What’s Up, Alexis Bledel? The Love, Loss Star Talks Fashion, Gilmore Girls & Robert Redford

After seven seasons as intelligent, driven and devoted daughter Rory on TV’s Gilmore Girls, Alexis Bledel has gone on to star in films such as Post Grad and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. These days, Bledel’s attention is focused not just on pants, but dresses, purses, boots and plenty of other clothing items as she makes her stage debut in off-Broadway’s fashion-centric hit Love, Loss and What I Wore. Broadway.com caught up with Bledel to chat about her own fashion memories and her days in Gilmore’s humble town of Stars Hollows.

Love, Loss and What I Wore marks your stage debut. Why did you decide to try theater?
I’ve never worked with a live audience and I thought this show would be a fun way to ease into theater work. The writing is so great, and I’m a huge fan of Nora and Delia Ephron, so this was a pretty easy decision. Having the audience was [nerve-wracking] at first, but now I find it so satisfying because you have people laughing immediately when something is funny.

Do you have any clothing-related memories that would work in the show?
We actually talked about that in rehearsal, and my high school uniform, a khaki pleated skirt with a blue wool blazer, came to mind. I loved it because I didn’t have to figure out what to wear every day. I’m not really good at figuring out what goes together and it takes me a long time to get it right. By the time I was a senior, though, I hated it and wanted to burn it after graduation. A year later, I started Gilmore Girls and I had to wear Rory’s school uniform for four years. Hers was much cuter than mine, but I couldn’t believe I was back in uniform.

Do you ever go back and look at the clothes you wore on Gilmore Girls?
I haven’t had a TV in five years! I think it’s time to get one [laughs]. I don’t watch the show that much, but I remember her clothes. TV clothes have to be very colorful so they pop on a small screen. After the show wrapped, I was given a lot of the clothes; I’d gravitate toward brighter colors when I went shopping on my own, so I had an obnoxiously bright personal wardrobe.

When Gilmore Girls ended in 2007, Rory was following Barack Obama on the campaign trail. What do you imagine she would be up to these days?
I think she would be working at a newspaper, probably in Washington or New York. She was so interested in journalism and I think eventually she’d travel abroad. She looked up to [ABC news correspondent] Christiane Amanpour, who’s always out on location and getting to the nitty gritty.

Do you enjoy dresssing up for magazine shoots and show-biz events?
Occasionally. I don’t mind getting dressed up because I have a great stylist and she knows what goes together. It depends on what the event is. It’s not the most fun to go out and promote yourself, but sometimes I get invited to really fun places, especially since I moved back to New York. There’s art related events, theater openings, political events and so much going on here that’s not the Hollywood type stuff.

What do you love about living in New York?
I feel much more inspired creatively here on a daily basis, which I can’t say I ever consistently felt in L.A. There’s something about the pace of the city that gives me energy and toughens me up a little bit.

You star in Robert Redford’s new Civil War-era film The Conspirator. What was it like to be directed by him?
Surreal and really amazing. He knows exactly what he’s looking for, but leaves you a little bit of room to be an artist as well. He keeps you on your toes because sometimes he will be inspired by something and change a line right before you shoot, but everything he does makes perfect sense. He’s been doing it forever.

After Love, Loss and What I Wore, do you think you’ll return to theater?
I would love to. I feel more at home onstage than I ever thought I would. I thought it’d be weird because I’m so soft spoken, but there’s so much you can do with your voice on the stage. I really hope I get this opportunity again.