Faye in new Gucci ad campaign film short

You may assume that by 77, one’s personal style groove is finely tuned. For Faye Dunaway, “simple elegance”, as she describes it, has long been her modus operandi (see, the pared-back column dresses and tailoring she favours on the red carpet) but her latest role, as the star of Gucci’s new Sylvie handbag campaign has altered her thinking.

“The Gucci style has taught me to be more adventurous again,” she says of her renewed approach. Of course, if anything is going to prompt a style gear shift, then a chance to dress up in Alessandro Michele’s maximalist-fabulous designs will do it.

“Everything I tried on at the initial styling session I loved, and I mean everything! I was genuinely surprised at how well they all suited me,” writes Dunaway, who rarely gives interviews, from her home in New York where she is currently listening to CDs of her campaign co-star Soko’s music- “I must confess that I had not heard her work before, but she is a joy.”

The duo play a mother and daughter living a life of “luxurious leisure” in Hollywood; cue shots of a meticulously coiffed Dunaway in a stripe-trimmed white lace tracksuit with co-ordinating cap and trainers for tennis, a beautifully botanical day dress and straw hat for a spot of shopping on Rodeo Drive and in a pink pussy-bow blouse (not dissimilar to that famously worn by Melania Trump back in 2016) and clashing tomato red trousers for lounging on pristine cream sofas. “I really enjoy wearing the lace tracksuit, what an amazingly cool idea,” says Dunaway of her favourite outfit.

She has long epitomised a coolly insouciant take on Hollywood glamour. She “couldn’t possibly choose” a best-loved look from her repertoire but Bonnie’s (of 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde) berets and printed silks surely feature on Michele’s eclectic Gucci moodboard and the shot by Terry O’Neill (the man who she later married) of her kicking back in a silk robe beside the pool at the Beverly Hills hotel on the morning after her Oscar win in 1977, papers scattered around her and statuette casually placed on the table beside her, is the stuff of legend.

“The Hollywood thing is not my lifestyle now,” she explains. Dunaway’s most recent brush with viral fame was her role as co-announcer, alongside Warren Beatty, of Best Picture at the 2017 Academy Awards. A mix-up with the cards meant that La La Land was mistakenly announced as the winner instead of Moonlight.

She returned to present the same award in a rather more uneventful fashion earlier this year, opting to wear the same black blazer-like Esteban Cortezar dress she had chosen for the previous year’s red carpet. “My agent Paul Pearson told me I should go back and called the Academy,” she says. “I must admit I was nervous about it of course but it turned out to be the best thing to do in the end. I had a wonderful night with old and new friends alike.”

Dunaway is a Netflix convert- “it’s great to dip in and out at your own pace”- and tells me she’s looking forward to the third series of The Crown. She may even be in London while she’s watching. “I am longing to return to the theatre where my career began and I am currently in talks for a very special re-working of a classic for London’s West End followed by Broadway in 2019, so sorry I can’t reveal more yet,” she confides.

The top-handled Sylvie handbag does have a rather queenly quality, too, especially in the hands of Hollywood royalty.