Zendaya is a tried-and-true style icon, and she's been one for years.
Whether it's perfectly understanding the assignment, like wearing a Cinderella-inspired Tommy Hilfiger gown to the 2019 Met Gala where the theme was Camp: Notes on Fashion...
Or tapping into trends long before they're oversaturated, like wearing a Tom Ford breastplate to the Critics' Choice Awards way back in 2020...
Or pulling out the most perfectly themed pieces for a film premiere, like she's doing now on the Challengers press tour. Earlier this week, she wore a Loewe tenniscore dress and heels (with tennis balls attached) at a photo call.
But even the actor can sometimes wonder if her looks will always work. In fact, one of her most recent red carpet moments that went hugely viral was not a guaranteed success, and Zendaya recently opened up about why.
As is often the case for Zendaya, the look was an immediate hit, perfectly themed for the event and an example of the increasingly popular trend of archival dressing. Mugler first presented the suit on a 1995 runway.
As Zendaya recently revealed in a Vogue video, she came up with the idea to wear the suit to the film premiere and pitched the idea to her stylist, Law Roach.
"He was like, 'Don't play with me. Don't get me started on something and make me do this, and you're going to chicken out at the last minute and be too scared to wear it,'" Zendaya said.
However, after trying on the suit and seeing it "fit like a glove," Zendaya was all game. "It just felt very like it was meant to be or whatever," she said.
But her assurance was briefly shaken. "Immediately, after wearing it for, like, 10 minutes or less than that, I got, like, really lightheaded. The metal conducts and holds on to heat very quickly and kind of traps heat in," she said, noting she was wearing a body suit under the Mugler suit.
"As the days were coming up, I was like, 'This is a bad idea. Why did I do this?'" Zendaya said. "But I put it on, I went out there, and I did it."
Though she didn't explain why in the video, Zendaya wore the suit and had a wardrobe change. Later on the red carpet, she donned a second Mugler look: a sleek and simple black gown.
Such is Zendaya's power that she can turn one risky fashion moment into a full-on hit and still deliver even more. You can watch the full video below:
