“Jet lag, baby,” is how Joey King describes her mindset on a whirlwind trip to Italy for Milan Fashion Week. Lack of sleep aside, she’s keeping morale high: “There’s almost a slap-happy vibe when you’re this tired that’s kind of fun,” King tells Vanity Fair.
The 25-year-old actor is used to running on fumes. After starring as a Holocaust survivor in Hulu’s based-on-a-true-story limited series We Were the Lucky Ones, she headlined the Netflix rom-com A Family Affair alongside Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron. Her latest film for the streamer is a long-percolating adaptation of the YA novel Uglies—a book King read at age 11, pitched to Netflix at 17 as an executive producer, and filmed at 22. “It’s been an insane year. I’m so grateful and fortunate,” she says. “I am really open and willing to be surprised, and I want to surprise my audience always as well.”
Fresh off the release of her last major project, King is in town for Max Mara’s spring/summer 2025 runway show, where, for the first time, she’ll sit front-row next to Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour. “She’s so cool, and she’s really funny, honestly,” says King. “She’s a lot more easygoing than people might think, and I really admire her. What I love is that you can really feel when you’re sitting with her how much she just loves and appreciates fashion and finds so much joy in it.”
On King’s other side is her husband, writer-director Steven Piet, whom she met while playing Gypsy Rose Blanchard on Hulu’s The Act. “Oh, he is a fashionista,” she says. “This is the first show that we’ve been able to attend together…. He really gets into fashion, and I love that about him. I really love it when a man cares about what he looks like.” King will be the first to admit that the couple, who married in September 2023, dress similarly. “We accidentally end up coordinating often,” she says. “We’ll separately get dressed, and then we’ll come out and be like, ‘Oh, and we match,’ which is cute.”
Despite her upbeat disposition, King decided to channel “a bit of a stormy vibe” with her long-sleeved, collared dress for the Max Mara show, which features ruching details at the bodice and a midsection cutout, offering “a very subtle sexiness,” says King. “This look really stood out because I felt like it had a youthfulness to it, even while still having parts of the body more covered up. There’s a playfulness with the cutout and the way the buttons are structured.” Plus, the floor-length hem meant “I could cross my legs comfortably,” she adds. “I love to be fashionable and comfortable at the same time.” Ultimately, the ensemble felt a little like King herself: “It doesn’t take itself too seriously, but yet it’s so elevated and stunning.”
By Vincenzo Grillo.
