Zendaya arrived at the Challengers Los Angeles premiere ready to flip the script on "method dressing." Just as fans got familiar with her parade of netted skirts and tennis racket embellishments, she swerved (and served) in a new direction with lingerie-like details.
The 27-year-old star hit the Tuesday, April 16, screening wearing a gown absent of any obvious references to the film's tennis plot. Dressed as always by stylist Law Roach, Zendaya's Vera Wang gown instead combined a sheer lace corset bodice with a voluminous pink and black skirt.
Court green, country club pleating, and preppy hairbows were nowhere in sight. This time around, Zendaya seemed to say that she's dressing as the true star of the film with a dramatic gown to match. Her dress marked all sorts of firsts for Zendaya's Challengers looks: the first to have an exaggerated ballgown silhouette, the first to color-coordinate with the movie poster in shades of pink and black, and the first to incorporate risqué, lingerie-inspired detailing. (Roach has yet to share further details about the look's inspiration.)
Getting into the details: The lacy bodice juxtaposed a balletic pink skirt that extended into an exaggerated train, with another layer of black fabric underneath. Peek-a-boo black lace also appeared in the back of the dress, contrasting her bubblegum skirt.
Once again, Zendaya accessorized with touches of Bulgari diamonds (as she has on every previous tour stop). Her feet were hidden, but it's safe to assume she wore her trusty Louboutin pumps.
Zendaya worked with her longtime glam team, makeup artist Ernesto Casillas and hair stylist Ursula Stephen, for a beauty beat to complement her statement gown. The look consisted of an airy ballerina bun secured at the crown of her head, with light pink blush and a natural-yet-glowy lip.
The evening wasn't all about breaking rank with her streak of tennis-inspired pieces. For a late night afterparty, Zendaya changed into a brilliant green halter dress by Celia Kritharioti—set with a life-size tennis ball embellishment at the base of the plunging neckline.
The Challengers Los Angeles premiere is just the latest stop on the whirlwind fashion world tour Zendaya has taken this spring—but her main premiere look broke every pattern she established on previous stops.
For each screening, she and Law Roach had found inventive ways to reinvent tournament dress codes. Their formula? A mix of custom designer pieces and rare archival pulls, all with Grand Slam champion energy.
The "method dressing" marathon began in Sydney, Australia, last month, where Zendaya attended the first Challengers premiere in a custom Loewe dress. Designed by Jonathan Anderson (who's both the Challengers costume designer and the creative director of Loewe), the look cast Zendaya's gown as a glittering green tennis court. On it, a striking trompe-l'œil illustration of a player's shadow appeared to serve the ball embellishment at her bodice.
Fashion commentators thought this set the stage for a tour wardrobe painted in a tennis ball chartreuse palette. Instead, Zendaya barely wore green for the official premieres and instead chose to subvert tennis whites on successive stops. At the London premiere, her Thom Browne dress was coated in tennis racket embellishments; in Paris, she floated down the carpet in a gauzy white gown by Louis Vuitton; in Rome, she went minimalist in a Calvin Klein skirt suit.
More casual photocalls have also been a chance for Roach and Zendaya to flex their sourcing muscles—and play with casual silhouettes. In Milan on April 14, Zendaya wore a Ralph Lauren tennis dress that Cindy Crawford debuted on the runway in 1991. A week earlier, in Rome, she returned to Loewe in the form of a sparkly pleated mini dress and surrealist tennis ball high heels. Vintage Vivienne Westwood and Louis Vuitton, terry cloth 16Arlington, and bedazzled Lacoste sets have also figured into her looks inspired by her on-screen tennis persona, Tashi Duncan.
The Challengers Los Angeles premiere is one of Zendaya's final tennis fashion aces of the promo tour. She makes her lead billing debut in U.S. theaters in just over a week, on Friday, April 26.
Fans won't know exactly what the Luca Guadagnino film entails until they see it. (Early reviews hint that it's high-energy and a little spicy—befitting a lingerie-inspired dress.) Style-wise, it's hard to imagine the on-screen costumes competing with Zendaya's tour wardrobe.
