Who

The matron saint of hipsters, the East Village fixture is as well-known for her proudly avant-garde fashion sense as she is for her edgy film roles.

Backstory

Born into a well-off family in Darien, a teenage Sevigny spent her days ditching school to hang out with skate punks in Washington Square Park and her nights club hopping; she was still in high school when she started interning at Sassy magazine and appeared in a Sonic Youth video. In 1994, Jay McInerney profiled her in the New Yorker, anointing her the city's "It girl." (Sevigny says she cooperated with McInerney in exchange for a Helmut Lang dress.) A year later, her first movie appeared—the gritty teen drama Kids, written by then-boyfriend Harmony Korine and directed by Larry Clark, made Sevigny an indie icon. She spent the next few years working on unimpeachably hip films: Whit Stillman cast her in 1998's The Last Days of Disco, his paean to 1970s nightlife, and she earned an Oscar nomination for her performance as a transman-lover in Boys Don't Cry (but lost out to Angelina Jolie). In 2000, she appeared with Christian Bale and Justin Theroux in the adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho. Roles in Party Monster and Lars von Trier's 2003 epic Dogville followed, before her career was nearly upended in 2003 with her appearance in Vincent Gallo's The Brown Bunny.

Of note

Sevigny has always been up for adventurous roles, on occasion to her career's detriment. That was certainly the case with 2003's The Brown Bunny, in which she gave (former flame) Vincent Gallo an on-camera blowjob. (The actress explained thusly: "It wasn't that bad for me. I have been intimate with Vincent before"). The movie earned the distinction of being one of the year's worst and resulted in Sevigny getting dumped by her agents at William Morris. She managed to survive the fallout, though, thanks to parts that tested neither her own nor audiences' gag reflexes in 2003's Shattered Glass and Woody Allen's 2004 comedy Melinda and Melinda, as well as a one-off appearance on Will & Grace. In 2006, Sevigny joined the cast of the HBO polygamy dramedy Big Love as one of Bill Paxton's wives, the eternally scheming Nikki Grant. She also had a well-received turn in David Fincher's 2007 film Zodiac.

The look

Sevigny's fashion sense helped her land her first break—she was cast off the street in a Sassy fashion spread—and she's been an indie style icon ever since. The attention hasn't always been positive: She's been a staple on both "Best Dressed" and "Style Offender" lists for as long as she's been in the public eye. Upper East Siders who want to affect her "hip," "downtown" look can purchase her fashion line at SoHo boutique Opening Ceremony.

Family ties

Chloë's brother is scenester DJ Paul Sevigny, who also co-owns the downtown hipster restaurant The Beatrice Inn.

Personal

Chloë has a history of dating temperamental and charismatic creative types: As a teenager she was involved with Brown Bunny director Vincent Gallo, before taking up with Harmony Korine around the time she appeared in Kids. For years now she's been seeing musician Matt McAuley of A.R.E. Weapons, a band managed by her brother Paul. She lives on East 10th Street, in a 1,250-square-foot duplex she bought for $1.2 million in 2006.