Last week she was in tracksuit trousers and a polo shirt. The week before she was dressed in a hoodie. We often see her wearing both fedora and bowler hats — and sometimes — even a tie. In Los Angeles, her mother shopped for her in the boys' sections of stores. And when they were in Paris, it was a boutique for fashionable garçons that was picked for an afternoon excursion.
Yes, three-year-old Shiloh Pitt, daughter of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, has certainly acquired a distinctive style all of her own. And around a month ago, Shiloh's request to crop her long blonde hair was granted, and now she has — deliberately — a perfect boy's hair-do.
The indications are that Jolie herself is supporting her daughter's tomboy tendencies. Indeed, Brad Pitt admits his daughter's boyish habits go deeper than just the clothes. For the past eight months, his little girl has apparently answered only to the name John.
She seems to have struck on the name because of her love of the story of Peter Pan — where John is Wendy's elder brother.
"We've got to call her John," Pitt told an interviewer, with delighted amusement, saying that when he started to ask, "Shi, do you want... she would interrupt with: ‘John. I'm John.'"
Brad continued: "I'll say, ‘John, would you like some orange juice?' And she goes, ‘No!'"
This is quite an unusual state of affairs. Some commentators in the US have even theorised that the child is being used to try to make a political point about gender.
Wendy McKenna, who holds a doctorate in psychology and is on the gender studies faculty at the State University of New York, says that this is unlikely. "The phenomenon of little boys wanting to dress like little girls and little girls wanting to dress like little boys is pretty common, but it's unusual for parents to go with it if it violates gender norms."
Indeed, but let us acknowledge at the outset that Jolie and Pitt are not exactly your average parents. Shiloh, for instance, has already been promised solo lessons in flying aeroplanes by her mother, despite being only three. And the couple, who have three adopted children and three natural children — Maddox, eight, Pax, six, Zahara, five, Shiloh and 20-month-old twins Knox and Vivienne — seem to be determined to break every convention when it comes to raising their rainbow tribe. It is a prime contender for the title of most unusual family on the planet.
Maddox, for instance, was only five when he secured his mother's agreement to get a tattoo. Together, mother and son actually picked out a Buddhist symbol for "protection" — but were stopped at the 11th hour by objections from Pitt — who felt he might be a bit young for body art.
Maddox, who was adopted by Jolie from Cambodia when he was seven months old, was given some henna tattoos instead. He's being permitted to grow up fast in other areas, though. His fascination with weapons and martial arts is encouraged.
When he was six, Jolie said proudly: "He's all into war and guns. So for Mother's Day he drew a machine gun, and Brad had it made into a [pendant for a] necklace, which is sweet. It's really cute."
When Maddox was seven she talked about having started a collection of daggers for the boy. Angelina told W magazine: "My mum took me to buy my first dagger when I was 11 or 12, and I've already bought Maddox some."
She added that the two of them liked to talk about Samurai warriors and how defending someone with violence could be positive. Neither parent seems to entertain the idea that their son might be allowed to retain a childlike view of the world. For his eighth birthday, Maddox was taken to visit a refugee camp in Iraq.
Chaotic House
People who have spent time with the family say that chaos reigns in whatever house the children happen to be living in.
The one routine which has been established so far is that for two months every summer they live in a French chateau, cut off from the rest of the world, and they regard it as their one real home. Bought for almost £50 million (Dh183.6 million), the sprawling property has three buildings. One is used as a house for their security team, one is for Pitt and Jolie, and the other is where the six children have their rooms with their nannies.
Apart from this small example of routine behaviour, the family has spent the past five years crisscrossing the globe. Brangelina are periodically absent on film sets or on goodwill missions for the United Nations.
Pitt has been seen drinking heavily, and has said more than once that he is still drunk from the previous night. His friend Quentin Tarantino has alluded to Pitt's cannabis-smoking habit, which his partner disapproves of.
Jolie, meanwhile, has seemed very frail. She has suffered from depression, and her brother says that at times she has felt too low to eat. Despite these strains, she continues to go on various charitable missions with the children and is driven to these good deeds by the shallow nature of the movie business. "You're just making entertainment and it doesn't feel very good at the end of the day to go to sleep... and feel that this is all you are," she explained.
Since February, the family has been staying at the magnificent Palazzo Moncenigo in Venice while Jolie films The Tourist with Johnny Depp, accompanied by their usual retinue of six nannies, three security guards and a chef.
Despite the large staff, it seems there are no house rules, except the children aren't encouraged to make any friends outside of the family circle. It's said that all six children have been "acting out" during the various crises in the Jolie-Pitt relationship. A family friend said: "They have never done night feeds or any of the daily work of getting the kids into routines. Because of the travelling, it's almost impossible to get children settled when they have jet lag.
"The nannies sit up watching cartoons with the children at all hours of the night, while Brad and Angie are asleep in another room."
The friend adds: "Brad might suddenly decide to eat pizza with them or he'll take them out for the day. For example they took the twins out in the middle of the night in Jordan last year and fed them ice cream. Because they've built this family so quickly and have taken the short-cut of using nannies, they have never done the potty training stage or the teething stage."
The six children are homeschooled by their nannies — Jolie and Pitt have boasted that Maddox in particular is "beyond smart" — saying his IQ is off the charts. Maddox takes piano lessons and is fluent in English, French, Spanish and Khmer. He's also said to be a gifted football player. However, the younger children's lessons seem to consist of drawing, reading and watching DVDs.
Despite this, Jolie's great ambition is to add further to her family — believing 13 children would be a lucky number. It's no surprise, then, to say that Angelina is a woman of extremes. Her own father said, not long ago: "She has never been normal."
But her chief passion is children. She told an interviewer recently, "I mean, I know we seem crazy, just bringing them in one after the other, but we do plan.
"We make sure one is absorbed completely into the family before we add another. There are moments when we look at everyone around the dinner table, and it's just crazy, but our family is the greatest thing we've done in our lives."
One can only wonder which child will next be welcomed into this most peculiar rainbow family.