Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman, the woman that you are. The 27-year-old actress has been blossoming into a huge star in front of our eyes since we first met her in 2012 on Disney Channel’s iconic “Shake It Up”. Even back then everyone could just sense that there was something special about Zendaya that would allow her to soar to impossible heights of Hollywood success far greater than that of her teenage years with Disney.
To this day she has not let us down and proves herself with every project that she is a massively talented actress with a charming yet down to earth personality that makes all her fans want to be her best friend. Right when you think she can’t possibly have everything, she goes and takes her place as, without a doubt, one of the most fashionable actresses working the red carpet today. With the help of her brilliant stylist Law Roach, she pulls off look after look on the press tours for her projects by effortlessly matching the aesthetic of her movies with a ten out of ten themed outfit.
The earliest instance of Zendaya’s dedication to themed red carpet looks was during “The Greatest Showman” premieres way back in 2017. The outfits for this theme included a bright red, silky Ralph Lauren tuxedo jacket and a red and black Viktor & Rolf ball gown. This repeated black and red color palette is clearly a nod to Hugh Jackman’s P. T. Barnum and his iconic ringleader suit.
However, the real stand out from this particular press tour was a Moschino gown that turned Zendaya into a literal butterfly. While at first the bright yellows and oranges may seem like a wild change up from her previous more masculine dark colored attire, I believe that a butterfly dress absolutely belongs at a premiere for a circus movie. Barnum’s main idea behind his big top was that he believed that he could transform seemingly unassuming individuals and transform them into spectacles worthy of an adoring crows, and what’s a better symbol for the transformation from overlooked to truly captivating than a butterfly?
Around the same time as her role in “The Greatest Showman”, Zendaya was making her Marvel debut in “Spider-Man: Homecoming” as a reimagined Mary Jane Watson named Michelle Jones. The looks she pulled out for all three Spider-Man premieres are iconic, however, the outfits that she used for the third movie, “Spider-Man: No Way Home ” take the cake in the most impressive way. For this particular movie, Zendaya and Law Roach drew inspiration from all sorts of famous “spidey” characters to generate even more hype from fans.
Zendaya first chose a black and gold Roberto Cavalli dress with a beautiful golden spine embellishment cascading down the dress’s open back as a way to mimic Doc Oc’s metal tentacles that emerge from a machine on his back. Next, on the “Graham Norton Show”, Zendaya donned a chic green and purple Valentino suit in honor of the classic Green Goblin color palette.
To the massive Los Angeles premiere of the movie, Zendaya left the villains behind to reclaim her rightful position on Team Spider-Man and arrived at the event in a drop dead gorgeous custom Valentino dress littered with embellished black spiderwebs, because duh. If this tribute wasn’t clear enough, MJ upped her flair factor by adding a lacy, black masquerade mask that Stan Lee himself could have drawn.
Now I think we’ll swing on over to Zendaya’s next hugely successful franchise, the “Dune” series. While the first “Dune” press tour absolutely contained zero misses, the “Dune: Part Two” outfits took the whole futuristic desert aesthetic and dialed it up to eleven this year.
In Mexico City, Zendaya wore a structured Bottega Veneta dress in a dusty brown color that matches the dunes behind her perfectly.
Paris also saw a masterclass in turning sand into couture as Zendaya stepped out in a Louis Vuitton two piece set that drew on the previous look’s idea to contrast a high neck with a cropped top, making the outfit look half appropriate for shielding oneself from the harsh wind of the desert and half appropriate for a red carpet, equalling a headline-making outfit.
At the London premiere, the world stopped turning when Law Roach and Zendaya reached into the Mugler archives from the nineties and pulled out a slick silver robotic suit complete with plexiglass cutouts and Bulgari jewels. These two defined what sci-fi fashion means with one look. Later, Zendaya traded her robot ensemble for a simple black, Mugler slip dress, because imagine how hard walking in that thing is, to finish the night. I mean, only Zendaya could turn metal into magic like that.
Lastly, for her upcoming project “Challengers”, a film where she plays a former tennis player, Zendaya has recently been giving us country club couture as she promotes this project. With her first look already breaking the internet, Zendaya stepped on in Sydney with a new honey blonde hairstyle and a beautiful shimmery, green Loewe dress and matching heels. The dress featured a spray-paint looking silhouette of a tennis player serving the ball.
Paris then saw an absolutely adorable Marc Jacobs dress, from 2013 not the sixties somehow, that featured a green and white checkerboard pattern complete with a white headband and white pumps to match.
My personal favorite look of this tour is next featuring more Loewe in Rome. The bones of this outfit are perfect for on the court, but throw in a plunging neckline and a little bit of shimmer and now you’re ready for Hollywood. However, my new roman empire comes in the form of her shoes, white stilettos with literal tennis balls skewered onto the stems of the heels. I mean c’mon, now that’s what I call a serve.
The last two looks are from a couple of my favorite designers as of late so I couldn’t leave them out. This Thom Browne maxi dress looks exactly like what I think would happen if you ran a tennis net through a NYC design room. This dress features a high white collar, little glittery tennis rackets littered across the whole gown and mesh sections of fabric trimmed with red white and blue at the bottom. Genius.
Finally, the freshest tennis-core look Law Roach served up is a colorful, pinstripe vest and skirt combo by the one and only Vivienne Westwood. The skirt featured a feathered accent on the back that is very reminiscent of Westwood’s campy, baroque aesthetic, and Zendaya continued to reassure us that “blond-aya” isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Did I forget to mention that this month Zendaya graced the cover of Vogue AND British Vogue? That’s just in case you somehow still doubted her effect on the fashion world. A huge thank you to Law Roach and to the goddess herself for their contributions to the term method dressing and everyone make sure you go watch “Challengers” when it comes out April 26!