Last summer, Margot Robbie served look after look on the Barbie press tour.
From her striped Hervé Léger dress to her custom Schiaparelli Haute Couture gown, Margot — who starred in and helped produce the film — paid homage to a bunch of real-life Barbie dolls while on the press tour.
Needless to say, Margot’s iconic outfits sparked heaps of praise at the time — as did her incredible performance in Barbie.
But fast-forward to today, and Margot’s Barbie looks have become the subject of an online discourse surrounding the origins of dressing on theme while promoting a film.
Last week, a post on X, once known as Twitter, gained traction after it suggested that Margot single-handedly started the “trend” of dressing on theme for a film while promoting it.
“Barbie and Margot Robbie started a trend for press tours wherein leads are dressing in couture themed for their film for every appearance,” the post read, before mentioning Zendaya’s upcoming movie Challengers and Ariana Grande’s forthcoming project Wicked. At present, both Zendaya and Ariana have been dressing on theme of their respective projects ahead of their releases.
Now, it’s hard to note precisely when dressing on theme for a film while promoting it — now known as “method dressing” — became a thing, given that actors have repeatedly paid tribute to their projects through fashion for decades.
Here's Geena Davis wearing a dress with baseball stitching at the premiere of A League of Their Own in 1992, for example.
One actor who has become renowned for her method dressing is Zendaya — whose Challengers looks have remained a hot topic online over the past few weeks.
At the Australian premiere last month, for example, Zendaya — who portrays tennis player turned coach Tashi Duncan in the film — wore a gorgeous gown featuring a tennis player's silhouette.
In Rome, she rocked a pair of literal tennis ball heels, and in London, she wore a stunning Thom Browne dress with tennis rackets embroidered onto it.
But, as several X users pointed out, this is far from the first time Zendaya has dressed perfectly on theme while promoting a film.
Per the BBC, Zendaya recently said that she first started method dressing after starring in The Greatest Showman, noting that she was “inspired by the film.”
At the world premiere of the Michael Gracey musical, Zendaya memorable channeled a ringmaster — directly referencing the film’s protagonist, played by Zac Efron.
A couple of years later, Zendaya leaned into the art of method dressing again while promoting Spider-Man: Far from Home, in which she played Michelle “MJ” Jones-Watson.
As fans will remember, Zendaya turned heads when she showed up in an aptly-colored red-and-black Armani Privé gown at the film's premiere. Her longtime stylist, Law Roach, said on Instagram of the look: “If she was Spider-Man, this would be her suit.”
By 2021, Zendaya had made numerous references to her films through her outfit choices. While promoting her next Spider-Man movie, No Way Home, the star not only paid tribute to the leading superhero with her iconic Valentino spider web dress, but she also nodded toward several MCU villains, like Dr. Octopus and the Green Goblin.
Away from the Spider-Man franchise, Zendaya has more recently gained traction for her incredible method dressing ahead of the release of Dune: Part Two earlier this year.
While promoting the Denis Villeneuve project, Zendaya turned heads in a series of iconic looks that perfectly referenced numerous aspects of the sci-fi film — including a vintage Mugler robot suit and an “electric circuit” jacket and skirt made by Givenchy.
Discussing Zendaya’s “intentional and purposeful” Dune: Part Two press looks back in February, Law Roach told Vogue, “We adopted method dressing. The looks served as an extension of the wardrobe from the movie.”
So, with all of this in mind, several social media users found themselves defending Zendaya last week after the aforementioned viral tweet suggested that Margot leaned into the concept of method dressing far before her.
“Pretty sure her and [Law] were also on theme for Dune 1 and if I *check my notes* Dune 1 came out in 2021,” one person tweeted.
“Girl, be for real… this was YEARS before even the idea of barbie,” someone else said.
