It’s a well-established fact that our November cover star—an award-winning actress, honorary dame, and humanitarian mother of six—has bombshell factor to spare, thanks in no small part to her supernaturally voluptuous pout. But we’d argue that Angelina Jolie Pitt’s second-most-lauded feature is only slightly less recognizable than her pillowy lips. It was just over three years ago now that her sinewy mile-long leg solidified its place in red carpet history when she flashed it in a black velvet Atelier Versace gown at the 2012 Oscars, inspiring a Twitter feed called “Angie’s Right Leg” and introducing #Jolieing and #Angielegging into the popular lexicon as perfectly valid verbs.
That Oscar night wasn’t her first time joining the thigh-high club, either. A look back at the actress’s defining Hollywood moments reveals more than a few dresses that are slit clear to the hip: One bronzed thigh peeks out from a slinky mint-colored Zac Posen gown at the 2003 Beyond Borders world premiere in Madrid; at the 2010 Tokyo premiere of Salt, a graceful limb extends from an obsidian Versace chiffon gown.
Slender and shapely, Jolie Pitt’s legs aren’t built on hours of choreography practice in heels or endless squats. They’re classic beauties of vertiginous height, best displayed against black-tie hemlines with dramatic presence. But the best thing about them? These days, it’s where they carry her off the red carpet—on a recent mother-daughter trip to Lebanon with daughter Shiloh, ice-skating in Los Angeles with twins Knox and Vivienne, or on a humanitarian expedition in support of medical aid in Myanmar. Proof that Jolie Pitt’s real muscle lies in the fact that she’s far more substance than flash.
