A Major Haircut and Movie Star Inspo: Inside Amal Clooney’s Glam at the 2026 Albies

Reported by Vogue.

Old Hollywood has always been Amal Clooney's reference point — the glossy waves, the radiant skin, the effortless red carpet authority. But for the fifth annual Albies, the human rights lawyer and style icon didn't just lean into the archive. She updated it, according to Vogue, with a Sophia Loren-meets-Kate-Moss brief that felt more alive than reverent.

The event itself set a high bar. Hosted by the Clooney Foundation for Justice at London's Natural History Museum, The Albies drew Laura Dern, Brad Pitt, Donatella Versace, Marisa Abela, and Myha'la Herrold to honor individuals fighting for human rights around the world. Clooney arrived in a custom Gucci gown by Demna — off-the-shoulder, gold sequined, and trailing floor-length fringe — built around the same Old Hollywood movie-star energy her longtime hairstylist and makeup artist Dimitris Giannetos was working with in the beauty chair.

The Cut That Changed Everything

The first move was the most dramatic: Giannetos took Clooney significantly shorter, adding razored, wispy layers and summer highlights before working in soft, side-parted waves with real texture and movement. "Glamorous, but still relaxed" was his stated goal — and the Tymo CurlPro, L'Oréal Paris Elvive Big Hair Dry Shampoo, and Elnett Hairspray (applied with assist from David Mazzotta) got him there. The result wasn't the architectural perfection of a classic screen siren. It was something better: a tumble of face-framing waves that caught the light without trying too hard.

Makeup followed the gown's lead without competing with it. Working entirely in Charlotte Tilbury — the brand's fifth consecutive year partnering with The Albies — Giannetos built a luminous base using the Magic Serum Crystal Elixir, Airbrush Flawless Foundation, and the Hollywood Contour Wand, then layered warmth with the Beauty Light Wand and Unreal Blush Healthy Glow Stick. Eyes got depth via the Exagger-Eyes Easy Eyeshadow Stick in Oyster Twilight and the Hollywood Flawless Light Tricks Palette; a nude lip in Lip Cheat Contour Duo and Hot Lips 2 in Angel Alessandra kept attention on the gilded complexion. The finishing trick was Charlotte Tilbury's new translucent powder — strategic mattifying in specific zones while preserving that full-face glow. "I'm obsessed with it," Giannetos said plainly.

What Clooney pulled off at The Albies is the thing that actually separates great style from cosplay: she borrowed from a legend without impersonating one, letting a little disorder into the silhouette and a little modernity into the glamour — proof that the best beauty references are always the ones you make your own.

Read the original at Vogue.