Thrifted Broaches, Red Lipstick, and Crystals That Attract Abundance: What Alexandra Shipp Is Buying Right Now

Alexandra Shipp has always loved musicals. “My favorite was Jesus Christ Superstar,” the X-Men and Straight Outta Compton actor tells me over Zoom. “Diverse people all coming together and rocking out? That always was so cool and inspiring. I would love to play Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar. I’ve been dreaming about that since I was a little girl, being like, ‘Wouldn’t it be beautiful if it was an all-women cast?’ I think that would be so interesting and innovative and iconic.” 

In fact, Shipp says, that early love of Jesus Christ Superstar is one reason why she was so excited about the chance to work with Lin-Manuel Miranda on his directorial debut for Tick, Tick… Boom!, a film adaptation of Jonathan Larson‘s semi-autobiographical musical. (It’s now available in a limited release, and streaming on Netflix starting November 19.) 

“Lin is just such a creator,” Shipp says. “He is so creative, and it was really fun to go back and forth and shuck and jive with him. Not only on the character work and stuff like that, but also the story.” 

Shipp plays Susan, an aspiring dancer and the on-again, off-again girlfriend to Jon (Andrew Garfield). For the role, she trained three hours a day with a private coach—and loved it. “By the end of the job, I was like, ‘I think she’s a dancer!’ I learned a skill,” she says. “I actually really love it. I just shot my first music video for myself, for my music, and it’s all dance.”

But what else does Alexandra Shipp love? Read on for our latest installment of Your Fave’s Faves.

How I’d describe my style

I am a huge vintage shopper. The majority of my clothing is thrifted or from a vintage shop. I love putting together modern pieces with vintage pieces. I’ll take a sheer, super-tight turtleneck and throw on a blazer that I found at Goodwill and pair it with some vintage jeans and some old dusty Doc Martens. I definitely go for that girl-boss, daddy vibe with a feminine flare. And I’ll do my makeup really cute and have geometric lines or dots or something. I love to mix those energies and compile them into one weird moment. 

I also collect broaches because I love being an old woman. I’ll be at the little display counter in an antique mall being like, “Can I see that?” And I go piece by piece. I love old things, and I feel they don’t make those types of materials anymore. If it still exists, it exists at a vintage shop and hasn’t fallen apart like something you’d get from a store today. You just don’t really have high quality these days. I’m the same way with my instruments. The majority of my guitars are from a used shop.

The best thing in my closet

My grandmother was a style icon. She had looks! And since all of her fabulous looks from the seventies and eighties are coming back…. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the 2000s are super hot right now, but I lived those butterfly clips and the extra low-rise jeans and the micro skirts. I lived that. I’m okay. I don’t really want those extra low-rise jeans to come back. I’m not mad at the butterfly clips. I’ll rock those all day, but not the Rocket Dogs and all of that. I’m like, “No, I did that. I don’t want to go back.” My grandmother has this gorgeous black pleather trench with shoulder pads, honey. It is the most iconic thing. I’m so grateful that my mom gave me some really beautiful pieces from my grandmother; it’s not only fabulous, but it’s also family and feels like an heirloom that I can still rock.

The treat my dogs love most

I have a Blue Nose Pitbull named Layla. She is seven. And then I have a miniature Yorkie named Kali. I named her after the goddess of destruction, and she is eight. My pitbull is the younger sibling and definitely the baby. She’s like, “I’m tiny. I am a lap dog. Let me sit on your face.” She’s so loving and wonderful with kids. My godson is non-verbal autistic, so sometimes when he’s really stemming hard she’ll come over and lay on him and lick his face. I didn’t teach her that, but it really does help to calm him down. Pitbulls are just incredible, and they get the worst rep. My number one thing for them is Bully Sticks and crazy long walks. These are two things that we can’t live without. We give them a Bully Stick and allow them to have their alone time. They love treats. My dogs are not huge fans of toys. I know they identify as humans, so it’s really frustrating. I’ll try and play with their toys with them and they don’t care. It’s upsetting. I got a whole rack of balls for the girls, and they could care less.

My favorite things in my house 

I have a whole rack in my home full of cameras. One old camera was my grandfather’s in the war. I’ve really cherished that. I have a Polaroid camera. I have a lot of 35 millimeters. And then I have so many disposable cameras. I try and use the cameras as much as I possibly can. People tease me on set because I don’t want to take my full-on cameras on set because they could drop, or I could lose them. So I use disposable cameras when I’m behind the scenes. People are like, “Did I just hear a disposable camera click?”