In case there is any question about how Law Roach feels about this, he posted confirmation that this is the original 1995 Mugler suit underneath a photo of Muhammad Ali with his arms flung wide, sitting underneath the words “I am the greatest!” And it’s true that Law is great at finding things for Zendaya that paint a real picture, and which she can carry, even when it should be impossible. (By the way, Diet Prada had a video of her moving in it, so that much IS possible.) There is basically no one on earth other than Z who could wear this and be taken seriously even for a second.
Law says he’s not a stylist anymore, but rather an image architect. Never has that rung truer. Because I’m not sure this IS styling. And I don’t mean that as an insult; I just would argue styling is putting an outfit together with an eye toward the wearer’s actual tastes or an elevation thereof, which they do sometimes do together, and that this is more… exotic costuming, where perhaps the desire to show off a big, impressive score, like Sexy Tin Man here, is the primary objective. These aren’t clothes; she’s a living sculpture in it. It’s a whole different bucket. And because Zendaya is the ideal canvas for pretty much anything, it would be hard to resist, even if whatever the artistic statement is doesn’t QUITE line up with the occasion. Like, isn’t Dune one of the few sci-fi series that pointedly and intentionally doesn’t use robots?
Regardless, congrats on the flex, and I hope Zendaya got a fair amount of cash for putting that on her body. Wearing it looks challenging. And warm. Obviously she was game to do this, but I can’t totally figure out to what end, unless it’s simply to flaunt the fact that they could. I guess in their business, that’s reason enough. But for my money the Dune 1.0 Balmain she wore in Venice was a bigger triumph of styling, and this is more a triumph of who will return your phone calls and how fast. Which is also a victory and this IS a coup. It’s just hard to talk about this in the context of anything else because it’s more than a different game; they aren’t even the same sport.
[Photos: Joe Maher/Getty Images, Pierre Vauthey/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images, Samir Hussein, Mike Marsland/WireImage, Neil Mockford/FilmMagic]
