Zendaya’s Red Carpet Fashion Will Always Be as Epic as ‘The Odyssey’

There are few modern stars who capture audiences attention so thoroughly as Zendaya. Her performances across a wide range of genres, from Euphoria to The Drama, and most recently, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey (plus the soon-to-be-released Spider-Man: Brand New Day and the much anticipated finale to the Dune trilogy later this year) have cemented her as a leading lady of our time. However, it is her red carpet persona—crafted in combination with her longtime stylist and image architect Law Roach—that has undoubtedly changed the off-screen celebrity style game. Just take it from her three-time costar Robert Pattinson during a recent red-carpet appearance: “Whenever Zendaya’s coming to something, you’re like ‘oh god, everyone’s going to get outshone.’”

For her fashion-minded, eagle-eyed fans, every press tour seems to up the anticipation, and though Roach and Zendaya approach each film with the same thematic focus, The Odyssey’s epic scale inspires its press tour fashion to match. (How does one top—or continue—the sensation of pulling the Thierry Mugler fall 1995 couture robot suit, after all?) “It’s almost like [everybody is] waiting for the press tour to happen just as much as people are waiting for the movie to come out,” Roach tells Vogue of Zendaya’s packed slate of upcoming projects. For The Odyssey, a goddess-like Pamella Roland column gown or an archival Alberta Ferretti dress are perfectly literal and on theme, as is the expected standard when it comes to the pair’s dedication to method dressing, but an uber-rare look from Alexander McQueen’s Givenchy spring 1997 haute couture debut and the matching Philip Treacy headpiece, originally worn by Debra Shaw both on the runway and at her own wedding, that took multiple years to individually track down? The backstory in itself is a main event.

Zendaya in Givenchy spring 1997 couture at a photocall in Paris.

The same goes for when Roach spotted the finale look from the debut runway collection of a then-up-and-coming design duo Matières Fécales on Vogue Runway. He immediately DMed them on Instagram to hold the dress before The Odyssey’s red carpets were in clear view. “I said, ‘Please, Zendaya has this movie coming. I can’t tell you too much. Please, hold this dress for me,’” says Roach. “They had no idea what the movie was at all, and they trusted. And so six months ago, we were in Paris, and we had a fitting with them, so they held it, and then we fit six months, and then they held it another six months till I was ready to wear the dress. I wrote them, I’m like, ‘I have a date finally.’” The time finally came almost two years later at the movie’s New York premiere, though Roach and Zendaya have shown their support for the brand in the time since. (Zendaya wore a distressed pink gown from the spring 2026 collection during The Drama press tour.)

Zendaya in Schiaparelli fall 2026 couture at the London premiere.

Schiaparelli fall 2026 couture on the runway in Paris that morning.

Not every press-tour look necessitates years of planning. Roach explains that the pair’s process is more fluid—and sometimes spontaneous—than one might think. For the London premiere, Zendaya stepped out onto the red carpet in silicone molded bustier and LED illuminated fringed beaded skirt. If the look felt freshly familiar, it’s because it had walked the Schiaparelli couture runway in Paris that very morning. “[Daniel Roseberry] told me that there were three dresses that he thought I would love,” says Roach, but the Schiaparelli designer couldn’t share photos in advance. Roach, as a result, chartered a plane to Paris the evening before to see the collection in an intimate preview and stayed to watch the dresses in motion on the models’ bodies the following morning. It’s an extravagant errand that felt a little too familiar to people in the industry who have likely helped a friend find someone who can hand carry a garment bag from New York to Milan in less that a day’s notice.

“I feel like her fans and my fans and people who just follow the work, this is what they expect, and they expect it at a certain level,” explains Roach of the broader styling strategy. “They expect it to be entertaining.”