Portia would be jealous! Haley Lu Richardson may walk more red carpets than her White Lotus counterpart, but the actress does admit to dressing similar to her character in the HBO series.
When the show’s second season premiered in October 2022, the internet was abuzz with social media posts about Haley’s Portia and her insane, yet fashionable, looks.
“It was such a shocker for me. I wasn’t expecting all the stuff I saw,” the Five Feet Apart star told W Magazine in December 2022 about the response to her character’s outfits. Haley noted that some fan feedback included, “I hate Portia’s wardrobe, but then I look in my closet and I’m the exact same — I don’t know what to do with that information.”
When coming up with the character’s wardrobe, the Arizona native worked closely with the show’s costume designer Alex Bovaird.
“I was like, you’re not getting it,” Haley said as a reply to haters of Portia. “She’s a character. We collaborated. We made this person together.”
Further discussing the character, and her crocheted hats, the Edge of Seventeen actress attempted to turn Portia into someone who is “consumed by TikTok” and go from there.
“We thought it would make sense that she is trying hard, and that she follows the mish-mash trends,” Haley explained. “She makes bad choices and is lost, doing a random job, so whenever we got her dressed, we tried to tell this story in the clothes, too.”
As for her real-life wardrobe, the star actually dresses a lot like Portia.
“With a heavy heart I can confirm I dress identical to Portia in real life,” Haley captioned a December 2022 Instagram Stories selfie, in which she wore green cargo pants, a black crop top and crocheted hat. They do say life imitates art!
Other than wearing clothes, Haley has an Etsy store where knits items and sells them.
“It’s very haphazard and inconsistent and chaotic,” the entrepreneur explained to The Cut in November 2022. “When I feel like these baskets get full of all this stuff I’ve been making, I’m like, ‘Oh, maybe I should post some stuff and sell it.’ It’s fun because I don’t feel pressure with it.”
Scroll through our gallery to see Haley’s best red carpet looks over the years.
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