Zendaya, chameleon, or fashion icon?

Part 2

Substack says this email might be too long for email. Open in the Substack app or your browser!

After sending part 1 of this newsletter, I have been meditating on what it means to be a true fashion icon and how Zendaya fits and doesn't fit into this prestigious category. Is a fashion icon someone who dominates conversations around fashion while in the spotlight or after? Is a fashion icon someone who inspires and influences their peers? Or is it someone who never wears a “bad outfit?” It could also be someone who looks good in anything, but some say “looking good in anything” is subjective. Does a fashion icon start with intentions to affect fashion trends, or does it happen “organically?” Because how could Princess Diana know that her collegiate sweatshirts and cycling shorts would influence athleisure trends in the 2020s? Does a fashion icon reinvent themselves like Rihanna did every year for six years with each album rollout? Does the designer or stylist make the fashion icon, or is it a combination of their tastes? How can we tell? 

To answer the question about Zendaya’s fashion icon status without doubt, I must introduce some notable fashion icons and compare and contrast their influences, style, and legacy with Zendaya’s.

It would be unhelpful to pretend that Rihanna, Princess Di, Chloe Sevigny, and Tina Turner weren’t meticulous about using fashion to carefully craft images that would dominate the fashion cultural zeitgeist for years and decades. For centuries, socialites, actors, and musicians have used fashion and clothes to attract, distract, and curate identities that have elevated their popularity. So what Law Roach and Zendaya have done isn't new. It also isn’t an accident that 3 out of 4 women I mentioned used fashion as a conduit for self-expression after escaping and surviving abusive romantic partnerships. 

Mel Ottenberg first styled Rihanna for her 2011 NBA All-Stars Game halftime show in a 1991 Dolce & Gabbana bustier. After this, Rihanna invited him to style the “Loud” tour in 2011. He remained as her stylist to co-create iconic looks by seeking out independent and emerging designers like Adam Selman and Molly Goddard, creating an express lane for Rihanna to become a global music and fashion icon. It was not a coincidence that while accepting a CFDA Fashion Icon Award in 2014, she wore a Swarovski encrusted mesh gown by Adam Selman, sans bra, that became one of the top (if not the top) fashion moments of the 2010s. (I know you have an image in your head as soon as you read it before clicking the link! Exactly!) The dress would have been iconic, but the decision to style it with a matching head scarf and pink fox stole incorporated Rihanna's signature sporty glamour, and I live for it. 

YOU HAD TO BE THERE! Left: 2017 in Molly Goddard, which catapulted the designer to fame. This dress on the runway was striking but choosing to wear it off-shoulder with sneakers gave it Rihanna’s sporty glamour. I hope Law Roach, who loves pulling complete runway looks, should be taking notes on personalized styling. Middle: (2017) Kim Kardashian wore these Vehements x Manolo Blahnik around the same time as Rihanna, but I didn’t know it until I looked up this photo. Kendall Jenner also has a photo of herself in these boots, and I remember because I had seen them first on Rihanna. Right: Azzedine Alaïa would be so proud that his bodysuit invented pregnancy with Rihanna.

“My tits bother you?” Rihanna’s response to a reporter’s question on the CFDA red carpet has become my mantra whenever I am brave enough to wear a sheer garment in my little midwestern city. If you had doubts about Rihanna’s fashion icon status before that red carpet, there was no longer a question of it; public opinion was unanimous. The CFDA dress was a deliberate choice that was personal and true to Rihanna, and it is a fashion memory that lives on.