Cover Story: Bewitching Emma

2009/07/26

SYIDA LIZTA AMIRUL IHSAN

Emma Watson, best known as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series, has left her girlish looks behind even as she blooms as actress and fashion icon. SYIDA LIZTA AMIRUL IHSAN writes. MOVE over, Megan Fox. The real summer siren is Emma Watson, the 19-year-old British star who plays Hermione Granger, the brainy pal of wizard protege Harry Potter in J.K. Rowling’s popular series.

While Megan Fox as Mikaela Banes sizzles with her sex appeal (although I personally admire her hair and lip gloss, always unscathed by sandstorms and giant robots) in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Watson charms the crowd with her down-to-earth classic looks in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Since the first Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, released in November 2001, Watson has grown into a beautiful young lady.

Gone are her girlish grin and adorable fringe that matched her geek character — she was even called “mental” by Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) in the movie for being too clever and goodie-two-shoes.

That look has been replaced with shoulder-length wavy hair, knit tops and jeans which she wears throughout the movie. And while watching the Quidditch game, she is decked in a double-breasted jacket.

Watson is the new face of Burberry, picked for her “classic beauty and great character”.

That Watson casts a powerful spell on her fans is an open secret.

One online poll, conducted by AOL’s Moviefone.com and Bebo.com a few days before Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince hit the cinemas, saw 39 per cent of respondents saying Granger was their favourite character.

The poll, quoted in an article by Reuters, also said that 51 per cent thought Watson “would have the best post-Potter career, with a large majority approving the idea of her appearing naked”!

The actress has been quoted saying that she would only be prepared to strip for a movie made by Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci, the man who made the 1987 Oscar-winning movie, The Last Emperor.

Born in Paris to lawyers Jacqueline Luesby and Chris Watson, she told Paste magazine that she would be attending Ivy League Brown University in Rhode Island “to read literature” in September.

But that hasn’t stopped her from becoming the next big thing in the fashion world.

Style.com praises Watson’s transformation from “gawky drama student to fashion’s newest darling” as “nothing short of magical”.

She has been photographed in clothes from Rodarte, Proenza Schouler and Chanel and was given front row seats at the Paris Fashion Week earlier this year.

Chanel creative director Karl Lagerfeld photographed her as a nun for French magazine Crash, according to style.com.

In her official website, Watson says she rarely uses stylists, preferring to dress herself.

In a black full length Alice Temperley dress at this year’s Bafta Awards.

In February, she wore a black full length Temperley London dress to the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) Awards at which she was a presenter.

Last year, she was in a short Burberry from the Spring 2008 collection at the Burberry and Vanity Fair Portraits VIP viewing at London’s National Portrait Gallery.

Two years ago, while attending premieres for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in both London and Los Angeles, she was in Chanel haute couture and ready-to-wear dresses, respectively.

Watson has made it clear that Temperley London and Burberry (both British) are her favourites, the latter of course, the icing on Watson’s cake.

Creative director Christopher Bailey, whose take on this 153-year-old brand is both classic and daring, picked her to front the brand’s newest ad campaign.

“Having known and admired the lovely Emma Watson for quite some time, she was the obvious choice for this campaign which, like the images she fronts, has a classic beauty, a great character and a modern edge. Emma’s charm, intellect and brilliant sense of fun made the whole shoot feel like a picnic on the Thames,” Bailey said.

The Autumn/Winter 2009 campaign was shot in Westminster, a historic part of London and at the home of Burberry’s new global headquarters, Horseferry House.

Bailey wanted the images shot by fashion photographer Mario Testino to represent both the rich history and the modernity of Burberry while reflecting quiet beauty, timelessness and strength.

From child star to Burberry girl at age 19, Watson, just like the top-of-the-class student she plays, seems to have mastered the spell for success.