Lupita Nyong’o is the very essence of a style icon. She marches to her own drum. She slips effortlessly between dramatic haute couture and daytime spectacle, while embracing ethnic influences and being a standout wherever she goes.

Born in Mexico to Kenyan parents and raised in Kenya, this graduate of Hampshire College – who also holds an MA from the Yale School of Drama – has always had a sure sense of what looks good on her.

While she has flirted with traditional black and white,

she has also turned heads in bright colors with dramatic lines: for instance, on the red carpet at the Golden Globes in 2014, regal in a scarlet sheath with attached cape, the classic lines making her instantly indelible.

A Golden Globe nominee and The first Kenyan and Mexican to win an Oscar – for her big screen debut no less, in 12 Years a Slave – Lupita exhibits the skill of any fashion icon: to make a look their own, so that the garment enhances rather than dominates. Her make-up can be understated, but she also experiments with color in a unique way that only she can carry.

Her hair is usually groomed chicly, with braids or headbands. Jewelry is subtle, often eschewing neck adornment, leaving her gleaming skin to make the statement.

In the short time she’s been strolling the red carpet, some of her choices have already become iconic yet she doesn’t take herself too seriously and can often be found twirling in front of photographers.

An actor and a documentary director, Lupita’s assurance is not only visible on the screen and red carpet, but by what she says, tackling controversial topics and raising her voice in awareness of minorities and women. Whether she’s soft and demure or flagrantly fierce. Lupita Nyong’o is a woman to watch.

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Margaret Gardiner