Fashion Kingdom Extravaganza

LOS ANGELES — You wouldn’t know it from her roles as the buttoned-up, warmhearted caretaker in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” or the fragile, worn-looking prostitute in “Hustle & Flow,” but Taraji P. Henson is a self-proclaimed “fashion and shoe” girl, and the contents of her newly built closet prove it.

The actress bounds into it with a wide smile to show off her stuff, and, no matter how many Gucci boxes and Vuitton bags are perched around her, she is passionate about every piece.

Henson, 39, recently moved from a Spanish bungalow in Glendale to a newly built Moroccan-style home in the Hollywood Hills. Her closet space increased along with the overall square footage.

“I can see everything,” she says. Henson gained a large closet in her master suite as well as one in her “glam room,” where she gets dolled up for appearances and stores her longer red-carpet gowns and fancier attire.

But she uses her master closet for getting creative. “Even before I became an actress, I used to wake up and dress according to characters,” she says. “One day I’d have long hair down to here with an exotic look, and the next day I may be ghetto Betty with big bamboo earrings, Converses and little shorts. I think that speaks to the kind of artist and actress I am.”

From stacks of skinny jeans to shoes in their original boxes, Henson’s 7-by-12-foot walk-in closet, with its built-in vanity, is a girlie girl’s sanctuary. Among other things, it’s stocked with sexy skirts, items from abroad and numerous pairs of shoes suitable for walking the red carpet or walking Willie, her silky terrier. But it’s the stilettos that Henson gets most jazzed about. Shoe boxes stacked according to style, color and print are marked with photographs of the contents.

In addition, Henson’s love of handbags shows in her collection. There is a black Gucci tote bag that she plans to pass on as an heirloom someday because, as she says while stroking the buttery leather, “this will just get better with age.” A grapy purple Gucci hobo “pops” any outfit and pairs well with some purple Gucci d’Orsay pumps stowed on a shelf. The piece de resistance, though, is a crimson Valentino shoulder bag with cascading ruffles. Henson can’t help but give it a little smooch.

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