Best and Worst of the Year

Sarah Jessica Parker

UPDATED 09/19/1994 at 01:00 AM EDT • Originally published 09/19/1994 at 01:00 AM EDT

Growing up in Ohio, the fourth of eight children, she wore smock dresses, sailor suits and saddle oxfords—"classic clothes," recalls the Honeymoon in Vegas star, "that could be handed down. We couldn't afford to be trendy." So what does Parker, 29, do now that hard times are behind her? What anyone would—she goes wild. A self-described "eclectic" dresser, she adores tasteful Chanel jackets as well as campy corsets like the one she wore in Hocus Pocus. But it sometimes takes smoke and mirrors to pull off her unstudied style. "She works enough on looking good that she looks like she doesn't work on it," says Andrew Bergman, who directed her in Vegas. Still, Parker's beau, actor Matthew Broderick, might be happier if she added a few of those sailor suits to her revealing wardrobe. "When my boyfriend and I are going out," says Parker, "he'll sometimes look at me and say, 'Where's your dress?' "