If it’s a day that ends in the letter y, Zendaya is probably out and about absolutely crushing a look. Consider that the woman has somehow made tennis balls a chic accessory on her current press tour for Challengers. But it hasn’t always been this way. There was a world before Zendaya, and when the 18-year-old actor walked the red carpet at the 2015 Oscars, one of her first major fashion moments, she wasn’t even supposed to be there.
In a video for Vogue’s “Life in Looks” series, published Tuesday, Zendaya reflected on past red carpet looks and revealed that she crashed that first Oscars red carpet.
“I had stayed up quite late the night before having my hair done,” she said. “I didn’t have any kind of credentials or anything. I kind of snuck onto the red carpet.”
She wore an elegant white Vivienne Westwood gown on the carpet, styled by her longtime fashion collaborator, “image architect” Law Roach.
“I was like, ‘Listen. I have been up all night getting my hair done. We have this amazing Vivienne Westwood dress. I’m getting on this red carpet.’ So I kind of shimmied on there even though I wasn’t really supposed to.”
It was a momentous night for more reasons than one. Beyond launching Zendaya as the style icon we now know her as, one of the night’s major headlines was about a less celebratory moment: When then-E! News red carpet correspondent Giuliana Rancic commented that the hair Zendaya had spent all night styling, an elegant waist-length sweep of dreadlocks, looked like “she smells like patchouli oil and weed.” The clip went viral.
Zendaya responded to the racist comment with a statement on her own Instagram, calling out the “ignorant slurs and pure disrespect” she faced.
Zendaya at the 87th Annual Academy Awards on February 22, 2015.Steve Granitz
“My wearing my hair in locs on an Oscar red carpet was to showcase them in a positive light, to remind people of color that our hair is good enough,” she wrote.
Rancic initially tweeted an apology to the actor, saying, “I’m sorry I offended you and others. I was referring to a bohemian chic look. Had NOTHING to do with race and NEVER would!!!” She then apologized again on air on Fashion Police, acknowledging that “something I said last night did cross the line.”
In a 2021 interview with W magazine, Zendaya revealed that the incident still impacted how she acts years later, and helped her realize the platform that she has, and the ways she can use it.
“That’s how change happens,” she said. “And it made me think, How could I always have a lasting impact on what people saw and associated with people of color?”
These days, Zendaya is about as far from being a red carpet crasher as is possible: She’s co-chair of the 2024 Met Gala, one of fashion’s biggest nights.