The Complete Style Transformation Of Hunter Schafer

We've seen Hunter Schafer on our screens since she starred in "Euphoria" in 2019, but the model-turned-actor's transformation started years before we knew her as Jules Vaughn. Her impact dates back to before her fame, when she made her mark as an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights as a transgender woman herself.

While growing up in North Carolina with two pastors as parents, Schafer didn't come out until she began attending a fine arts high school. During an interview with Purpose and Perspective in September 2020, Schafer detailed, "Gender has always felt like a performance to me. Gender is a performance for everybody. It's just like, how aware of the fact that you're performing is what I think influences how you go about it." Schafer has never allowed her identity to force her into a box, but is aware of the responsibility she holds as a celebrity representing a marginalized and targeted group, adding, "To outwardly and publicly transition is somewhat radical right now because we are expected to be the same person or the same entity or identity for our entire lives, and that is so not reflective of how human beings grow, void of gender or whatever else we are working through."

Schafer graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts in 2017 and didn't waste any time before packing up her life and moving to New York. In the time she moved from the South to the Big Apple and embarked on the rest of her career, her style evolved just as much as her surroundings. As a budding model, Schafer became a vessel for editorial looks, playing with color and pattern-blocking, layering, and asymmetrical garments. As she began gaining notoriety as an actor and traction as a model, designers were chomping at the bit to put her in sleek, polished ensembles.

Hunter Schafer first gained notoriety in 2016 as an outspoken advocate against North Carolina's House Bill Two, better known as the "bathroom bill," which forced individuals to use the gendered bathroom that matches the one they were assigned at birth. At 17 years old, Schafer was the youngest plaintiff in the ACLU's trial against North Carolina and spoke about her experience in an essay published in Teen Vogue in July 2016: "I did this not only in the hope of reversing it but also to represent other transgender youth in North Carolina who are as hurt as I am, and to raise awareness and acceptance for transgender individuals." In July 2019, a settlement was reached in which transgender people in the state of North Carolina were free to use the bathroom that aligned with their gender identity.

Schafer had always had an integral love of fashion, captivated by illustrating her own designs, so when the opportunity arose for her to sign with Elite Model Management in 2017, she couldn't pass it up. Now living in New York, Schafer spent the year walking the runway with brands like Dior, Marc Jacobs, and Gucci, and was announced as one of Teen Vogue's 21 Under 21. In terms of personal style, her artistry extended to creating garments. In January 2017, she shared an elaborate pair of red micro shorts she made to Instagram, complete with gloves attached to the front that read "peel away," her doodles on the back, and "perception" written across the waistband. In January 2018, she posted another handcrafted piece: a nude romper with a protrusion of red tulle at the midsection. That year, she was saving up for fashion school, but one certain audition would alter the trajectory of her career.

After several callbacks, Hunter Schafer would land the role of Jules Vaughn in HBO's "Euphoria." Though initially hesitant as she had no prior acting experience, Schafer admitted what compelled her to take the part during an episode of "Call Her Daddy" in August 2024: "This was not my plan. Then I saw the paycheck per episode, and I was like, 'This is more money than I've ever seen in my whole entire life.'" She went on to explain that portraying Jules was her playing herself, essentially.

Before long, Schafer moved to LA and began filming. Things weren't just heating up professionally for the actor, as she sparked a romance with Rosalía, which neither of them admitted until years later. During an interview with GQ in April 2024, she revealed that they had been together for around five months and that they remained close friends: "I have really beautiful friendships with people that I was once romantically involved with."

The first season of "Euphoria" was released in June 2019 and was instantly met with staggering reviews. The show took on a new and intriguing visual style, with dark palettes lit up by neons for both makeup and lighting, but it was the plotlines that largely gave viewers pause. The series tackles subjects like substance abuse, sex work, and infidelity through the lens of teenagers. However, many were intrigued by the premise, and Schafer's work on the show was so notable that she landed on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2020. As a turning point in her career, Schafer had less time to meticulously create outfits from scratch, and we saw a subtle shift in her style, but it remained just as edgy. In October 2019, she shared an Instagram post where she donned a burgundy Rick Owens dress with pointed shoulders and a raised neckline, with matching thigh-high platform boots. After the whirlwind year, the budding actor was able to return to her modeling roots while simultaneously furthering her on-screen experience.

The first several months of Hunter Schafer's 2020 mirrored the rest of ours: a pause in work, and an abundance of free time. So, as filming for Season 2 of "Euphoria" was delayed, Schafer bought a pick-up truck and drove it across the country to see family in North Carolina. "It was probably the most stable I felt throughout all of quarantine," she said in an interview with Allure for her cover story in August 2020. During the same conversation, Schafer revealed some of her beauty and skincare habits as a newly appointed Global Makeup Ambassador for Shiseido. She delved into how moisturizing was the number-one part of her routine, how she loved winged eyeliner, and the joys of having multi-colored hair in "Euphoria."

As the world began to gradually open up in 2021, Schafer's career picked up right where it left off. Filming for "Euphoria" resumed in March 2021, and she attended her first Met Gala that May. She had just been appointed as a Prada house ambassador, so for the "In America: A Lexicon of Fashion" theme, she decided on a Prada metallic two-piece set, complete with geometric gems, stark-white contact lenses, a spider-like broach across her nose, and intricate, icicle-like nails, that where somewhat similar to the water droplet nail art that was trending in 2023.

By 2022, things were once again heating up for Schafer in the love department. Musician Dominic Fike joined the "Euphoria" cast for its second season, and sparks flew immediately. There was a plot line that their characters were romantically involved, heating things up off-screen for the two. By February, their relationship was official. On the career side of things, Schafer made her voiceover debut for an English dub of "Belle," a Japanese animated film. Additionally, she made her directorial debut for the music video of girl in red's "hornylovesickmess."

2023 had a rocky start for Hunter Schafer, as she and Dominic Fike called it quits in April due to his infidelity. During her episode with "Call Her Daddy" the following April, she admitted how the breakup and the relationship affected her: "It's part of my truth, but that fundamentally changed me as a person. And it was this whole process of realizing that cheating has nothing to do with you at all." Like many other women who were wronged by men, Schafer started playing with revenge fashion. At the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in March 2023, the actor bared it all with an Ann Demeulemeester two-piece, consisting of merely a feather covering her breasts, and a rich, white floor-length silk skirt, per Instagram.

Before the year was over, though, Schafer would receive high praise for her role as Tigris Snow in the prequel "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes." For the premiere in November 2023, Schafer followed a similar silhouette as before, but this time in a custom, solid-gold Prada two-piece. The haltered bustier was finished with attached sleeves and a black bow at the middle, coordinating with the one on the single-tiered skirt. That year, Schafer would purchase a home in Los Angeles. 2024 was marked by her commanding performance as Gretchen in the psychological thriller "Cuckoo," which came out in August. Additionally, she modeled for the cover of Vogue Italia and Vogue Germany, attended Milan Fashion Week, and graced the cover of W magazine. At the Cannes Film Festival that year, she looked divine in a satin blue structured gown with a strapless corset.

The highly anticipated third season of "Euphoria" began filming in January 2025, and not long after, Hunter Schafer attended Prada's Fall 2025 fashion show, in which she decided to wear a single-breasted trench over a baby-pink top and denim micro shorts, knee-high gray socks, and purple kitten heels. Schafer has been known for her use of color in the past, but in 2025, we started to see a transition to sophisticated yet irreverent looks. Further, Schafer also sampled the style for the 2025 Met Gala, in which the theme was "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style," and just know, she didn't come close to our worst-dressed list from the 2025 Met Gala. For the event, the actor and model donned a Prada suit complete with fitted black slacks and a matching blazer draped over her shoulders, over a white double-breasted jacket with a matching button-up underneath. With a coordinating beret and leather gloves, Schafer hit the nail on the head.

In terms of her personal life, Schafer has experienced a few grievances in 2025, as transphobia began running rampant in the United States under the Trump administration. On Donald Trump's first day in office in January 2025, he signed an executive order that all official documents must indicate the gender the person was assigned at birth. After getting her passport stolen and acquiring a new one, Schafer noticed an "M" as the gender marker, more than a decade after she initially had it changed. The actor turned to TikTok with an 8-minute video to express her qualms, saying, "Trans people are beautiful, we are never going to stop existing, I'm never gonna stop being trans, a letter in a passport can't change that."