Zendaya’s style evolution: A seem back as she wins the CFDA Manner Icon award

Table of Contents Prepared by Megan C. Hills, CNN Zendaya has secured her position between…

Table of Contents

Prepared by Megan C. Hills, CNN

Zendaya has secured her position between fashion’s elite, thanks to a string of eye-catching purple carpet appearances and partnerships with models like Valentino and Bulgari.
With outfits from the modern “Dune” promotional tour heading viral on social media, the previous Disney star has tested herself a sartorial drive to be reckoned with — and in accomplishing so has caught the awareness of the Council of Style Designers of America (CFDA).
This Wednesday, she will turn into the youngest at any time recipient of the organization’s prestigious Vogue Icon award. Describing her as the crimson carpet’s “reigning monarch,” the CFDA announced the news ahead of its yearly award ceremony, expressing that, “without having exception,” Zendaya “can make a type assertion as before long as she actions out of her car or truck.”

Becoming a member of the ranks of Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez, who have all been given the honor in new a long time, the 25-yr-outdated “Euphoria” star has arrive a extensive way considering the fact that her “Shake It Up” days. From a saccharine teenage wardrobe to a boundary-pushing trove of designer robes, she reworked herself into one of Hollywood’s most stylish ladies.

Shaking it up

Zendaya sporting a denim jacket and gown to a 2010 screening of “Tinker Bell and the Terrific Fairy Rescue.” Credit history: Valerie Macon/Getty Images

Zendaya’s huge crack arrived when she landed the purpose of Rocky Blue in the Disney collection “Shake It Up” — and her wardrobe was everything you would assume from a Disney woman. Her lovely outfits integrated loud prints (typically of the leopard or floral variety) and a penchant for layering and graphic tees. As the star recalled in an interview with InStyle very last thirty day period, one of her earliest red carpet outfits wasn’t by a prestigious vogue house — but instead was “a bunch of things that I had from Focus on.”

As she moved into her teenage many years, she took actions toward getting the trend-forward lady she is currently. Modern blazers and on-pattern luxury products, like Valentino’s rockstud sneakers, appeared in her wardrobe. Her outfits also took on far more of an edge as she matured, with assertion bucket heels and a desire for darker shade palettes. Nevertheless, she even now had time for the occasional tulle princess costume — albeit a single paired with a leather biker vest and hot pink heels.

As a teen, Zendaya's wardrobe began taking on more of an edge -- like incorporating a biker vest into this outfit for a 2012 charity event.

As a teenager, Zendaya’s wardrobe began using on extra of an edge — like incorporating a biker vest into this outfit for a 2012 charity function. Credit history: Allen Berezovsky/WireImage/Getty Images

A pivotal turning level in Zendaya’s job arrived when she crossed paths with rising stylist and self-described “picture architect” Regulation Roach. Their meeting led to one particular of Hollywood’s most fruitful celebrity-stylist associations. As Roach spelled out in an interview with personal styling web page The Zoe Report, he experienced grand programs for her from the start — with a “blueprint” mapping out her increase to stardom.

“She was a Disney woman, and not a large amount of Disney ladies have been highly regarded,” he is quoted as saying. “Nobody needed to dress the Disney woman, so I arrived up with this program of assault for her.”

“I would only set her in outfits that other folks experienced worn mainly because I understood at that time, (journal capabilities on) individuals who experienced worn all the weekly styles had been really well-liked,” he extra, a gamble which “worked out” as she received elevated media awareness and designers started using see.

At the 2017 Met Gala, Zendaya created a statement in a Dolce & Gabbana parrot-print ballgown. Credit: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

Leaving Disneyland

The actor scored her to start with invitation to fashion’s most significant and most distinctive night time, the Met Gala, in 2015 — her to start with of a lot of. She began experimenting with grander, artistic pieces, this kind of as her Fausto Puglisi Satisfied Gala gown, and sleeker variety-fitting outfits.

Though her aesthetic once fell firmly into the woman-up coming-doorway camp, she commenced bringing things of streetwear into her wardrobe. She also began spending stylish tributes to Black icons of the earlier, including Diana Ross and Aaliyah — one thing she proceeds to this working day — and mastering the art of viral trend times.

Zendaya often channels the spirit of her movies through her outfits -- as seen with the Moschino butterfly dress she wore to a 2017 premiere of "The Greatest Showman."

Zendaya frequently channels the spirit of her movies via her outfits — as found with the Moschino butterfly costume she wore to a 2017 premiere of “The Best Showman.” Credit: Don Arnold/WireImage/Getty Photographs

Just one of the earliest social media successes arrived at the 2017 Satisfied Gala, exactly where she stepped out in a voluminous parrot-print Dolce & Gabbana dress. As she trailed up the stairs of the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute, the grandiose ballgown landed her on “most effective dressed” lists and signaled a significant shift in her type.

Other statement-creating hits that 12 months provided a flamboyant Moschino butterfly gown that correctly captured the spirit of “The Biggest Showman” at one of the movie’s screenings, and the crimson and black sequined gown she wore to the premiere of “Spider-Guy: Homecoming,” a reference to the superhero’s iconic costume.

At the 2021 “Dune” premiere in Paris, Zendaya wore a midriff-baring Alaïa outfit. Credit score: Kristy Sparow/Getty Images

It was all around this time that Zendaya started donning more couture, functioning with lesser-regarded designers and turning to sculptural parts, these types of as the chocolate bell-shaped August Getty gown she wore to the 2018 MTV Film & Tv set Awards and the horse-silhouette minimize out Vivetta robe she sported at the 2017 Manner Awards. And regardless of transforming into Cinderella in a light-up Tommy Hilfiger robe for the 2019 Fulfilled Gala (accompanied by Roach dressed, properly, as her fairy godmother) it was clear her Disney days had been guiding her.

Style authority

By 2019, Zendaya had cemented her status as just one of the most predicted red-carpet arrivals. Her off-carpet appearances adopted match. Irrespective of whether she was being interviewed on “The Late Display with Stephen Colbert” in a tangerine Carolina Herrera mini gown, or donning a gray Berluti match at a Harper’s Bazaar social gathering, she employed every general public physical appearance as a probability to make a statement. (Michael B. Jordan, who wore the identical go well with as her at a diverse event, commented on Instagram she experienced “arms down no contest” pulled off the appear much better than him.)
All-around this time, she started incorporating elements of menswear into her outfits, as witnessed in the course of a 2019 Armani vogue present, the place she place her personal spin on a bib-front tuxedo shirt. She also began flexing her awareness of trend history by stepping out in scarce archival parts, these types of as a 2000s purple and lime eco-friendly Versace robe (a variation on a former Beyoncé stage outfit) and a voluminous blue best once owned by Eunice Walker Johnson, a Black trend icon who established up the Ebony Trend Honest in the ’60s. Delicate references to icons this sort of as Cher and even DC supervillain Poison Ivy stuffed her wardrobe.

Legislation Roach exposed on Instagram he and Zendaya had been impressed by supervillain Poison Ivy for Zendaya’s 2019 Emmys appearance, with the star carrying a inexperienced Ralph & Russo robe and dyeing her darkish locks crimson. Credit history: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Pictures

As the pandemic brought purple carpet activities to a halt, Zendaya however observed approaches to impress, donning a tailor made Giorgio Armani gown to acknowledge an Emmy about Zoom and landing a superior-profile gig as a Bulgari brand ambassador. She also ongoing breaking new ground about the training course of her extremely expected “Dune” push tour. Kicking off the circuit in fashion with an on-craze wet-glance robe by Balmain at the Venice Film Pageant, she later on channeled the sci-fi-meets-fantasy spirit of the film at its London premiere, wherever she wore a futuristic gold breastplate by Loewe and a sculptural Rick Owens robe.

Scroll via the gallery above to see Zendaya’s evolving fashion via the many years.