Rach scanned her copy of Vogue April 2011 and the high quality scans are now up in the gallery! I typed up the blurbs accompanying the photoshoot.

The five-foot-four-inch actress (“Steal of the Month,” page 294) rebelled against her mother’s health food as a teenager but now credits exercising with Jason Walch (who also works with Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake) for her better posture. “He makes you want to be healthy. He’s not pushy at all.” The Pennsylvania native and youngest of five still considers herself a newcomer to L.A., and uses curve-hugging dresses as shields. “I’m a little bit shy,” she admits, “so when I have to be out and about for my work, I like to feel strong. Clothes can really help you feel that way.”

Mid-Century Modern
The hourglass architecture of fifties dressing is no less alluring today.
Photographed by Norman Jean Roy.

That fifties silhouette, which once dominated runways from Prada to Marc Jacobs, is supposedly last fall’s news (in favor of a freer seventies swish this spring) but endures for its ladylike charms. “It’s universally flattering–whether you’re thin and tall or short and curvy,” says actress Kat Dennings, who buys vintage versions at home in Los Angeles. The tug in at the waist and push up of the cleavage, combined with a knee-length hem that reveals the slimmest part of the leg, was a look favored by Leslie Caron, Sophia Loren and Rita Hayworth in their day. “Those women were unapologetically hot,” says Dennings of her style inspirations. “And a lot of it was their feminine, iconic dress shapes.”

So how does Dennings modernize the look to avoid retro pitfalls? “A cropped leather jacket would look great over this dress,” she says of WHite House Black Market’s painterly floral frock. “And I’d wear cowboy boots by day and heels at night.” Then there’s her pitch-perfect cat-eye Nicole Miller glasses, a souvenir from her role as Darcy, the cynical, spec-wearing assistant to Thor’s love interest, scientist Jane Foster (played by Natalie Portman), in Kenneth Branagh’s May release, Thor. “Dresses that embrace my hourglass figure work best,” muses the 24-year-old, whose red-carpet appearances, from the premieres of The 40-Year-Old Virgin to Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, are rapidly increasing. “Whatever I wear,” she says, “I need a waist!”