The stylish Christina who?

(InStyle.com) -- Christina Applegate's style has grown up with her. From rebellious to refined, here's how she got it right.

The Christina Applegate you see in these pictures isn't the same Christina who is casually sipping tea in her Tuscan-style Hollywood Hills home. "

I have a friend who always calls me a chimney sweep because I tend to dress like one," she says. "I don't like doing my hair, so I wear the same cap every day--an ugly tweed old-man's golfer's cap."

The real Christina

So which is the genuine blonde: grunge or goddess? Chuck Taylors or Christian Louboutins? Both. Or neither. It all depends on the day, her mood, whether she's working on her show, the hit comedy Samantha Who? or her upcoming movie, The Rocker, or walking the red carpet at some fabulous Hollywood event.

"I love sophisticated fashion, and I also love to be funky," she says. "I don't follow trends. I like things that are a little bit off and a little bit interesting."

Style evolution

As a child actress working in film and TV commercials, Applegate lived in a community of "colorful, edgy" kids, who, like her, more or less raised themselves. "Our parents were very, very lax," she says.

Applegate's look then was appropriately anarchic to the setting: She had a small Mohawk, flannel shirts, fishnets, combat boots and eyeliner. Watch Applegate's priority and fashion myths »

"All we ever wore were ripped up clothes and thrift-store stuff," she recalls. "I remember the principal came up to one of my girlfriends and said, 'We have a program here, if you need money for clothing.' And my friend's dad was this huge director."

Her role models were the usual eighties teen-rebel idols -- The Smiths, and Siouxie and the Banshees -- as well as the occasional unknowns she spotted on the street. "The same girlfriend and I were in the back of my mom's car, and we saw this girl, and she had the coolest outfit and we said, 'Mom, drive up closer.' And it turned out she was a bag lady. We coveted the outfit of a bag lady."

From there, Applegate regressed a decade to her Led Zepplin/Janis Joplin-inspired phase, which dominated her Kelly Bundy years. After taping her show each night, she'd shimmy out of Kelly's Lycra and into her flowing skirts--three at a time. "I would wear my mom's old clothes. 'How ugly can I make myself' was, I think, how I dressed."

She feels pretty

In her mid-20s, Applegate decided to end her fashion mutiny: "I wanted to look pretty," she says. She stopped looking to rock stars for style cues and became her own muse.

"If you're wearing something that isn't you, you're just uncomfortable. I know what is going to look good on my body. I don't want to be concerned all night about whether or not it fits or if my backside is hanging out."

Truth is, she shouldn't worry even if it is. Her backside, like the rest of her, is in enviable form, thanks to her rotation of ashtanga yoga, running, jazz-ballet lessons and a hard-core, boot-camp-style fitness class that leaves her practically unable to move afterward. No matter. As long as the self-described homebody can still hoist a good book -- a current favorite is "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert -- she's happy.

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