Zendaya Sticks By Her Most Memed Outfit: “I Would Wear It Again”

I still see memes about this particular look with my hat.

But you know what?

I stick by it.

Hello, Vogue.

I'm Zendaya and this is my Life in Looks.

[upbeat music]

All right, shall we begin?

Okay.

Yeah. [Zendaya chuckles]

This is me and Law's early, early work together.

I needed a cute little dress to go to my Teen Vogue party.

It was a big deal.

I'm like, what, like 15 years old?

[Zendaya chuckles]

So I think I did all right.

This was a charity event.

It was Halloween themed so you were supposed

to come dressed as somebody or something,

and I went dressed as Aaliyah.

'Cause old Tommy Hilfiger was her look and her thing,

and so this was my interpretation of that.

I did my little swoop and that was my tribute

to the one and only.

Okay.

This, it was a controversial look.

I still see memes about this particular look with my hat.

But you know what?

I stick by it.

Me and Law, we thought it was chic at the time

and I think it's still chic, I'd wear it again.

I think Law might have this hat,

might have to bring it out of the archives one day.

This is my first Oscars experience.

I had stayed up quite late the night before,

having my hair done.

I didn't have any kind of credentials or anything,

kind of snuck onto the red carpet 'cause I was like,

Listen, I have been up all night getting my hair done.

We have this amazing Vivienne Westwood dress,

like, I'm getting on this red carpet.

And so I kind of kind of shimmied on there

even though I wasn't really supposed to.

This is my first Met.

I went with Fausto Puglisi.

I was 18, I believe, in this picture.

I was very nervous being like,

How am I gonna like, call Law, or call my dad,

or call someone to pick me up like when I'm done?

Like how am I gonna get outta here?

Like how am I gonna get home

because you weren't supposed to bring your phone in.

And then I had my phone, but I had nowhere to put it.

So then I had to get it to Fausto and I was like,

Well, if we split up at any point in the night,

then I can't find my phone.

But it went really well, I'm very proud of the look.

First Met as a young 18-year-old girl.

This felt very fitting for that moment.

This is my first Vogue cover, I was 20.

I felt very, very honored at the time.

I was still doing my Disney show

and this was happening at the same time,

and I was kind of like, Whoa.

[Zendaya laughs] You know what I mean?

My little nieces are in this as well

and Law's in this inside.

It feels very special 'cause I got to have family with me.

The feather look, I think it was Prada, I believe.

It looks great,

I think it was beautiful texture for the cover.

My first Vogue shoot, I was just excited to be there.

I was like, Put me in whatever you want.

This is The Greatest Showman premiere in Australia.

One of my all time favorites.

With Law and I, we always find inspiration

from films that I'm doing.

A butterfly isn't the theme per se,

but it is this idea of being costumey.

You're the greatest showman, everything is drama

and so that's what this dress was to me,

it's like being literal, being dramatic, being entertaining.

Also like that day, there was tons of butterflies.

I went onto the carpet and there was butterflies everywhere,

and I was like, It's a sign, you know?

This one's another meme.

But I loved it, it was Mark Jacobs.

Love a suit in any kind of form,

and it just was fun,

and I loved how extreme the proportions were.

It wasn't necessarily a red carpet event,

it was just kind of like,

Oh yeah, I'm casually gonna wear

this straight off the runway Mark Jacobs suit,

you know what I mean?

It was fun and dramatic.

One of my all time favorite Met looks.

You know, Law had had this idea

of doing a Joan of Arc inspired thing

and we'd seen a lot of sketches, and ideas, and references.

The day before, going there,

putting it on, I was like, Wow.

It was so heavy 'cause of the beading,

but it was so beautifully constructed, and it's Versace.

And typically like I can handle a night out,

you know, with my heels and everything.

I've been wearing heels for a long time,

but I don't know, it was something about a mixture

of like wearing these platforms

and like the heaviness of my dress.

I was struggling.

I was like, I need to sit down.

But it was all worth it.

The hair also just completed the character.

This year I was invited to be a co-chair.

I have no idea what I'm wearing yet,

so I can't spoil it for you guys.

We're still figuring it out.

This is Miss Rue Bennett.

I'm very grateful and honored to play this character.

I mean, I have to give most credit

to our costume designer, Heidi,

who is just incredible at what she does

and is so thoughtful.

It's present in everything, you know?

From my Chucks, they're my personal Chucks

that I've worn down quite a bit

and we've had to replace the laces many times.

I have a lot of her stuff that I wear often.

My second Vogue cover.

We shot this with Tyler on the beach.

I'm very grateful to have a Vogue cover.

It's a big deal, so to do it again was pretty special.

It was quite simple, you know?

It was very supplier makeup.

I've done a lot of finger waves in my life

so it was a good go-to.

It was a fun day on the beach.

This is the Spider-Man: Far from Home premiere.

This is Armani and I wasn't sure about the dress,

I don't know why.

I was just overthinking it a little bit and I was like,

Do we have more options, do we have more options?

I was tripping.

But it ended up being perfect and obviously,

theme dressing inspired by the Spider-Man suit,

which was red and black in that film, yeah.

This is the Emmys.

The first time I went to the Emmys, actually.

Vera Wang.

This is like us being sexy,

you know, like, Ooh, this is a sexy look.

You know what I mean?

I'm giving the kids sexy

yet I use like semi-permanent hair dye to make my hair red

for the Spider-Man press tour in general.

And then it kind of started to like wash off a little bit

and so it still was like a little bit red.

I was really into emerald green at the time.

I just had gotten like new dining room chairs

that were emerald green and I felt

like it would look really beautiful with like the red hair.

It just felt right.

That was my emerald green era.

This is the Critic's Choice Awards.

This Tom Ford breastplate was really special.

I still have it.

They weren't my boobs originally and I put it on,

it didn't quite fit right.

I was like, Well, I really wanna wear this

but could we maybe do like my own, you know?

And they worked it out and got this scan done.

It's almost like a hair dryer.

Like they literally come in with this

[mimics hair dryer]

thing and they scan you,

it uploads to a computer, and that's it.

So it didn't take much time at all,

like I thought that it would be more a dramatic process,

but yeah, I mean, technology, people.

The Emmys, this is the time that I won.

The first time that I won.

In my head I was like, if I freak out, right?

If something bad happens, since this is on my computer,

I could just slam the computer shut.

You know what I mean?

If like, Oh no, the wifi went out.

You know what I mean?

Like I always can just exit.

That was nice, and then also,

I had my family all around me, I was in my own living room.

It was a very special night and I wore this Armani dress.

It was like a princess dress.

The skirt is so voluminous.

I took it off and like it still stands up,

it holds its structure,

so it was like literally standing in my closet.

One that I will not forget.

This is another Oscar's moment.

Valentino.

Pierpaolo has always been such a fun collaborator

and so generous and thoughtful,

and we had this Cher reference

because who doesn't want a reference Cher?

And Pierpaolo is known for his use

of color and bright colors.

And so we found this really beautiful, almost neon yellow.

The dress was quite simple and the hair was quite simple,

also to reflect this like Cher inspiration,

it was really long.

There was no wind on the carpet,

but as soon as I went there,

all of a sudden, there was wind.

Law made a joke about like having

a leaf blower or something,

and everybody's like, Did you really?

Like did you really?

Were you really on the carpet with a leaf blower?

Like no, oh my god, no!

We could be, you know, dramatic with the looks,

but I'm not like that, you know?

The wind just wanted to visit us

in that moment and it worked out.

This is Venice, my first Venice Film Festival with Dune.

Another example of theme dressing,

but this dress I chose,

years before there was a bodice thing

that had gone down the runway and I was like,

Oh my gosh, like that would be amazing

if we could make that a dress.

It feels very Dune to me.

It's the landscape of Dune,

it's the color palette, it's kind of like a shell.

It looks wet but it's dry.

There's something that reminded me

of the still suit a little bit,

just in its construction, felt Dune.

This is a Rick Owens number.

The Dune premiere in London.

I was very excited about this one as well.

I was actually like in the middle

of shooting Euphoria during this press tour.

Shooting some really intense scenes, I'll just say that.

The day I left and then shooting some very intense scenes

the day I got home.

Because of like how it's made

and the construction and the fabric,

like it doesn't wrinkle.

So like, I could sit in it, I could move in it.

I wouldn't disrupt its beautiful shape.

I don't know if it was reminiscent of the sand worm

or there's something I think about Rick Owens in general

that feels very futuristic or otherworldly.

This piece that kind of goes on and around,

like it holds its shape in a really beautiful way.

And there's something kind of like effortless about it too

because it's not perfect, there's an imperfectness

to the way it kind of falls and drapes,

but you know that it's intentional

and you know that it's thoughtful.

This is the CFDA Fashion Awards.

Another very special look, collaboration with Vera Wang.

Law had a very specific reference that literally was this.

Bandeau kind of top and then kind of column skirt with this,

I don't know what you would call it,

like this kind of shape on top.

Red felt like a very like,

I don't know, it's like a power color,

I think everyone looks beautiful in the color.

But I was also very excited

because Iman presented me with the award,

which was like, Are you joking?

Like she's just, she's so kind, and beautiful, and warm.

She did that for me and then after,

had like the biggest hug, and like the warmest moment,

and I felt like I'd known her for like forever.

So that was really, really special.

The Emmys again, we're back. [Zendaya laughs]

Okay, so the first time, like I said,

I got to do it from my living room.

And this time I was like, Wait, there's a possibility

that I would have to get up on that stage

in front of like, actual people.

Like I can't close the computer,

I can't blame it on bad wifi, like I have to go there.

Honestly, I wish I could have enjoyed it more

because I was just so like tense the whole time

that I couldn't really enjoy it until it was over.

And then once it was over I was like,

Ugh, glad that's over.

And this is Valentino yet again.

It is a reference to an old Valentino dress

and it was more fitted at the bottom.

It went into I think more of like a mermaid shape,

but it had this bodice with the line and the little bow.

And so we sent that as a reference.

I think this was my first time wearing

like a real gown that was all black.

This suit, everybody knows it.

And I was like, I wonder if I could wear that.

And so I sent it to Law and I was like,

What if we wore this for the premiere?

He was like, Are you being serious?

And I was like, Yeah.

He was like, Don't play with me.

Like, Don't get me started on something

and make me do this,

and you're gonna like chicken out at the last minute,

and be too scared to wear it.

And I was like, I mean, if we can do it.

One of the men who originally made it was with us

and he was like, you know,

We can try it, but there's also a world

where certain parts won't fit.

Like our proportions might be very different.

My elbow is a little bit lower or my whatever,

then it doesn't work because there's certain hinges

and places where your arms and things need to move.

But we tried it on and I was like,

Guys, I think it's fitting.

It fit like a glove, and I was like, This is so crazy.

And everybody was like, Oh!

Like you know, it just felt very like,

I was meant to be, whatever.

Immediately, I think after wearing it

for like 10 minutes or less than that,

I got like really like lightheaded.

The metal conducts and holds onto heat very quickly

and kind of traps heat in.

I'm wearing a complete body suit so there's a barrier.

So you already have a layer

of material kind of on your skin.

As the days were coming up,

I was like, This is a bad idea.

Like why did I do this?

But I put it on, I went out there, and I did it.

And this obviously was the most recent Oscars.

It fit me really well,

and I felt beautiful in it, and that's it.

Something about like the material,

that shiny thing and the way it's constructed,

and it had this really strong, like well made zipper.

I think maybe because we'd had all

these very heightened looks during the Dune press tour,

it was like this was us just kind of taking it easy.

Going old Hollywood and just keeping it simple.

[Zendaya chuckles]

Alright, this is my most recent Vogue cover.

This was really special because I got to shoot with Annie.

She was so fun to shoot with.

She had these beautiful references for poses

and she was hugely inspired by movement and dance.

She's so specific, she knows what she wants,

she knows what works.

They're all couture looks, you know?

So it's like, that was another kind of difficult thing

is figuring how to move in these looks,

some of which hadn't gone down the runway yet.

And I was like, Oh shit, like I can't mess up

their garments if they have the show tomorrow.

But Annie, she's just kinda like,

Ah, can we, you know, move this and can we, you know?

I'm like, Oh, careful, careful.

[Zendaya laughs]

But yeah, we just tried to have fun

and give these garments a different feeling with movement.

I made this signature when I was like 13.

It's a shooting star and we're just gonna be,

[Zendaya laughs] we're gonna be okay with that.

Thank you so much Vogue, for doing this with me.

This has been my Life in Looks.

And I hope to see you all soon.

[upbeat music]