Emma Watson: Fashion Helped Prove I Was Something Outside of 'Harry Potter'

From the beginning, Emma Watson wanted to show the world that she had a flair for stepping out in style, which meant wearing what other young actresses her age were afraid to wear.

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"The press destroyed me over this Rodarte dress I wore once: It was bright blue with chains on it," the star told U.K. newspaper The Independent about stepping out in the daring number as a 19-year-old in 2009. "I loved it. And I wore a leather Christopher Kane dress [in 2010] with embroidered flowers all over it. It wasn't that crazy, but at the time…"

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As it turns out, the 21-year-old Brit was able to fashion (no pun intended) her eye for style into a trait she became known for. (She landed a campaign for Burberry in 2009 and is currently the face for Lancome.) That, she says, helped balance out the fact that she'll forever be known as Hermione Granger from "Harry Potter."

"Fashion gave me a chance to feel like I was something outside of 'Potter,'" she said. "I'm a multidimensional person, and that's the freedom of fashion: that you're able to reinvent yourself through how you dress and how you cut your hair or whatever."

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That couldn't be closer to the truth. Before the pixie cut was worn by Ashlee Simpson and Katherine Heigl, Watson made it famous when she chopped off her brunette locks in 2010, and she has been rocking the style ever since.

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