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Maeve Reilly Talks Megan Fox’s ‘Sexy,’ ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ Style and Coordinating With Machine Gun Kelly

If anyone is having a big year for style, it’s Megan Fox.

From her naked Mugler dress at the MTV VMAs to her scorching red cutout Peter Dundas gown at the Met Gala to her bright pink, Barbie-inspired Mach & Mach jumpsuit at the iHeartRadio Music Awards, the actress has elevated her red carpet and street style again and again.

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In the last few months, Fox’s outfits have caused constant frenzies on the internet, with fans going crazy for her looks — and much of that is due to her stylist Maeve Reilly. Though they’ve only worked together for less than a year, it seems like they’ve known each other for “lifetimes.”

“It’s been kind of like love at first sight, truthfully,” Reilly told WWD of her relationship with Fox. “The perfect synchronicity of us finding each other.…I don’t think I could have predicted how well this was going to go.”

After having big moments in the late 2000s into the early 2010s, due to hits like the “Transformers” franchise and “Jennifer’s Body,” Fox has mostly stayed out of the spotlight in the last few years due to dedicating her time to raising a family. (She has three sons with Brian Austin Green, whom she formally separated from in 2020 after a decade of marriage.)

However, last year conjured a timely moment for the star’s comeback when she started dating Machine Gun Kelly, who introduced Reilly to Fox in November after the former reached out to help with styling. Fox called her almost immediately.

“I think she’s having this completely new experience, dating [Machine Gun Kelly] and having these movies coming out. It’s just a different time for her. I think before she was kind of hiding and now we’re naked at the VMAs,” Reilly said. “We couldn’t be more polar opposite from where she was a year ago.

“People are really talking about what she’s wearing. I’ve always seen street style as a powerful tool to present yourself in a specific way,” she continued. “She’s obviously used that to her advantage in that we weren’t talking about what she was wearing a couple of years ago, and now we are. That’s obviously on purpose.”

Reilly, who also styles Hailey Bieber, Ciara and Lala Anthony, describes Fox’s style as multifaceted. There’s the “rock ‘n’ roll” side, but also an “over-the-top sexy” that’s been portrayed in her red carpet outfits as of late. Fox can also exude an essence of “cool tomboy, effortless and easy.”

In addition to the naked Mugler VMAs dress and the red Peter Dundas Met Gala gown (which Reilly worked on together with the designer himself), some of the stylist’s favorite looks for Fox so far include a red Alex Perry suit that Fox wore on her birthday and an all-black, lace outfit by David Koma during New York Fashion Week.

“She wears stuff that other people just can’t wear, and that’s what’s really fun for me as a stylist,” Reilly said. “I think that’s how you give everyone their own sort of individual flavor. There’s no other client I have that could have ever worn those [David Koma] tights in the middle of the day.”

At times, Fox’s outfits are influenced by Machine Gun Kelly, who has also emerged as a style icon in the last year, which Reilly has to take into consideration when dressing her. Once the day of an event rolls around, sometimes she and her team have multiple looks prepared for Fox contingent on what Machine Gun Kelly and his stylist, Adam Ballheim, decide.

“We definitely want to make sure that it is a beautiful image, both of them together and it’s important that we coordinate,” Reilly said. “I think as an artist, a lot of the times, they don’t know how they want to convey their vibe until the day of. So, [Machine Gun Kelly] may not decide until the day of the event and that is going to obviously affect what Megan wears. That goes for, by the way, any couple.”

This year also marks a big one for Reilly herself, who recently launched a YouTube channel to show fans a more intimate, behind-the-scenes look at her life and career as a stylist. Her clips on how she dressed Fox for the Met Gala and the VMAs have already accrued more than 600,000 views since she started in September.

Earlier this month, Reilly released a 70-piece collection with Nasty Gal, which offers pieces influenced by the stylist’s own personal and signature style and includes oversized outerwear, wide-legged denim, tailored suits and basics such as cropped tops.

Reflecting on her 16-year styling career, Reilly said: “I never could have dreamed in a million years that I would be where I am today, from that very first day to now, it’s kind of crazy.”

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