A whisper under 5'10" and a wide-shouldered size 6, the British-born actress dazzles even when she's dressing ditzy, as she does in her role as Frasier's uppity housekeeper. "Daphne's an eclectic mishmash...she shoots from the hip and just misses," says Leeves, 34. "But I feel warmth toward her—she tries so hard." Wading through Leeves's real-life wardrobe, though, is a clothes encounter of the sensible kind. Meticulously arranged in five standard-size closets in her North Hollywood home, Leeves's collection of formal and casual wear reflects a flawless fashion sense sharpened by hours of browsing. "There isn't a dress shop in town that I haven't been in," says Leeves, who spends about $7,000 a year—a modest sum by celebrity standards—on clothes. "I'm a professional. I know what to look for."
Partial to neutrals and clean lines ("I'm not the frilly type"), Leeves reserves one closet for her best clothes: tailored evening dresses (Donna Karen, Calvin Klein, Galliano), jackets arranged by color, a black velvet cape and her favorite outfit, a burgundy Richard Tyler pants ensemble she bought on sale ("It's paid for itself over and over").
Equally practical are the black pants ("You can never have too many pairs") and skirts she wears with T-shirts or sweaters, and her "time-of-the-month wardrobe—loose and uncranky-making stuff I wear when I don't want even my clothes touching me."
Not that Leeves is pure Plain Jane. As a teen punk in London she had pink hair and "black spike boots—I'd feel like a mutton-dressed lamb if I walked around like that now," she says. On shopping forays with pal Faith Ford (who plays Murphy Brown's Corky), something "different" might still catch her eye, "until Faith says, 'NO, Jane, what are you thinking?' " Leeves admits. And then there are the 80 pairs of shoes. "I'm nowhere near as bad as Imelda Marcos," says Leeves, whose footwear fills a closet wall, "but I like an outfit to be properly finished."
To that end, she'll personalize a Dolce & Gabbana slip dress with a chiffon wrap ("You know no one else will have that on," she says) or transform her $100 Kenar jacket by upgrading the "cheesy" buttons. "When I'm getting dressed," says Leeves, "I think about Lauren Bacall and Catherine Deneuve—women whose sexiness comes more from their intelligence than from what's hanging out of their dress." Hear that, Hollywood? "I always want to play someone who wears an Armani suit," says Leeves with a sigh, "and I never do."
Your Reaction
