In 1994, Elizabeth Hurley attended the premiere of Four Weddings and A Funeral with her then partner (and the film’s star) Hugh Grant, wearing a black Versace dress held together by strategically-placed safety pins. A relative unknown at the time, brands were not clamoring to dress Hurley, but Versace was dressing Grant and agreed to outfit his plus-one for the premiere, too. Even though it was the only sample available at Versace HQ, and scrambled together at the last minute, the dress made Hurley a star overnight, and it’s now considered one of the most significant red-carpet looks of the ’90s.
At the Louis Vuitton spring 2024 show at Paris Fashion Week today, modern red-carpet darling Zendaya wore a fitted, floor-sweeping dress with a similar risk-taking energy to Hurley’s famous LBD. But for Zendaya it was zips, not safety pins, bringing the daring edge to her look. Her white body-skimming dress featured a two-way zip from neck to hem, the chunky gold fastenings unzipped at either end to create a plunging neckline and a dramatic thigh-high slit.
Zendaya’s gown would not look out of place on Oscar night, never mind at lunchtime on a Monday —but this is Zendaya and this is Paris Fashion Week, so the usual rules don’t apply. And, perhaps the SAG-AFTRA strike means she has been missing the thrill of getting dressed up for the red carpet.
This year the actor became an ambassador for Louis Vuitton, fronting a new campaign for the Capucines handbags, and so the Parisian house now has a significant role to play in her red-carpet looks. Given her schedule is a little lighter than expected—the release of Challengers and Dune 2 have both been moved to spring 2024—we haven’t yet seen how this partnership will influence her red-carpet style. Judging by today’s white dress, it’s going to be good.
