How Gwyneth Paltrow Has Mastered Understated Luxury With Her Courtroom Style
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Gwyneth Paltrow has been in court all week over a skiing hit-and-run trial—but you wouldn’t know it from the headlines. As Paltrow has swept into the Park City, Utah courtroom day after day, there’s been one thing at the forefront of every major media outlet’s mind: the Goop founder’s “stealth wealth” fashion sense.
Paltrow, who is being sued by retired optometrist Terry Sanderson over a ski collision in 2016, has admittedly been serving quite the array of looks for her ongoing trial, and a new analysis piece from the New York Times points out that her wardrobe choices likely serve a purpose even beyond captivating (and distracting) those watching the trial unfold at home.
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Peter Metcalf, longtime Park City resident and the founder of outdoor gear company Black Diamond Equipment, told the New York Times that Paltrow’s looks have been “spot on for how Park City likes to dress for events,” a sentiment corroborated by resident Jen Shufro, who said that Paltrow’s quietly expensive outfits fit right in with a wealthy Park City crowd on which it was rare to “see Chanel and Louis Vuitton.”
On the contrary, Paltrow has steered well away from anything so garish as a visible logo, and tended much more towards Succession‘s Roy family fashion M.O. Her earth-toned, lightly slouchy looks have included gold Foundrae jewelry, a Loro Piana cream knit, a $5,445 The Row coat, and lug-soled Prada boots—but as the Times points out, these are all items you’d have to recognize in order to identify. Paltrow is signaling her wealth and taste to fellow Park City residents in her tax bracket, but to the rest of the world, she’s dressing in understated clothes that don’t play into the opposing side’s strategy of painting her as an out-of-touch, entitled celebrity.
The New York Times notes that Paltrow is “playing to the local crowd” with her fashion choices, while also walking a fine line of not outright costuming herself as innocent for trial. Her wardrobe taps into the relatable side Paltrow tries to channel on social media, but is still “respectful of both the venue and the location:” it doesn’t attempt to hide her clear wealth and privilege, but it doesn’t put it on display either.
Paltrow’s trial concerns a 2016 incident at the Deer Valley Resort in Park City, when either she collided with Sanderson on the slopes or he collided with her. Sanderson initially sued Paltrow for $3.1 million in 2019, claiming that he had suffered broken ribs and a traumatic brain injury after the collision, but that number was later reduced to $300,000, the amount in damages he’s currently seeking. Paltrow denies Sanderson’s version of events, claiming he was the one who collided with her, and she is countersuing him—for $1, plus legal fees.
As Paltrow maintains her innocence, her wardrobe is that of a woman who knows her worth and doesn’t need to shout about it—an impression that may serve her well as the trial reaches a verdict.
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