Actress Caylee Cowan Talks Her Collab With Tolani Inspired by Her Own Closet

Caylee Cowan’s House of Tolaní collaboration is inspired by her own wardrobe.

Cowan, 26, exclusively opened up to Us Weekly about her her sustainable new capsule collection, which launched in August, sharing that the whole line is “something you would wear while you’re on vacation.”

“I just picked outfits that I have worn in the past,” she told Us, noting she “took a lot of inspiration from [her] closet” for the designs, which feature low-key styles and flowy frocks. “It’s modest, elegant, comfortable, feminine, inclusive and environmentally conscious.”

One of the garbs was even inspired by a frock Cowan has had for a decade now. “There is one dress that’s white and black,” she said, seemingly describing the Kipp White Dress which features a square neckline, a loosely fitted silhouette and dainty sequins. “It’s inspired by a dress that I’ve had in my closet since I was, like, 16 years old.”

Cowan said designing the collection meant embracing and celebrating her body.

“I can either be very lean or I’m very curvy. And regardless, I store most of my weight in my chest,” she said. “And that’s always been something that’s been really hard for me because everybody has that specific area whether it’s their hips or their arms, you know, where I want it to be more flattering. And for me, that’s like trying to find ways to have to be modest. I feel like those are some of the dresses that I really love [and] that are so fashionable and yet they aren’t revealing in any way.”

As an actress, Cowan has a lot of fun playing dress up on and off screen.

“Emotionally, what makes me feel good is how I express myself through fashion,” she said.

“How we dress ourselves up can really affect our confidence. When you put an outfit on, it can change the way that you feel. It can change the way that you hold yourself. It can really just make you feel amazing. And so that’s what I kind of try to achieve.”

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When she’s not designing new clothes, the rising star is constantly borrowing clothes from boyfriend Casey Affleck’s closet.

“Honestly, I steal a lot of my boyfriend’s clothes,” Cowan quipped to Us, spilling she’s recently borrowed his pieces to wear while filming psychological thriller Mother and Me, in which she plays a girl named Casey.

One of her favorite garments of Affleck’s to borrow is a pair of corduroy shorts, which she realized are surprisingly comfortable. “I put them on one day and I was like, wait, these are so comfy,” she told Us. “And they’re so cute. I really like them.” She also routinely steals his old T-shirts.

“The only problem is we live together and his youngest son, Atticus’ clothes will end up being folded and put into our closet, and I’ll end up wearing one of his shirts,” she joked, referencing Affleck’s 16-year-old son, whom he shares with ex Summer Phoenix. (Affleck, 49, and Phoenix, 45, are also the parents of son Indiana, 20.)

Cowan added that “it’s been a running joke ever since I started living with my boyfriend and his kids.”

When it comes to her red carpet and personal style, Cowan describes herself as “experimental.”

“My favorite red carpet look I’ve ever done was for the [2023] Vanity Fair Oscars party.I went with Casey and we wore Bruno Cucinelli,” she told Us, sharing that the designer’s daughter custom made the dress for her.

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At the time, she dazzled in a plunging black gown featuring a glittery bra overlay and a fitted silhouette. Affleck, for his part, was handsome in a black-and-white tuxedo.

“It was my first time ever going [to the party],” she recalled. “I went into the [Cucinelli] showroom [when] they were fitting Casey and they didn’t really have a lot of dresses at the time for women like that were super, super dressy. And nothing really fit me. And she came in and she basically designed this dress for me. It was really special.”

And the Oscar-winning actor has learned to embrace Cowan’s love of fashion as his own.

“He doesn’t love going on the red carpet, he doesn’t love fashion, he doesn’t love those things, but he goes because I like them,” said Cowan. “When he goes, I’m always, you know, fixing him up and then he does end up having fun with it. He went to a fashion show with me in Italy for Dolce & Gabbana and they’re also a really big, you know, family energy. They have like a three-day extravaganza and he had a really good time. For those events he always asks me, ‘oh, does this look good? Does this not look good?’ I think we help each other.”

With reporting by Andrea Simpson