Hailee Steinfeld paired her heels with black cotton socks for the world premiere of Disney’s Hexed, adding an unusual finishing touch to a Fendi dress with an intricate, lace-like pattern.
The 29-year-old actress joined co-stars Rashida Jones and Jodie Foster at Hollywood’s El Capitan Theatre on November 12. The event brought together the animated film’s cast and filmmakers ahead of its Thanksgiving release.
The evening came seven months after Steinfeld and her husband, Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, welcomed their daughter, Harper, in April. She became a mother while working on the production, an experience she discussed during interviews on the carpet.
Steinfeld voices Billie, a teenager whose newly discovered magical abilities take her into Hexe, a realm of witches. Billie must work with her cautious mother, Alice, voiced by Jones, as they uncover secrets about their family.
Her Fendi Look Came Straight From the Runway
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Stylists Rob Zangardi and Mariel Haenn selected the ensemble from Fendi’s Fall 2026 collection. According to Red Carpet Fashion Awards, the accompanying Very Colibrí slingbacks and styling followed the runway presentation.
The dress is made from black lambskin cut into an embroidered macramé motif, as Fendi describes it. A shirt collar, fitted waist and front zipper shaped the silhouette, while the long sleeves and flared midi skirt carried the openwork design. Steinfeld wore the neckline open in a deep V.
Diamond drop earrings provided a bright accent against the dark outfit. She wore her hair straight with a center part, keeping the rest of the styling relatively simple around the detailed dress.
Her fellow guests chose different approaches. Foster wore a Carolina Herrera suit, Jones selected a Brandon Maxwell gown, and Ginnifer Goodwin arrived in lime-green Elie Saab with her husband, Josh Dallas.
Motherhood Changed Her Understanding of the Characters
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“I gained so much perspective so quickly on the mother-daughter relationship,” Steinfeld told PEOPLE. She described recognizing the competing instincts to protect a child from the world and encourage her to explore everything she can do.
That understanding extended to both Alice and Foster’s Queen Celeste, the powerful ruler determined to maintain control over Hexe. Steinfeld said she could appreciate the characters’ motivations from a different position now that she was raising a child herself.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, she praised her own mother and said she had never explored this kind of relationship through a role before. The project had prompted her to consider its complexity, the patience it requires and the lessons she was still learning. She hoped viewers would leave the film wanting to call their mothers and tell them they loved them.
She Recorded “Magic” in Just 24 Hours
Steinfeld’s soundtrack contribution is a cover of The Cars’ 1984 song “Magic,” released October 23, according to Good Morning America. The recording reunited her with Demitri Lerios, a musician she has known since childhood.
Walt Disney Animation Studios chief creative officer Jared Bush first texted her about the opportunity. She immediately accepted, then learned how quickly the song was needed. “The deadline was yesterday,” she recalled. Lerios traveled to Buffalo, New York, where they completed the recording in 24 hours.
Steinfeld estimated that this was her fourth project combining acting with a musical contribution. In her Beau Society newsletter, she described imagining Harper eventually dancing around the kitchen to the song, connecting the studio session with the family story she had been helping bring to the screen.
Directed by Fawn Veerasunthorn and Jason Hand, with Josie Trinidad as co-director, Hexed also features Walton Goggins as the magical three-eyed cat Beef Roger Crummchuk. Henry Winkler, Dan Stevens, Tracey Ullman and Stephen Fry round out the principal voice cast. Disney will release the film in U.S. theaters November 25.
