The making and inspiration of Zendaya's Oscars look

Hey Tribe,

The other day, I did a post that was a little retrospective of some of the looks that Zendaya and I did for the Dune press tour. And it got me reminiscing about how we shut down the Oscars a few weeks back, when she floated across the red carpet in this custom Valentino look that Pierpaolo and I dreamed up with the atelier…

It occurred to me that I haven’t really talked to you much about the look and how it came together! And that’s an oversight, because I think it really is kind of a major moment for our partnership. We love to take risks, and this one definitely paid off.

But let’s go back to the beginning.

How did it all happen?

Everybody knows the Oscars happen every year, like clockwork. It’s Hollywood’s biggest night! And because I work with entertainers throughout the year, I can usually predict at least a few of the clients I might dress.

But this time around, I had no clue that I was going to be dressing Z, because we didn’t know whether Dune was going to be nominated for anything. She didn’t know that she was going to the Oscars until the Academy nominated Dune and said they wanted her to go, and I didn’t know until she confirmed with me.

And when I did hear, I immediately called Pierpaolo at Valentino and said that we should do a custom gown. After all, Z is THE Valentino girl, and it was only right that she should wear Valentino to the Oscars…

Because, who else could have done what we did?

Anyways, so I called Pierpaolo and said we should do a gown. And then the conversations started between us. That’s usually how it happens with these things. You talk, then talk again, then talk some more. And you’re just throwing ideas back and forth and trying to figure out what would work best.

Pierpaolo sketched out three different gowns. Two of them were based on the current Valentino collection—you know, with all those beautiful colors—and then there was this other look that was based on my inspiration.

I get inspired by so many things. When I was a kid growing up in Chicago, I used to watch my grandmother get ready for church every Sunday. I would notice the hat she chose, or the color she put on. Now, I’ll just sit in the car and look out the window at what the women are wearing. I’ll see someone at the airport and make a mental note of the fabric she’s wearing, or the dress a girl has on at the market.

My first love is vintage, though. Everyone saw the look we did for the Oscars and immediately thought it was just a nod to that iconic look Sharon Stone wore to the Oscars in 1998. And that was DEFINITELY on the mood board! That look is just so iconic, and Sharon wore it so beautifully and looked so elegant that I wanted to bring that into this updated look.

But I also have this repertoire of looks in my head. Whenever I see something that I love, I just file it into my brain archive and then wait until the right time to bring it out. There was this one runway look that I was so obsessed with, and all of a sudden I just kept seeing it on all those archive fashion pages.

So I filed it away.

It was from Todd Oldham’s legendary Spring 1995 collection. Everyone walked in that show! Linda Evangelista, Carla Bruni, Naomi...

But it was this one really iconic look that Shalom Harlow wore near the end of the show that I was crazy about: this cropped white shirt they styled with a sequin miniskirt. I thought it was so genius. And I love to play with literal references.

We decided to scrap the two gowns and go with that. Everyone probably expected her to show up in some gorgeous, highlighter-colored gown from Valentino, just like last year…

And we wanted to surprise everyone, as always!

But we needed to update the look. We needed to make it work for Z. It already felt young, but it had to be customized so it would be sophisticated enough for the occasion. It is the Oscars, after all, and you can’t look a mess at the Oscars.

So we did! The idea was simple enough… “Just a shirt and a skirt,” as Pierpaolo said. “Two pieces that can be assembled and built in a thousand combinations.”

But we needed it to be couture. And we needed it to be effortless! I already loved how pearly and bright Sharon’s look was, and how that miniskirt on Shalom was like a disco ball. We wanted to keep that. The main thing to play with was the proportion. And so what we ended up with was this really, really short, cropped shirt, paired with this long, silver organza column skirt that was like its own train, with embroidery all over it…

I don’t think we just threw out the rulebook…I think we tore it up completely. A crop top, at the Oscars!

And Z did her own makeup, too…

What did you all think of it? Did we raise the bar? Were you surprised? Were you gagged?

SAY SOMETHING!!

And until next time,

Law xx