Lucky Office Visit: Once Upon a Time's Jennifer Morrison

4:30 PM, January 11 2012

By Laura Morgan

Jennifer Morrison's look as Emma Swan in ABC's hit show, Once Upon A Time, is probably most easily described as KICK-ASS. In no-nonsense jeans, fitted leather jackets and stomping boots, she looks like she's more ready for a fist-fight (like the one she recently engaged in against the show's Evil Queen) than a fashion magazine. So when Morrison turned up at Lucky's office looking grown-up girly in a Burberry coat, sky-high Brian Atwood heels and a Shoshana dress (topped off with a tiny, non-quilted black Chanel bag), we were duly impressed.

"I always want to be honest about who I am when it comes to fashion," says Morrison, who is no slave to trends. "For the red-carpet, you can never guess what dress is going to be THE dress so I try to make decisions that feel authentic and not worry beyond that. Plus, those days are so long and crazy, I have to feel comfortable and like I'm me." Read on to see what the actress (who you've also seen on How I Met Your Mother and House) had to say about her off-screen style and tune into Once Upon A Time on Sunday night (8/7c) on ABC.

"I almost entirely dress Emma," says Morrison of her TV alterego. "Our costume designer has been really good about giving me freedom to pick what she's wearing and feel like it's really right. Emma doesn't have a lot of stuff—which is why you see her rotating the same leather jacket and pair of pants and boots. I wanted to make sure we see her rewear things. She has four or five boxes of clothes, that's it, that she travels around with. I wanted her jackets to look like they were found at a vintage store and were meaningful to her."

During her House days, Morrison was a brunette. "Blonde is my natural color. What you see now is my real hair, I just have highlights,' she says. "Brown was a pain for me. My roots were light enough that they would grow in quickly, so every three weeks, it looked like my hair was floating. Once House was a hit, I had to keep the brown hair, but it was a major process to keep it up."

"I always wear J Brand jeans," says Morrison. "I haven't found another pair of jeans that beats those for me." We like the waxy coating on these, which lends the pair a tough leather look that we think Emma Swan (and Jennifer) would appreciate.

"I can always count on Shoshana. The way she cuts stuff just always seems to fit well on my body without alterations," says Morrison.

"Brian Atwood's shoes are worth the pain, because they're so gorgeous," says Morrison, who braved the New York sidewalks in a pair very similar to these.

Morrison opted for a Burberry 3/4 length wool coat (there's more to Burberry than trenches!) with a subdued miltary feel for her New York visit. We like this one for a similar silhouette.