Zendaya has got us tangled in the web of her glamour and there is no escaping. Honestly, who is even complaining? Her wardrobe for the promotional tour of Spider-Man: Brand New Day deserves a standing ovation. From archival Versace and Galliano to a T-shirt bought from eBay, Zendaya’s acting range bleeds into her fashion as well. She is the undisputed queen of method dressing.
Hold up, wondering what’s method dressing? It’s simply when an actor doesn’t let go of their character in the real world and carries it on through their costume during a film’s press tour and promotional cycle.
Now, method dressing surely wasn’t born with Zendaya. One of the early examples of method dressing is when Geena Davis arrived at the 1992 premiere of A League of Their Own in a white dress detailed with baseball-inspired stitching. For decades afterward, method dressing took a backseat. Loud and elaborate gowns became a norm.
Then came Zendaya. With her longtime stylist Law Roach, she has rewritten fashion books. It was in 2017, when Roach placed Zendaya in a look directly inspired by her character in The Greatest Showman. It was not a full-blown movement at that time, but it offered a glimpse. By 2021, during the promotional cycles for Dune and Spider-Man: No Way Home, the strategy had cemented.
The red carpet became an extension of the screenplay, and social media amplified every reference in real time. Timothee Chalamet — during Marty Supreme (2025), A Complete Unknown (2024), and Wonka (2023) — and Margot Robbie, during Barbie (2023), have also done a decent job at method dressing. But somewhere, it left us wanting more.
Though Kim Kardashian said, “I’m Kim Kardashian and I can just bring anything back anytime I want”, Zendaya is living it. She re-introduced method dressing in Hollywood and the ripple effect was felt here at home.
Setting the bar high
In India, Alia Bhatt has done some fashionable work during Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022) and Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (2023). She brought her peak saree game with the two films — first by flaunting shades of white and then splashing every possible colour on them for Karan Johar’s directorial comeback.
But, the closest someone has come to method dressing in recent times is Janhvi Kapoor, when she was promoting the 2024 sports drama Mr. & Mrs. Mahi. Her wardrobe, curated by stylist Ami Patel, was entirely cricket-themed couture. It included a crimson midi dress with actual cricket ball strings at the back, jersey-inspired crop tops sporting her character’s number ‘6’, and sarees with season-ball motifs.
Just dressing in the base colour of your film — like Shanaya Kapoor choosing a complete green wardrobe for Tu Yaa Main (2026) — isn’t really method dressing.
Coming back to Zendaya, she had already set the bar so high, we didn’t know what to expect for Spider-Man: Brand New Day press tour. But ‘the woman, the myth, the legend’ left us awestruck.
Throughout the tour, her palette leaned heavily on black and red outings. Her archival Versace outfit from Fall 1997, in cherry red and royal blue, was iconic. Because it was a nod to the colours of Spider-Man’s original suit.
For another stop, in Rome, she and Roach turned to another archival piece. It was a Giorgio Armani piece from Spring 1990, a sheer, drop-waisted black gown patterned with silver beaded cobwebs and worn over a strapless nude underlay.
However, it wasn’t the first time Zendaya had worn a spiderweb dress for a Spider-Man premiere. Back in 2021, she walked the red carpet wearing a Valentino Haute Couture gown by Pierpaolo Piccioli for the Los Angeles premiere of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
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Effortless charm
But, the most gag-worthy moment from Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s promotional tour was when Zendaya, to close out the promotional run, appeared in a Spring 1997 John Galliano gown. All hell broke loose. The internet had a meltdown, and rightly so.
The drama at the back of the dress was a cascade of beaded crystal designed into a spiderweb, and it drew the most attention.
While I call the Galliano gown my favourite garment, the coolest fashion outing by Zendaya was when she ditched designer pieces and appeared on one carpet in an oversized, vintage Spider-Man T-shirt, purchased for $35 on eBay.
She opted for a piece of pure fan nostalgia and, while doing so, produced one of the tour’s most discussed looks. In Zendaya’s hands, even a thrifted graphic tee can break the internet.
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(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)