I understand why it might sound strange to call Gwyneth Paltrow underrated. After all, she’s one of our last, true A-listers; the Goop founder’s every move consumes daily headlines, whether she’s releasing a vagina-scented candle or saying that she believes “water has feelings.” Paltrow has also been acting for so long that even she’s lost track of how many Marvel movies she’s been in at this point.
But with the Goop brand consuming the bulk of her attention for the past decade, it’s been a minute since she has sunk her teeth into a role befitting her talents. Marvel and TV projects aside, her last major film was in 2015 (before that: 2012). Paltrow is now better known as a fabulously out-of-touch entrepreneur than an actor, and she seems perfectly fine with that. Having recently said that she’ll “literally never” star in another film again, Paltrow has all but retired from the profession that shot her to stardom in the ’90s—which is, frankly, our loss.
Even if acting is not what Paltrow is most famous for in 2021, she’s always been a natural at it. The daughter of actor Blythe Danner and producer Bruce Paltrow, she made an impression with bit parts in Hook and Malice when she was barely out of high school. Then her high-profile relationship with Brad Pitt made her a tabloid darling, and her roles quickly began to match the level of attention she was getting: She worked with such auteurs as David Fincher (Seven) and Paul Thomas Anderson (Hard Eight), later earning critical acclaim for her breakout role in Emma. Harper’s Bazaar called her “Hollywood’s newest and most promising star” and Vogue made her a cover girl in August 1996. “Gwyneth is well known as the actress every designer wants to dress,” Anna Wintour wrote in her editor’s letter that issue, remarking that the actor was “simultaneously chic, accessible, natural, friendly, and warm.”
Paltrow hardly felt the same way. “They say I was a definitive ’90s style lady, but at the time I thought I was just wearing minimalist stuff with brown lip liner and a lot of powder,” she recently told Vogue. “[My daughter] will sometimes find old pictures of me on Instagram and in a very droll way be like, ‘You’re iconic, Mom.’”
In case she needs further proof, we’ve put together a tribute to some of Paltrow’s most iconic style moments in honor of her 49th birthday.
Photo: Getty Images1/20“This is when the Met ball was really young and wasn’t a big, theatrical carpet,” Paltrow said of the 1995 event. “This was my era of Calvin Klein. He always wanted to dress me and lend me beautiful things.”
Photo: Getty Images2/20“We were a very ’90s couple,” Paltrow has said of ex-boyfriend Brad Pitt, whom she dated from 1994 to 1997.
Photo: Getty Images3/20At the Four Seasons restaurant in New York, 1995.
Photo: Getty Images4/20“That Calvin Klein jacket was one of my favorite pieces,” said Paltrow, seen here while visiting Pitt on set in 1996. “I’ve always been a very intuitive dresser: jeans and a white T-shirt, basically.”
Photo: Getty Images5/20At an Armani party in 1996.
Photo: Getty Images6/20Paltrow and Pitt at the 1996 Academy Awards; Pitt was up for best supporting actor for his role in 12 Monkeys.
Photo: Getty Images7/20“This is one of my favorites,” Paltrow has said of the red velvet tuxedo she wore to the MTV Video Music Awards in 1996. “This is [from] one of Tom Ford’s original collectsions. I was obsessed with what he was doing for Gucci; he was revolutionizing the brand.”
Photo: Getty Images8/20Pitt and Paltrow arriving at the 1996 premiere of The Pallbearer.
Photo: Getty Images9/20At the New York premiere of Emma in 1996. The Jane Austen adaptation earned critical acclaim for Paltrow’s breakout turn as the irresistibly charming Emma Woodhouse.
Photo: Getty Images10/20Pitt and Paltrow—with matching haircuts—at the 1997 premiere of The Devil’s Own.
Photo: Getty Images11/20At the 1997 premiere of Hard Eight, one of Paltrow’s first leading roles.
Photo: Getty Images12/20Paltrow accompanied then-boyfriend Ben Affleck to the 1998 premiere of Armageddon. The pair dated on and off throughout the late ’90s, calling it quits for good shortly after appearing together in the 2000 rom-dram Bounce.
Photo: Getty Images13/20“All my clothes in that movie were Donna Karen,” Paltrow said of her wardrobe in 1998’s Great Expectations. The film’s costume designer, Judianna Makovsky, told her that the visual palette would be entirely green: every set, piece of fabric, and so on. “Donna had done a very green collectsion, and it just so happened to be all kinds of perfect for the character; perfectly ’90s and elegant,” Paltrow continued.
Photo: Getty Images14/20Wearing a see-through Armani dress to the 1998 premiere of Shakespeare in Love.
Photo: Getty Images15/20Attending a Beck concert at the Roxy in New York, 1998.
Photo: Getty Images16/20Longtime friends Paltrow and Drew Barrymore—pictured together at a 1998 event—have more in common than just their profession: They both share Steven Spielberg as a godfather.
Photo: Getty Images17/20You’d be hard-pressed to find a dress more iconic than the bubblegum pink Ralph Lauren ball gown Paltrow wore to the 1999 Academy Awards, where she won best actress for Shakespeare in Love. It even has a dedicated Wikipedia page.
Photo: Getty Images18/20At the opening of the Louis Vuitton store on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, 1998.
Photo: Alamy19/20Wes Anderson had an extremely clear vision for Paltrow’s character in The Royal Tenenbaums, from the color of her hair to her signature Izod shirtdress. “He knew from our first meeting exactly how he wanted Margot to look: tons of eyeliner, penny loafers, fur coat,” Paltrow said of her character in the 2001 film. “She’s hard to figure out, and that’s what her clothes say.”
Photo: Getty Images20/20“Everyone really hated this,” Paltrow said of her Alexander McQueen gown at the 2002 Academy Awards. “I think at the time it was too goth, too hard. But I think it’s kinda dope.”
