Kate Hudson brought Penny Lane into 2024 with an updated take on her Almost Famous character’s iconic look.
Hudson was spotted on Thursday, January 4, in New York City wearing a fuzzy nude shearling coat. She paired the floor-length jacket with black wedge boots and a long jean skirt. Peeking out of her coat’s sleeve was a multicolored long-sleeve sweater. The actress also carried a printed top-handle bag as she walked the streets of the Big Apple.
While the new look wasn’t an exact match for the one she wore in the 2000 film, Penny Lane’s inspiration was evident. Almost Famous follows the story of a teenage journalist (Patrick Fugit) as he joins the rock band Stillwater on tour and is taken under the wing of groupie Penny Lane.
In the film, Hudson rocked a coat with a similar fur that lined the trim against a green fabric. The coat was a staple to the movie, as her character wore it in several scenes with different outfits. Costume designer Betsy Heimann opened up about the movie’s iconic rock and roll looks – especially the jacket – while speaking with Daze in 2015.
“We knew that Penny Lane had a coat. There was no picture reference for that at all, I just felt like she was so vulnerable on the inside and so strong on the outside, that this coat was her armor,” she explained to the outlet. “She could wrap herself up in it and no matter how low or insecure she was feeling, she put on that coat and she became Penny Lane. It was her protection. I immediately felt it had to have a little bit of fur. I actually made that coat out of a rug with the collar and some upholstery fabric that I found and it was inspired by a 1920s opera coat because they were longer in the back than they were at the front.”
Unfortunately, the coat disappeared after the film wrapped and Heimann doesn’t know what happened to it.
“The Penny Lane coat was in the Dreamworks archive for a long time and then it went on tour with the brown velvet pants I made her and a little lace camisole,” she shared. “The Penny Lane outfit went on to go to a costume exhibit overseas and it never came back.”
Hudson, for her part, also isn’t sure where the coat ended up but did take some of the other wardrobe items home as souvenirs.
“I stole a pair of jeans and a shirt I don’t even think made it in the movie,” Hudson revealed to W magazine in January 2023. “I didn’t get the fur. I think the coat is in the Academy Museum.”
