On March 1, Zendaya will reprise her role as Chani in Dune: Part Two, which means Law Roach has spent the past couple of months styling the actor in an accretion of sci-fi inspired looks. Back in December, the actor wore a Schiaparelli skirt with a three-dimensional lobster clinging to its front; she looked like an embattled daughter of Poseidon. And then, in a stunning turn of events, there was the Schiaparelli gown she wore to the brand’s haute couture spring 2024 show last week, constructed with an exoskeletal train reminiscent of a war-mongering Catherynne Valente protagonist.
And then, just last night, Zendaya made an appearance on The Jimmy Kimmel Show, dressed in a close-fitting two piece from The Attico’s spring 2024 collection. Ruched down the shins and unbuttoned with an air of deshabilé at the sternum, Zendaya looked as though she had been caught mid-combat with some kind of extraterrestrial sandworm. (Hair and make-up unscathed, of course.) The sleeves on Timothée Chalamet’s Stüssy hoodie, meanwhile, had seemingly perished.
The only cast member not to engage with this speculative fantasy was Florence Pugh. She wore a pure white Galvan dress with a lace appliqué embroidered on its bodice–which seems to be her thing while promoting Dune: body-sculpting and almost bridal. Towards the end of last year, the actor wore a dishevelled Di Petsa slip, which had been strung together with lace-up panels to the CCXP comic convention in Brazil. It was–and is–the polar opposite to Zendaya and Timothée’s brooding approach to promo dressing. But then again, every sci-fi fantasia is, at some point, a tale of dark meeting the light.