home Cruz is aware of intimately, past being a fan and ambassador. She additionally treasured her friendship with Karl Lagerfeld, who elevated the model from legend to celebrity standing throughout his tenure from 1983 till his dying in 2019 — which additionally makes Cruz an excellent particular person to weigh in on Viard’s skill to information Chanel into its future.

“Virginie, I all the time say the identical factor,” Cruz tells THR. “She is the right particular person on the planet to proceed what Karl was doing and clearly that’s what is being seen over the previous couple of years in each single season. She is all the time herself along with her personal prints which can be so private and distinctive, however on the similar time 100% Chanel. She retains the essence of Chanel whereas bringing some contemporary air, and I’m an enormous fan of all the things that she does, her character, how humble she is and her expertise.”

She additionally by no means loses sight of how fortunate she feels to partake of an expertise accessible to solely a choose few. “They work actually, actually onerous, and their creativity is unimaginable, Virginie and all of her crew,” Cruz says of the atelier. “It’s actually a pleasure to have the ability to have this relationship with them, the place I can see the method from the within, go to the atelier earlier than the reveals. I really feel very privileged to see all of it.”