Zendaya’s Met Gala Looks Through the Years
A Return to the Spotlight
05.02.24
By Hope Rasa
After an unexplained five-year hiatus, Zendaya will co-host the 2024 Met Gala on May 6 as the next step in her career as a fashion icon. The star turned heads with her innovative looks at the 2015-2019 Met Galas. Now she returns as a host alongside Jennifer Lopez, Chris Hemsworth and Bad Bunny. The theme of this year’s Met Gala is “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” and the dress code is “The Garden of Time.”
Zendaya has knocked it out of the park five years in a row with her Met Gala looks. She was on every Met Gala’s “Best Looks” list with her designer outfits, all put together by Law Roach, Zendaya’s stylist. Roach has been with Zendaya since back in her Disney star days when she was 14. As Zendaya matured from a Disney Channel kid to an A-list actress, Roach perfectly coordinated her looks with her evolution as a celebrity. Now that she’s back in the Met Gala game, let’s reminisce about the iconic looks that bought Zendaya her Met Gala fame.
2015 Fausto Puglisi sun dress, China: Through the Looking Glass
This look marked Zendaya’s debut at the Met Gala. At 18 years old, the dress perfectly represented Zendaya’s image as she began her transformation from a Disney star to a mature celebrity.
"I liked the fact that it was mature and fit the theme but didn't lose the fun, fresh youthfulness that I wanted it to have,” Zendaya told PEOPLE magazine.
2016 Michael Kors bronze gown, Manus x Machina
This bronze Michael Kors collection gown look was regarded as a bit of a dull look for Zendaya at the time, but even her least memorable Met Gala look had people floored. This look is a more subdued moment in Zendaya’s Met Gala outfit history, reflecting her career at the time as she got her bearings in Hollywood as a young woman.
2017 Dolce and Gabbana alta moda dress, Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between
This dress cemented Zendaya’s rule over Met Gala fashion. The flowing gown’s vibrant colors and Zendaya’s flawless hair had social media pawing at pictures of this look and even prompted Riannah to post a tribute to her on Instagram. The 2017 Met Gala was held just two months before the release of “Spiderman: Homecoming,” the blockbuster that solidified Zendaya’s career as a movie star. Zendaya’s dress, combined with the promotional content for the movie being at an all-time high, made her the woman of the hour. This look marked the final stage of her Hollywood bombshell metamorphosis.
2018 Versace Joan of Arc dress, Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination
Now in full bloom as a superstar, Zendaya’s Met Gala outfits became more creative, innovative and conceptual. While her previous looks had been traditional dresses, Zendaya’s Joan of Arc number was both a designer dress and a costume. Fittingly enough, Zendaya’s appearance as Joan of Arc marked her truly forging her path and making a name for herself in her Hollywood career.
2019 Tommy Hilfiger Cinderella Dress (1), Camp: Notes on Fashion
Continuing the streak of more costume-like Met Gala looks, Zendaya went from a knight in shining armor to a fairytale princess with a luminescent Cinderella gown in 2018. With a bippity-boppity-boo transformation performed by Roach, Zendaya revealed a second dress underneath her Cinderella gown; a sleek pink design modeled after the party dress from the Cinderella story.
2019 Tommy Hilfiger Cinderella Dress (2), Camp: Notes on Fashion
This pink dress and the Cinderella look symbolized the final breath of Zendaya’s remaining identity as a Disney princess. The actress had already been starring in non-Disney productions, like the aforementioned “Spiderman: Homecoming” (2017) and “The Greatest Showman” (2017). In late 2018, Zendaya’s final Disney production, “KC Undercover,” wrapped up before the release of “Euphoria’s” first season in early 2019. With her non-Disney projects piling up and her final Disney production behind her.
Time and time again, Zendaya has brought only the best to the table at the Met Gala. It’s fitting that the year Zendaya returns, she does so with a promotion. Zendaya still hasn’t explained why she took that five-year hiatus, but with the recent release of “Dune: Part Two” (2024) and “Challengers” (2024), both starring Zendaya, it’s time to bring the actress home to the Met Gala.