Above: Zendaya wears Louis Vuitton in Paris
How many tennis puns can a writer use to wax lyrical about Zendaya’s style in the era of Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers? One, it seems, for each tennis-inspired outfit she pulls from the runway or archive. A pioneer of the dress-like-your-movie phenomenon that’s been sweeping the red carpet of late, Zendaya’s hopped from the arachnid fantasies of Spider-Man and the sandy futurism of Dune to the sporting goods required by a campy, racquet-filled dramedy. Her first stop, at Sydney’s State Theatre, saw her and creative partner Law Roach choose a custom Loewe slip dress: tennis-green, bedazzled, and printed with a screengrab of a player mid-serve. That Jonathan Anderson would act as the starting point for the press tour was no surprise; the creative director was Challengers’ costume designer, after all.
A photocall before Sydney Harbour was accompanied by her take on tennis whites: a cropped tank, men’s style briefs and netted maxi skirt by Lacoste. And then, it was a hat trick in Paris, pieces of Louis Vuitton history—a maison for which she’s an ambassador—splashed in the same Wimbledon palette. She paired a preppy ’60s short coat chequered in green and white with a headband and blonde beehive; this was a look from the house’s spring/summer 2013 collection. A silken button-up and matching trousers from Louis Vuitton’s spring/summer 1999 presentation was next, followed by a custom strapless gown for the city’s premiere in a brilliant white, layered on the hips with a wide, criss-cross belt.
They were looks that were retro, but minimal—exactly the sort of clothes you might imagine on a card-carrying country club member. It’s one thing to style yourself well to promote a film, but it’s another thing entirely to capture the spirit of a movie in your clothes: the cool, the playfulness, even the camp. In the Challengers closet, we find a continuation of the long-standing synergy between style and sport. And when it comes to method dressing, Zendaya is always game.
Here, every look she’s worn on the Challengers press tour red carpet to date.
