This is an archive article published on May 4, 2024
Zendaya is no stranger to the Met Gala red carpet. But it’s been a while.
The designers must fight to the death to dress you,” Kelly Ripa told Zendaya, the 27-year-old actress.
Zendaya exits the Mark Hotel in a Joan of Arc-inspired Versace ensemble, en route to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala in New York, May 7, 2018. (Benjamin Norman/The New York Times)
“The designers must fight to the death to dress you,” Kelly Ripa told Zendaya, the 27-year-old actress, as they discussed her preparation for this year’s Met Gala on a recent episode of “Live With Kelly and Mark.”
Zendaya gave a knowing smile. Since she last attended the New York City fashion extravaganza in 2019, she has become not only a leading actress on screen (lately, in the tennis romance “Challengers”) but a red-carpet force whose looks can be anticipated almost as hotly as the projects they are meant to promote. Her committed style of dressing has become “a tool of both image-making and moneymaking,” wrote Jessica Testa, a fashion reporter for The New York Times.
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So it is of intense interest to red-carpet watchers that Zendaya will return to the Met Gala on Monday for the first time in five years, this time as a co-chair. She will be styled by Law Roach, the “image architect” who has been working with her since she was 13.
“We call each other our fashion soulmates,” he told Vanessa Friedman in a recent interview.
Zendaya’s willingness to take fashion risks has been on display at her past five Met Gala appearances, which have involved chain mail, parrots and a color-changing Cinderella dress with a pumpkin carriage purse. But ascending the steps has not exactly gotten easier with practice, she told Ripa: “It’s still terrifying.”
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Here’s a look at Zendaya’s Met Gala history.
2019: ‘Camp: Notes on fashion’
For the camp-themed gala in 2019, Zendaya assumed full Cinderella cosplay in a billowing ballgown with puff sleeves by Tommy Hilfiger. It transformed from gray to a luminous blue with the wave of a wand by Roach, who dressed as her fairy godmother.
Zendaya in full Cinderella cosplay, a billowing ball gown with puff sleeves by Tommy Hilfiger, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute benefit gala in New York, May 6, 2019. The theme for this yearÕs Met Gala is ÒCamp: Notes on Fashion.Ó (Karsten Moran/The New York Times)
2018: ‘Heavenly bodies: Fashion and the catholic imagination’
Zendaya wore Versace’s take on armor to the 2018 Met Gala, complete with glittering silver epaulets, a spiked metal collar and a deep, single-leg split. The heavy gown was leavened by a wavy red bob with bangs.
Roach has said the inspiration for the look arrived while he was sleeping. “I dreamt of Joan of Arc one night and called Versace and was like, ‘What if we did something to reference Joan of Arc?’” he told WWD. “They came back with really, really great sketches.”
Zendaya exits the Mark Hotel in a Joan of Arc-inspired Versace ensemble, en route to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute benefit gala in New York, May 7, 2018. Each spring, the gala serves as the opening of the annual blockbuster show at the institute, which this year carries a religious theme and is titled ÒHeavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.” (Damon Winter/The New York Times)
2017: ‘Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the in-between’
At the 2017 gala, Zendaya wore an off-the-shoulder Dolce & Gabbana ballgown with illustrations of parrots and flowers descending its tangerine-and-maize skirt. A Times critic described it as a “Tropicana fantasy.”
Zendaya in an off-the-shoulder Dolce & Gabbana ball gown with illustrations of parrots and flowers, at the Costume Institute Gals, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, May 1, 2017. (Benjamin Norman/The New York Times)
2016: ‘Manus x Machina: Fashion in an age of technology’
Zendaya arrived at the 2016 Met Gala in a sleek, form-fitting column of gold fabric by Michael Kors with a taut collar and a single sleeve. Her eye makeup evoked gunmetal, and her hair was in a high-gloss bowl cut.
Zendaya in a sleek, form-fitting column of gold fabric by Michael Kors with a taut collar and a single sleeve, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute benefit gala in New York, May 2, 2016. (Damon Winter/The New York Times)
2015: ‘China: Through the looking glass’
Zendaya attended her first Met Gala when she was 18, just a few years after her debut on the Disney Channel dance show “Shake It Up.” She wore a Fausto Puglisi dress with a black bodice and a short red skirt, adding a headband and wrist cuff with a sunburst pattern to match.
Zendaya exits the Mark Hotel in a Joan of Arc-inspired Versace ensemble, en route to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala in New York, May 7, 2018. (Benjamin Norman/The New York Times) 
Zendaya in full Cinderella cosplay, a billowing ball gown with puff sleeves by Tommy Hilfiger, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute benefit gala in New York, May 6, 2019. The theme for this yearÕs Met Gala is ÒCamp: Notes on Fashion.Ó (Karsten Moran/The New York Times)
Zendaya exits the Mark Hotel in a Joan of Arc-inspired Versace ensemble, en route to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute benefit gala in New York, May 7, 2018. Each spring, the gala serves as the opening of the annual blockbuster show at the institute, which this year carries a religious theme and is titled ÒHeavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.” (Damon Winter/The New York Times)
Zendaya in an off-the-shoulder Dolce & Gabbana ball gown with illustrations of parrots and flowers, at the Costume Institute Gals, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, May 1, 2017. (Benjamin Norman/The New York Times)
Zendaya in a sleek, form-fitting column of gold fabric by Michael Kors with a taut collar and a single sleeve, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute benefit gala in New York, May 2, 2016. (Damon Winter/The New York Times)
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