When it comes to looks she’d rather forget – an occupational hazard for any former child star – Williams stays diplomatic. There were, she admits, some rocky years around 14 or 15, when she went shopping in Paris in stiletto heels, chasing a Carrie Bradshaw fantasy with “really bad posture and jeans that didn’t fit me quite right”. But she won’t disown those early experiments. “I had a vision and it didn’t quite execute, but I wasn’t the first, and I certainly won’t be the last,” she says, before adding, sagely: “It’s good to fall down every now and then and realise it takes work to pull off a good look.” Recently, the actress has been taking cues from the ’90s, looking to her on-screen mother in Practical Magic 2, Sandra Bullock, for inspiration in slip dresses and denim. Joining Bullock on the moodboard is Winona Ryder, a permanent fixture, Williams says, whether in a corded choker and Converse or tailored trousers and a slouchy suit jacket.
The studded leather Fendi baguette.
Sofi Adams
By now, Williams has enough fashion weeks under her belt to offer a few survival tips. “When the party’s not great, the party’s over,” she says. And her Fendi Baguette essentials? “A battery pack, a powder puff, and maybe a boiled sweet. Or sometimes it’s a Babybel.” Her final piece of advice for the four-city circuit is to pace yourself. “Particularly for those 9 am shows,” she adds. “You don’t want to be sitting there with sunglasses on the whole time.”