Who What Wear: January 2022 #1

You may know our January cover star, Diane Kruger, for her roles as Helen of Troy in Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy, Bridget von Hammersmark in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, and Abigail Chase in Jon Turteltaub’s National Treasure. Perhaps you’ve instead come to recognize Kruger as a mainstay on every buzzy red carpet during award season, arriving in Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Prabal Gurung at the Met Gala, Cannes Film Festival, and Oscars. No matter how you’ve become acquainted with the German-born former model and current actress, prepare to see a side of Kruger that you’ve never seen before come 2022.

Kruger—who plays Marie Schmidt, a German intelligence agent that errs on the side of loner, in the forthcoming female-led action flick The 355—is currently busy ushering in a new chapter of her nearly two-decade-long career. She has five films and one TV show in the works, all in various stages of production and filmed on location in varying parts of the world. No longer the ingénue, the 45-year-old is adapting to a new kind of role, one that she can manipulate to fit her lifestyle rather than the other way around. In addition to all that, she’s the mother of a young daughter and her own stylist—a successful one at that.

We caught up with the jane-of-all-trades via Zoom from her West Village apartment in New York City ahead of the January 7 premiere of The 355 to discuss everything from Prada-clad carpool lines to her next big move in film.

French food versus American food:
French, sorry.

Favorite French dish:
Steak frites.

Best steak frites in New York:
Balthazar.

New York restaurants versus Paris restaurants:
Are these real questions? I have to say Paris restaurants, of course.

Favorite restaurant in Paris:
I love to go to the Flore Café. You know, I love a good bistro. Actually, in Paris, it’s my favorite to have friends come for cocktails. They leave; other friends come for dinner at a bistro. Do you know what I mean? That’s my favorite thing.

Ideal Saturday afternoon in New York:
Probably out in the streets. Walking around, browsing, shopping, stopping for cocktails, or stopping at a playground. Go to a park. That kind of stuff.

Favorite places to shop in New York and Paris:
In Paris, it’s Le Bon Marché, which is a small department store that’s in the Seventh. It’s really cute and quaint and has a different selection than all the big other department stores. In New York, I don’t know. I live in the West Village, so it’s the little shops around here. But I haven’t gone to a big shop in New York for a long time, I have to say.

Five pieces in your wardrobe that you couldn’t live without:
Definitely jeans, a couple of pairs of jeans. The standard black Chanel purse that you use every day, for sure. That’s my go-to. A black turtleneck that I feel like you always wear. And at the moment at least, I wear these Jimmy Choo high heels—not high heeled, but they’re high boots. They’re super warm, and they don’t look so shitty when it’s freezing out. They’re not the snow-boot kind of boots. So I’ve been wearing those a lot. And then, the sweats, unfortunately.

Go-to jeans:
I love these YSL jeans that I just got. They’re really cool. They’re very small, so I feel like I can only wear them at certain times of the month. Like, I have to lay down to button them. I have actually a Zara pair of jeans. I didn’t want to spend money on designer jeans for them because, you know, you feel like an asshole. They’re like copies of the typical ’90s jean, high-waisted and tight. I’m gonna wear them probably for a month or two, but right now, I live in them.

Zara has good jeans.
They do, yeah.

If you can get them before they sell out.
Oh, yeah. Get that app, man.