For years she has been the best-dressed ‘friend’. Clutter-free silhouettes in mostly monotones, barely-there make-up and world famous hairstyles, it’s always been fuss-free fashion for Rachel Green.

For all of us who spend our Sundays catching rerun after rerun of Friends on STAR World, Zee Cafe and WB (it is always on somewhere!), Jennifer Aniston is a big reason why. If every man would love to take her home, every woman would love to take her wardrobe home. Her effortless style is as enviable as it is accessible — you can always pick up a style trick or two from Jen. Unlike the too-much Phoebe and the not-so-bothered Monica, the fashion pro Rachel stays perfectly in character by always being perfectly put together.

Jennifer Aniston always gets it right on the red carpet

She has almost always got it right. Of course, her look has evolved from September 1994 to May 2004 — the 10 years that Friends was on air — and continues to do so well after the end of the series. The first few seasons saw her very casual, as was the rest of the cast, but as the popularity of Friends soared, so did her style. From the sweatshirts in the early, broke days when she was a waitress with a fuller figure, to trend-setting silhouettes as she grew thinner and got a job at Ralph Lauren. (And doesn’t it come easy when you’ve acquired a pretty husband like Brad Pitt?) Leather pencil skirts and draped jersey tops. Fabulously, flaunting it preggers and yummy mummy in pastel chiffon. LBDs to work and checked jammies and cropped tees at home. Delicate accessories — a shimmer of silver or precious pearls — the only add-ons.

Whatever else she was, Jennifer Aniston was always sexy, albeit in a girl-next-door kind of way. During her 10-season, 238-episode run at Friends, perhaps the most daring she had got was in Barbados, during the Joey days. It was a green, brown and white printed halter dress and it’s difficult to think of an outfit where she showed more skin. Unless you count the episode where she is trying to seduce Joshua in her negligee, and his parents show up and they end up all going out — with her still in the negligee. (She is mortified that her breast popped out during dinner, and every guy is maddened that it happened off-screen.)

With or without a Friends reunion, you still get to see plenty of Jennifer Aniston — the most stylish friend has also become the most successful. And she hasn’t really needed a makeover. Perhaps it was the lingering Rachel effect.

Off-screen, her fixation with black continued. She is apparently obsessed with the colour. It is also said that she is obsessed with her hair, which may be a hangover from the craze that erupted during the early days of Friends, when women everywhere begged their hair stylists to give them what became known as The Rachel.

While an even more simple, straight do than that has been her look now for years — only getting longer or shorter, blonder or browner — she has come under criticism of late for staying a little too faithful to the slightly ruffled, natural style (which allegedly takes quite a bit of time to get just so).

The studied casual theme continues with her wardrobe. She is not known to be a one-designer woman, often coming up with surprising choices. Her wedding dress was designed by Lawrence Steele (who later shot to fame as her D-dress designer) and her red carpet looks are equally unconventional. A blue-grey floaty maxi for Marley & Me, smoking suit for He’s Just Not That Into You and a sparkly metallic tiny dress for Love Happens. Even her paparazzi shots are more flattering than other actresses. She apparently lives in jeans and vests or biker jackets, with or without sunglasses.

Recently, the actress has been in the limelight once more. Not for how great her legs look post-40. Not even for her love life (well, not only because of her love life). She is back with a movie, co-starring alleged squeeze Gerard Butler, called Bounty Hunter. More importantly, she has reclaimed her spot in the celebrity sun for her impressive red carpet choices. Pregnant or not (the latest tabloid reports suggest not), she has been rocking it across continents.

Her outfits all seem to be dictated by location, momentum and mood. The shiny, short black Valentino number for Madrid; the pinky Christian Lacroix Haute Couture dress for Paris; the salmon floor-sweeping dress by Donna Karan for New York and a very British edgy-cool black blazer and tiny sequinned dress for the London premiere (see pictures below).

Standing tall in heels, minimal accessories, hair still shiny and straight, the bronze beauty Jennifer Aniston reminded us once again of just how much we are into her.

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