On the Euphoria red carpet last week, there was one big star: archival fashion.
As celebrities like Zendaya and Jacob Elordi posed for pictures (and left just as quickly as they arrived), just as many eyes were on what they were wearing (Tom Ford and Bottega Veneta) as on their faces.
And while Zendaya is usually the star best known for her vintage pulls, it was Alexa Demie who stood out here, wearing a piece pulled straight from Bob Mackie’s archives. The American designer has been a favourite of icons like Cher and Elton John for decades, and is still going strong; recently, he dressed Zendaya in vintage 2001 couture for a 2024 event at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Demie’s black and silver striped number stood out for a different reason: it was originally worn by Bette Midler in 1991.
Predictably, the internet went wild. But Demie is far from the only person to be wearing vintage on the red carpet. In fact, she wasn’t even the only one wearing an archival look to the event: Sydney Sweeney also wore a white 2007 Pierre Cardin cape dress.
This isn’t a new phenomenon, but it does feel like it’s accelerating. Take a look at any red carpet, and chances are there’ll be vintage. Kylie Jenner wore Elizabeth Hurley’s 1999 Versace chainmail dress at the 2025 Golden Globes; Margot Robbie wore both AW88 Vivienne Westwood and SS92 John Galliano for the Wuthering Heights press tour early this year.
In the last five years, archival fashion has become the ultimate signifier of authority: a status symbol, a way of demonstrating just how much clout you have. After all, what’s more of a flex than getting a designer to lend you one of their most treasured pieces?
The celebrity relationship with archival pieces is an interesting one. Traditionally, the red carpet was a place to show off the newest designer pieces – ones straight from the runway, or ones that hadn’t even been released yet.
This benefits both celebrity and designer: the celebrity gets to position themselves as somebody with the contacts to source these haute couture pieces, while the designer gets free publicity.
But in an age where the definition of the word ‘celebrity’ has expanded to include influencers, and really any people that are rich enough to buy themselves access (hello, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez), suddenly, designer isn’t really that exclusive anymore. How can the A-list differentiate themselves from the masses? By pulling looks not just anybody can get access to – and that are unique.
Forget bumping into somebody wearing the same dress at the Oscars (any celebrity’s nightmare). If you show up in a dress with history, and ideally a dress that has made history, everybody’s eyes are going to be on you. Factor in pop culture’s current and ongoing obsession with nostalgia, and perhaps it’s no surprise that it’s suddenly everywhere.
“Ultra-rare archival fashion functions as a status symbol that’s less about money and more about knowledge and access,” Dr Carolyn Mair told Marie Claire recently.
“Anyone (wealthy) can buy a current runway look, but far fewer people can locate, authenticate and secure one of these pieces—which in turn positions the wearer as an insider with taste and discernment, not just spending power."
“Celebrity interest in rare archival fashion is really about cultural currency, especially at a time when luxury has become hyper-accessible and endlessly replicated online,” Ameli Lindgren, who runs London vintage shop Nordic Poetry, added. “In an era of saturation, archival pieces carry history, authorship and context, which resonate strongly in an image-driven culture and offer narrative as opposed to just endorsement.”
The origin arguably has its roots in the work of uber-stylist Law Roach. During his long and fruitful collaboration with Zendaya, Roach has put his client in everything from the never-before-worn John Galliano for Givenchy couture gown she took to the 2024 Met Gala, to the Thierry Mugler 1995 robot suit that she wore to the Dune premiere. In 2020, she wore a vintage Versace gown (one of her first archive pulls) dating back to 1996, her year of birth, for the Green Carpet Fashion Awards; on the Challengers press tour, she wore an all-white collared minidress from Ralph Lauren’s SS92 collection, which had originally worn on the runway by Cindy Crawford.
Without fail, the looks have caused a sensation – though often, it’s the story behind the dress that helps create a compelling narrative. See Zendaya’s Bob Mackie pull for the afore-mentioned stop-off at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, where she paid tribute to Cher (the star being honoured) in a very on-brand, ultra low-cut homage that turned heads.
“People forget that vintage is sustainable; it’s a way to reduce waste,” Roach has said previously. “And there’s always a story: who’s worn it before, who made it, what did it mean to them, where did you find it? That part of fashion has always intrigued me, and brings more life to whatever you’re wearing.”
“I want to reuse my clothes. I want to be able to wear that dress again when I’m 40 and be like, ‘This old thing?’” Zendaya added to Vogue – and where one of the world’s most famous actresses leads, others follow suit.
Roach’s archival clout extends beyond Zendaya, though she is the person who is most famous for it. For the Wicked press tours that dominated our newsfeeds in 2024 and 2025, Ariana Grande tapped him to source her some Glinda-themed looks. Those included a flowing number from Alexander McQueen’s spring 1998 couture show for Givenchy, a spaghetti strap dress from 1950s brand Lilli Diamond and a lovely butter-yellow number designed by Hubert de Givenchy himself – in 1966.
This obsession with securing a look with its own ‘narrative’ - enough to cut through the increasing internet noise around any red carpet event - comes with setbacks, of course, as well as questions. When should a piece be reworn, and when should it be preserved as part of fashion history? See Kim Kardashian, who wore Marilyn Monroe’s iconic ‘Happy Birthday, Mr President’ dress to the 2022 Met Gala. The fragile piece, which came out of storage for the event, was reportedly damaged by Kardashian, though its owner, Ripley’s, has denied it.
Regardless, the trend is here to stay. And with the upcoming Met Gala taking place just a few weeks from now, expect all eyes to be on the deepest flex, the most obscure vintage pull. After all, if these celebs can’t wear it, who can?
