Zendaya never misses the mark, er, target with her red carpet looks.
While the star is now known to turn heads with her high-fashion attire, she revealed in her November 2021 InStyle cover story that her first movie premiere outfit was from a decidedly less ritzy retailer: Target.
But when asked what she’d tell herself while looking back at that first red carpet appearance, the star, 25, replied, “Keep doing what you’re doing.”
“When I was 14 and at my first movie premiere, my outfit was a bunch of stuff that I had from Target,” she continued. “And I thought I was fly. I felt cool.”
“To this day, I think that’s really all that matters. Then you know you’re doing the right thing.”
Zendaya’s go-to stylist, Law Roach, has previously said that luxury labels refused to dress the star earlier in her career, telling The Hollywood Reporter in 2020, “Now that everybody wants to dress her, I go back and I say ‘Not this season!’”
Roach and Zendaya have certainly created plenty of memorable moments on the red carpet, with the star listing her favorites as her Moschino butterfly dress, her Joan of Arc look from the 2018 Met Gala, and – what else? – her viral Tom Ford breastplate at the 2020 Critics’ Choice Awards.
“Nothing could hurt me – I was like a warrior,” she told the magazine of the pink armored style, which she seemed to reference with her gold Loewe look for last week’s Women in Film Awards.
“I think about red carpets as having their own characters and narratives,” she added. “We build a little story for all the looks. It’s like an extension of my acting career in a weird way.”
And she’s certainly come a long way from doing Target runs for red carpet looks. In fact, some of her designer dresses now even have her own name stitched inside.
“When [Valentino creative director] Pierpaolo [Piccioli] comes up with these beautiful silhouettes for me to wear, he has my name stitched on a little tag inside,” revealed the “Euphoria” star, who became a Valentino ambassador in 2020. “All my custom Valentino pieces have a little ‘Zendaya’ on them.”
But while she likely buys more Bulgari bling than big-box store clothing these days – she recently treated herself to a yellow diamond ring from the luxury label – that doesn’t mean she’s ditched styles from her early days.
“I think [my first splurge] was my first time in Paris for my Disney show [“Shake It Up”], and I bought this teeny Louis Vuitton bag,” she recalled. “It’s pretty cute. I still have it somewhere.”
Perhaps she’ll shake things up with a red carpet throwback sometime soon.
