What Emma Watson wants us to wear

Once a shy schoolgirl, Emma Watson is now a film star forging a leading role in the world of fashion.

LONDON- JULY 03: Emma Watson from the Harry Potter film series at the London premiere of Scooby-Doo at the Odeon Leicester Square,London,England on the 3rd of July 2002.(Photo by Dave Benett/Getty Images)
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Glamorous gamine Emma Watson can certainly cast a spell when she steps onto a red carpet.

All eyes were on her in London as she joined Harry Potter co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, and the boy wizard's creator, JK Rowling, for the world premiere of the first of the two-part finale, The Deathly Hallows.

Best-known for playing the bossy wand-waver Hermione Granger, Watson has grown from a frizzy-haired girl in oversized sweaters into a chic, fashion-conscious young woman.

The 20-year-old has also become Hollywood's highest-paid actress, earning £20 million (Dh117 million) in 2009 alone.

And after sporting a short, wispy pixie cut she got three months ago in New York, she dominated the front pages of all the UK's national newspapers the following day with headlines such as: "Bewitching".

David Heyman, who has produced all of the Harry Potter movies and first met Watson when she was a 10-year-old untrained actress, said: "What you have is a young lady with so many possibilities. She is fiercely intelligent. She is modelling. She can act. She's designing clothes, going to university. The world is at her feet."

It certainly was at the November 11 premiere. Watson stepped out confidently in a figure-hugging, black lace mini with inky feathered hem to loud cheers and staccato camera flashes. The vintage dress, from Atelier Mayer, was in keeping with Watson's philosophy about sustainable, organic and fair-trade practices around fashion. Vintage is fashion's recycling programme, and Watson embraces the trend.

Upbeat and chatty, with gorgeous skin and minimal make-up, Watson rocked another edgy black palette the morning after the gala as she chatted with the media at Claridge's hotel.

The petite actress - she stands 167cm, weighs 47.6 kilograms - wore a size 6 dress; tight, black leggings tucked into low-heeled, knee-high black boots; and a lacy, black top by Alberta Ferretti. A brown belt with a chunky buckle circled her trim waist.

Watson was eager to talk about a clothing line she is designing with Ferretti. After Watson had used organic materials to design clothes aimed at teenagers and young women for the Fair Trade People Tree label last year, Ferretti approached the star and asked her if she would like to work with her.

Watson leapt at the project, excited that "someone who is established and as big a designer" would share her fashion philosophy.

Although coy about the line's name, Watson describes it as "very classic, fresh, Sixties Jane Birkin", and says it should hit stores after Christmas. "I'm really proud of what we put together," she says.

Watson is already the face of the design house Burberry and can be seen regularly on newsstands as a magazine cover girl. She raised eyebrows with an edgy photograph of her in Elle UK last year; straddling a stool, looking fiercely fabulous with narrow, smoky eyes while dressed in a wasp-waisted Gucci bustier. In December, she was on the cover of British Vogue.

It's a far cry from the 14-year-old The Times Of India quoted as saying she had nothing to wear to events, and often faced the choice of "either borrow from my stepmother, or go to the bridesmaid department at Harrods".

But things started to change as Watson matured. She wore strapless navy Chanel haute couture for the 2007 premiere of Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix. A September 2008 Vogue Italia pictorial showed her in Versace and Armani Privé. Bye-bye bridesmaid.

But however fervent Watson is about fashion, she is even more passionate about where the clothing comes from and how it has been produced, a fact that is evident in her clothing line. This passion goes back to when she was at school, where she studied Third World geopolitics and the garment industry. She quotes facts and figures about the lack of organic materials in the clothing industry and wonders why people are so concerned about the ethics and origins of what they eat, but not about what they wear.

"I will put it out there I will work for anybody for free if they are prepared to make their clothing fair trade and organic," she declares.

Now a student at Brown University in the US state of Rhode Island, Watson has made a clear break from the little girl she played onscreen in the Harry Potter films. While fellow cast members Radcliffe, 21, as Potter and Grint, 22, as Ron Weasley have also moved into adulthood, Watson's blossoming is most evident.

The latest film also sees her character step up with an easy confidence and calm maturity, and Harry and Ron acknowledge that. She helps the trio survive life in the outdoors with a magical, bottomless satchel that has everything inside, right down to a tent.

The new Hermione onscreen is echoed in the new-look Watson offscreen. The most dramatic change is her hair, snipped into a sexy cap after she finished a gruelling 263-day shoot on both parts of The Deathly Hallows. It's a strong visual message that she's no longer to be confused with her character. Her inspiration for the new look wasn't, as you might imagine, her fellow Brit actress Carey Mulligan, who has a similar 'do, but another star who sported it in the 1960s.

"I took a picture of Mia Farrow to the hairdresser's and I said: 'I want to look like this'," Watson says.

She will wear a wig for the reshoots, planned for Christmas when she will be on a break from Brown. The actress is also donning one for her next role, as a wardrobe assistant to Marilyn Monroe.

In My Week With Marilyn, Watson stars alongside Michelle Williams who plays the screen siren in London in 1957. The film focuses on the Fifties superstar's sojourn in Britain during which she made The Prince And The Showgirl , opposite Laurence Olivier.

Having shot the film in London last month, Watson describes her role as "small but really interesting and it has a really good character arc". It's her goal to do more of these kinds of roles, she adds.

She may have packed Hermione away, but has the bossy miss who excelled at Hogwarts influenced her?

"I'm sure she has," says Watson. "This new film is the closest Hermione has been to my own personality. Definitely, I have really enjoyed that. Earlier on I played more like a parody of myself and now she has developed into something much more human."

More human, yes, but there's still an element of the spell-caster to the lovely Emma Watson.