From her child actor days to becoming one of the most famous people in the world, Zendaya has been with her stylist Law Roach through it all. The two began working together during the actor’s Disney days, and have continued to bring her jaw-dropping looks to life during her recent Dune: Part Two and Challengers press tours. Roach’s influence is all over Zendaya’s Life In Looks from the jump. “I needed a cute lil’ dress to go to my Teen Vogue party,” Zendaya says of a 2011 look—one of her first with Roach.
Zendaya’s transition from Disney Channel star to cover girl happened in one fell swoop. At 20-years-old, the actor shot her first Vogue cover while she was still filming her Disney show, K.C. Undercover, and ahead of her film debut in Spider-Man: Homecoming. “It feels very special ’cause I got to have family with me,” she says of the shoot, which featured her nieces and Roach. “I was just excited to be there. I was like, Put me in whatever you want.”
One of her most instantly recognizable fashion moments is her 2018 Met Gala look: Joan of Arc as imagined by Versace, complete with a red wavy micro-bob. With her grace, you’d never know she was feeling the (literal) pressure of her outfit. “Typically I can handle a night out, with my heels and everything; I’ve worn heels for a long time. But I don’t know, something about a mixture of wearing these platforms and the heaviness of my dress, I was struggling,” she says.
After Euphoria premiered, Zendaya started wading into more experimental fashion to match her gritty, adult show. One of the most daring looks was the fuchsia Tom Ford breastplate and matching maxi skirt that she wore to the 2020 Critics Choice Awards. “They weren’t my boobs originally,” she says, adding that she asked the Tom Ford team: “Could we maybe do my own?” And thus, after a quick scan with a hair dryer-like contraption, a full rendering of her torso made the dream a reality. “Technology, people!” she says.
While Zendaya may be a renowned fashion figure today, not every look is as universally beloved as, say, her body-hugging nude Balmain wet look from the Venice Film Festival, or her Dune: Part Two gynoid suit. “I still see memes about this particular look,” Zendaya says about a photo of her wearing an oversized Emporio Armani hat in 2014. Still, she takes it all in stride. “I would wear it again. Might have to bring it out of the archives one day.”