But first, let's get one thing straight: As far as Zooey's concerned, "quirky" is just "a nice way of saying 'weird.'"

"It's an annoying word," she explained.

Hey, what a quirky thing to say!

...Heh. Sorry.

But while most of us probably would describe Zooey's vintage-inspired and offbeat style as...well, you know, she has some better adjectives to define her unique fashion sense.

"I would say girly, flirtatious, colorful," she said. "Feminine, maybe, and soft. But yeah, definitely colorful."

And when it comes to putting her outfits together, she's got quite the interesting criteria: "What if I need to run away? Just take off at any minute? I want to be able to run away and dance at all times."

Meanwhile, with her self-confessed frilly sensibilities, the 1990s-inspired trends that have hit L.A. recently aren't up Zooey's alley. "I’m not a leather-dress, bondage-pumps type of person," she said. "All those straps and zippers look horrible on me. Am I going to kill someone with that shoe? I like things that are pretty. I like dressing up."

Dressing up was certainly on the job description for Zooey's spoofy fantasy flick "Your Highness" (due April 8th), in which she plays a maiden betrothed to James Franco. "I had so many amazing costumes in the movie," she said. "They weren't things I would normally wear. They were basically medieval gowns. It was really fun dressing up like I was going to a Renaissance fair for three months."

Makes sense—after all, nobody rocks a pinafore like Zooey Deschanel. While she admits she might not be able to pull off her real-life grownup-little-girl look forever—"Maybe I won’t dress like Alice in Wonderland in five or 10 years"—it's clear that her look is here to stay, in some form or another.

"Maybe it’ll be a more sophisticated version of that," she said. "But puffed sleeves—I’ll always like those."

What do you think of Zooey's personal style? (Just don't call it "quirky.")