In her day-to-day life, Ashley Park is a pure bohemian flower child. “I love a flowy Free People dress and my favorite article of clothing right now are my distressed, ripped jeans from Alice & Olivia or my Converse sneakers,” Park, who plays Gretchen Wiener in Mean Girls on Broadway, tells InStyle.com the morning after the Tony Awards. “Both me and Gretchen have a soft spot for Kate Spade. We both love a halter neck and a statement piece. Every piece of Gretchen's outfit is a statement piece. She tries a little too hard to coordinate; it's very sweet.”
Park made her Broadway debut in 2014 in Mamma Mia!, but really made a stamp on the Great White Way when she played Tuptim in the revival of The King and I. This Tonys season, she was nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical.
Having virtually grown up in the musical theater world (she was a musical theater student at the University of Michigan and performed in her high school musicals before that), Park is used to playing dress up. But something felt a bit different about last night’s costume change:
“For a performance, I have the same people every day helping me get into hair and costume, and a set schedule after our half-hour call,” Park explains. “Jimmy brings my wig, Margiann presets my costumes as my dresser, and I do my [own] make up. For an awards show, there are a number of other hair and make-up stylists involved in prepping me and instead of getting into a costume that I wear every day, I'm getting into a special outfit specifically for that evening!”
To the Tonys, Park worked with celebrity stylist Micaela Erlanger who dressed her in a custom, tulle Pamella Roland gown.
RELATED: The Best Accessories Tips from Celebrity Stylist Micaela Erlanger
“The color and texture and shape is something that I've never worn before,” Park says of her ultra-glam moment. “It was the first dress I tried on in my second fitting and everyone in the room was unanimous that it was the one. I am very drawn to unique and vibrant colors and I wanted to take a risk since it was my first Tonys carpet.”
Erlanger paired the plum gown with Jimmy Choo heels (“that are superrrr high but with a chunky heel, so that the heels don't get stuck in the tulle,” Park tells us) and H. Stern rings that matched the moon and stars theme. “I felt like I was wearing a garden on my gown that feels like air, and with the sky on my hands.”
