We all buy clothes, but no two people shop the same. It can be a social experience, and a deeply personal one; at times, it can be impulsive and entertaining, at others, purpose-driven, a chore. Where do you shop? When do you shop? How do you decide what you need, how much to spend and what’s “you”? These are some of the questions we’re putting to prominent figures in our column “How I Shop.”

A great poet once said, “Always wear your couture. Don’t just let it sit in your closet.” 

Okay, “poet” may be a stretch for Benito Skinner, who once shared this advice with his best friend, fellow comedian Mary Beth Barone. But that doesn’t make his words any less profound — she lives by them to this day. 

“I found this orange Vivienne Westwood dress on Ssense, called the Sunday Dress, and I bought it to wear to a wedding,” Barone tells Fashionista. “But I just feel like I want to wear this [anywhere], so I’m not just going to save it for weddings. I want to wear it to a dinner or even to a lunch. It’s just fun to get dressed up, especially in New York in the summer.”

She’s been finding the fun in fashion for as long as she can remember. As a toddler, her dress-up box was always overflowing with clothes. As she got older, her sense of style became more refined — her closet, though, is still packed to the brim. 

“My personal style has definitely gone through a lot of changes over the years,” she shares. “In high school, it was very much like designer jeans, polo shirts, Juicy [Couture] zip-ups, that sort of thing, being from Connecticut. In college, it was a lot of bandage skirts and dresses. Luckily, I still have a few of those items in my closet, but I’m mixing them in with other things.”

The actor recently got to revisit her college years as a leading star in the comedy series “Overcompensating.” She plays Grace, Benny (Skinner)’s older sister, who’s trying to come into her own while navigating her complicated relationship with her boyfriend Peter (Adam DiMarco). Fashion-wise, Grace’s preppy-yet-feminine style is defined by mini skirts, cropped polo shirts, short dresses and cardigans — a departure from Barone’s own sartorial tastes (past and present), which made the role all the more fun. 

“I remember when I first started working with the costume designer, Hanna [Puley], we talked about going to Reformation, getting dresses and then making them as short as possible,” Barone shares. “We were making sure that it felt like the outfits had thought put into them, but [Grace] wasn’t totally nailing preppy because that’s not who she is naturally. If we get to Season 2, we could see her explore more of her own personal style, which is a really exciting prospect.”

Off-screen, Barone is more assured in her personal style. Below, the actor and comedian talks about her ’90s fashion inspirations, splurging on vintage designer, shopping her friends’ closets and more.

“I’ve always been obsessed with clothes, shopping and fashion. I don’t know if it’s just because I’m a ’90s kid, but I had these iconic women in pop culture who were influencing me. My mom is also very stylish, as is my dad; both are very well-dressed. I have older sisters, too, and I had one sister who subscribed to all the fashion magazines. So she would get those and flip through them, and then I would take them and make collages out of them.

“Being a stand-up comedian has made me rethink the way I put outfits together because when you’re putting an outfit together to wear out, to move around in, you’re not actually staring at it still under a spotlight. When you do stand up, you see a lot of photos of yourself, especially early on, where you’re standing still on stage and you’re like, ‘Ooh, I don’t know if that outfit actually looked that good.’ So I’m thinking about what the outfit looks like when I’m performing.

“I want to show up in something that looks put together, but not overly complicated. I also don’t like adjusting my clothes while I’m on stage. So I think my job has informed my fashion because I don’t want things that are fussy.

“There’s one [stand-up look] that’s just so clearly the favorite, which is this archival Versace dress I wore for my special taping. I put out a YouTube special called ‘Thought Provoking,’ and I worked with Tab Vintage. Alexis [Novak] over there is a genius. When I went in to try on something completely different, she said, ‘We just got this dress in. I haven’t seen it on anyone yet, and I would love for you to try it on.’ We just knew as soon as we zipped it up that that was the dress.

“For a show that’s less of an event, I’ll still put on a fun boot and maybe a crop top and jeans. For the shows that feel like bigger performances, I really like to turn up the glamor: I wore this Wiederhoeft dress with beaded gloves and tights and these YSL stilettos when I did a show to interview Zohran Mamdani, who just won the Democratic primary for mayor. I really wanted to feel good and bring this respect and reverence that this political candidate deserved. 

“My Pinterest board is a lot of actresses in the ’90s. The pared-down, chic, effortless elegance of ’90s actresses like Gwyneth Paltrow — who is definitely a big inspiration for me — is the vibe that I really wanted to nail with this press tour. 

“I wish I kept the pushup bras [from the ‘Overcompensating’ set] because they were the perfect size, and I know they were from Victoria’s Secret, but I have not been able to find them online. I don’t think I kept anything from the wardrobe, but I did keep a can of Bitch Water, which was the fake sparkling spiked seltzer brand that Benny came up with for the show.

“Dressing for events can be really stressful, so it’s about wearing things that make me feel really confident. I love wearing dresses, and I’m just in a very girly, feminine era of red-carpet style. The Roberto Cavalli dress that I wore for the [‘Overcompensating’] premiere felt like the perfect balance of sexy and feminine, but also not necessarily short and tight. It had these cutouts and it had a slit in the front. And then I wore this Roberto Cavalli dress to the Gotham Awards that had cutouts on the side. Benny told me it looked like in ‘The Little Mermaid’ when she just gets her legs and she wraps herself in a tarp and puts rope around it. I love that reference. 

“I’ve worn Dior a couple of times and they’ve been more archival or vintage pieces, so I’m really excited to see what they come out with now that they have the new creative director. Chanel, too, is just so classic and so girly, and I know they have a new creative director there as well. I’m looking forward to all these switch-ups at these fashion houses and what the next era looks like for them.

“For pieces that are not accessories, I really like to shop in-store. I do a lot of vintage shopping. I love The RealReal. If there’s something specific that I’m looking for, I think Poshmark is a great place to shop. I do go to Reformation a lot — I can almost always find something to buy. For basics, I love going to Everlane. I really love their cotton and long-sleeved shirts.

“I was shopping with my stylist, Kat [Typaldos], at an archive in L.A., and we found this Prada top that looks like the sleeves of a button-down, and it has these little doodles on the front. I don’t think I have anything that’s vintage Prada, but it was so striking to me, and I was just like, ‘Well, I have to have that one.’ 

“I just bought this vintage Louis Vuitton bag, and it’s my favorite vintage piece I’ve ever gotten. I got it at a vintage store in Savannah, Georgia. It is the Speedy Bag, with the cherries from the Murakami collection.

“There is a red leather Bottega [Veneta] jacket that I got at The RealReal that’s such a statement piece. I can’t wear it in the rain, I’m too scared. I really can’t wear it, honestly. It’s not that functional. But whenever I do wear it, it’s just buttery soft leather, and it’s so bright and attention-grabbing.

“I love shopping in other people’s closets. I don’t have a boyfriend, but I have a gay best friend, and whenever I’m at Benny’s house, I’m like, ‘Do you have a cute little oversized jacket I could wear?’ Or I’ll sneak into my parents’ closets or my sister’s.

“I’m really into ’90s cut jeans right now. I got a pair at Reformation, and they’re just so much more comfortable than high-waisted jeans. But also with the internet, it feels like nothing’s going to go out of style ever again. There will be some corner of the internet where [a trend is] considered fashionable. What I also realized is that when you become an actor, you can wear anything, and it’s considered kind of fashionable, especially with street style. So I need to book more acting jobs so that I can continue to wear whatever I want.

“Fashion is such an important part of who I am as a performer and as a person. Maybe it’s because fashion is considered more for the girls and the gays that people will roll their eyes at it, or they think it’s frivolous, but it is art to me. It is so powerful, and fashion can make people feel like a truer version of themselves. 

Homepage Photo: Amanda Edwards/Getty Images for Film Independent

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