Fashion

Why Zendaya's red carpet looks are never just an outfit

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Why Zendaya's red carpet looks are never just an outfit

It seems like lately Zendaya can be found on a red carpet every day. For the European press tour of her new film Spider-Man: Brand New Day, she traveled with her husband Tom Holland to Madrid, Berlin, Paris, London, Rome, and our own Amsterdam. The focus was not only on Tom Holland, who plays Spiderman, and their relationship, but also on Zendaya's stunning looks. She has long been known for her style, but what characterizes her is a method she uses: Method Dressing.

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Method dressing is a styling strategy where an actor or actress dresses for premieres and events in a style that aligns with the film and the character they are playing. Zendaya and her stylist Law Roach have been working together since the actress was 14, when she was one of his first clients. Roach has since become a household name in the fashion industry and is currently also the regular stylist for Ariana Grande and Céline Dion. In his book “How To Build A Fashion Icon,” he explains that he sees styling as much more than just picking a pretty dress for a celebrity: “I don’t just create looks. I create moments. Ultimately, I am a storyteller. When I work with someone, whether it’s for a photoshoot, an event, or the red carpet, there has to be some kind of story. I need to know what I want to say before I start with the clothing. I use the clothing to express that.”

Since the premiere of The Greatest Showman nine years ago, Roach has been selecting looks inspired by the films in which she stars, but the concept was elevated to a new level in 2024 during the press tour for Dune Part 2, when she appeared in London in a vintage robot look from 1995 by Mugler. Roach created a different interpretation of the Dune universe for each press stop. In addition to Mugler, Zendaya wore Torishéju, Givenchy, Alaïa, and Louis Vuitton to bring the futuristic and desert-like aesthetic of Dune to life on the red carpet.

That same year, Challengers was released, a film centered around tennis. Zendaya then appeared in a lot of green and white, pleated dresses, preppy collars, and heels shaped like a tennis ball.

At the moment, the actress is promoting two films at the same time; in addition to the new Spider-Man film, the movie The Odyssey is also coming out soon, in which she plays the goddess Athena. Two very different films and thus very different looks. For Spider-Man, she wears a lot of red and blue and spider web patterns, for example as a necklace detail on her back.

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For The Odyssey, she opts for draped silhouettes and predominantly white looks, making her reminiscent of a statue of a Greek goddess. On Sunday, she wore a halter dress with an open back and a headscarf attached to the dress, designed by Jacquemus. On Monday, she went for a sculptural Schiaparelli dress, consisting of a corset and a beaded skirt. Just a few hours after creative director Daniel Roseberry presented this dress during his Fall Winter Haute Couture Collection, Zendaya appeared in it at the London premiere of the film.

Zendaya is not the only actress who practices method dressing. Margot Robbie also managed, along with her stylist Andrew Mukamal, to assemble entire matching wardrobes for the promotion of her films Barbie and Wuthering Heights. For Barbie, they based her looks on existing vintage Barbie dolls, and for Wuthering Heights, she wore velvet, lace, and Victorian-inspired corsets.

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More and more actors and actresses are embracing method dressing, and it seems to be becoming a staple of modern film promotion. Zendaya and Law Roach have certainly set the bar high, but I am curious which actors will also join in the coming time.