Is Pulling From From Past The Future Of Fashion?

Oscar Wilde once said, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.” But what if it isn’t mediocrity doing the imitating, but instead, greatness paying homage to greatness? The past few years have seen a growing trend in the celebrity fashionsphere: The stars of today paying tribute to icons that came before them through their clothing. From awards ceremonies to movie premieres, Hollywood stylists have had their work cut out for them, searching far and wide for specific archival pieces that come equipped with their own storied history.

The 2025 Golden Globes red carpet was filled with these types of tributes, from Ayo Edebiri in a menswear look that honored Julia Roberts’ 1990 Golden Globes oversized Armani suit (very Dick Tracy villain vibes) to Ariana Grande channeling her idol, Audrey Hepburn. Kylie Jenner attended the ceremony (with unconfirmed but obvious beau Timothée Chalamet) wearing a silver chainmail dress from Versace’s spring 1999 collection, nearly identical to the lilac one Elizabeth Hurley wore to the 1999 CFDA Awards. The year prior, the reality star wore a 1998 black lace Hanae Mori couture gown that seemingly nodded to one of Hurley’s past looks. (If Jenner’s stylist ever manages to get her hands on Hurley’s famous Versace safety pin dress, her suspected style fandom will at last be confirmed.)

Looking at celebrities as fashion north stars is nothing new — having a coveted sense of style is an unofficial part of their job description. Actors, pop stars, and royal figures influence everything from mainstream fashion trends to a fan’s everyday street style. However, it is interesting how celebs with unfettered access to new and never-before-seen designer wares still can’t resist the lure of a good reference. “I think a lot of stylists and even their clients — they're wanting a moment that's also bigger than themselves,” theorizes Lauren Lepire, owner of Timeless Vixen, a vintage boutique based in LA that provided Jenner’s Hanae Mori gown. “I think that says something about how we view fashion. In a way, it's not just clothing; it's history. So, to have a moment where you can explain why you chose this, and kind of brand yourself with a certain celebrity you’ve always loved, or a vibe from when you were a child you always dreamed of having — it says a lot about the celebrity themselves.” Lepire thinks it ultimately makes the celebrity more relatable. “Like, ‘oh, she loves Britney Spears. So do I! Or, oh my gosh, she loves old Hollywood; she loves Marilyn. I get that, too’,” she says.

Spears is one whose style is permanently etched in the minds of practically every civilian and celebrity. At the 2024 MTV VMAs, Tate McRae, Addison Rae, and Megan Thee Stallion all paid tribute to the singer with their own takes on Britney Spears cosplay. For the premiere of It Ends With Us, Blake Lively took a break from her controversial floral theme and donned the actual Versace sequin butterfly dress Spears wore to attend Versace's Spring 2003 runway show. “It should be in the Smithsonian or the Met, but it's on me. I feel so lucky!” said Lively in her look du jour. While some similarly rare pieces are sourced specifically for a big event, Lively had been saving the gown to wear for six months. Alexis Novak, founder of LA-based Tab Vintage, which sold Lively the dress, said each request differs. “Sometimes we secure the dress first, and then the stylist will reach out. And sometimes stylists will send in exact reference requests, and we do our best to source it in the time they need it,” she tells TZR.

Sometimes, the stylist can go straight to the source for their client’s holy grail vintage piece. Molly Dickson pulled directly from Marc Bouwer’s archives to dress Sydney Sweeney for the 2024 Oscars in the same exact gown Angelina Jolie wore to the event 20 years prior. Others, like Law Roach, can simply turn to their personal collection for standout pieces. "Get you a stylist with an ARCHIVE!!!!" Roach Instascreamed after dressing Zendaya in a version of a Versace dress Beyoncé had worn to perform “Crazy in Love” back in 2003. Of course, Zendaya is no stranger to archival dressing. With Roach’s guidance, she has paid homage to Cindy Crawford á la Spring 1992 Ralph Lauren, Sharon Stone via a cropped Valentino set, and Cher, through a jaw-dropping Bob Mackie look that Zendaya wore at the legendary singer’s 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

The impulse to sartorially imitate goes back centuries. After Marie Antoinette’s portrait was painted while wearing her chemise à la reine, a simple muslin gown akin to a woman’s undergarments (and a controversial move at that), she influenced the women of 18th-century French women to go more casual, likely starting one of the very first underwear-as-outerwear trends. In the early 2000s, a different kind of royalty — young American stars like Spears and Paris Hilton — influenced young women to wear low-rise jeans. And celebrities have long channeled other stars through the same looks. However, the practice seems especially ubiquitous, not only on the red carpet but also during Halloween. For a few years now, in October, celebs attempt to one-up each other with the best pop culture reference costumes, complete with full-fledged photoshoots (looking at you, Kardashian-Jenners). It can feel a little forced.

It’s not just the stars (and their stylists) buying archival designer pieces. Non-celebs, at least those with deep pockets, are just as eager to seek a monumental referential piece. As Johnny Valencia of LA’s Pechuga Vintage points out, recent fashion auctions prove that “era-defining fashion pieces are fetching very little” compared to iconic pop culture-related ones. “The Galliano Gazette dress Sarah Jessica Parker wore in Sex and the City has now twice gone for over $55,000. The Miyake breastplate worn by Grace Jones in the late '80s sold for $54,000,” he tells TZR. “Clients and those that consume fashion media want to be taken along for the ride, and references like The Nanny (that we've seen time and time again on our feeds) feel within our reach, and it makes dressing up fun.”

Like Zendaya, Sabrina Carpenter has developed a taste for wearing archival designer threads that call back to important moments in pop culture. Her stylist, Jared Ellner, has dressed her in everything from the same white sequin Bob Mackie gown that Madonna wore to the Oscars in 1991 (sourced by Tab Vintage) to a furry Chanel look from the very memorable Fall 1994 Ready-to-Wear collection, and the crème de la crème, a vintage Lillie Rubin set with leopard print trim. The look resembled the same one costume designer Brenda Cooper styled Fran Drescher in for the pilot episode of The Nanny. (Drescher also wore the Bob Mackie gown in another episode.) At this year’s Grammy Awards, Ellner styled Carpenter in a custom baby blue backless gown by JW Anderson that featured a long chain made up of 19 carats of Chopard diamonds cascading down her back. Costume design nerds and Tumblr girlies instantly recognized the reference — a look created by costume design legend Edith Head and worn by Shirley MacLaine in 1964’s What A Way to Go!

While these fashion homages almost always go viral, sometimes they can backfire. When Kim Kardashian wore Marilyn Monroe’s original 1962 Jean Louis gown, in which Monroe infamously sang "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy, it caused an uproar. Kardashian lost 16 pounds in six weeks to fit into Monroe’s custom-made gown, but the garment was alleged to have sustained damage anyway. Her decision to wear the garment both upset Monroe fans and kickstarted a debate among dress historians, with some viewing it as a possible violation of historical clothing ethics. But others, namely Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, who acquired the dress at a Julien’s Auctions event in 2016 for $4.8 million, viewed it a little differently. The company released a statement that Kardashian was able to add to the dress’ cultural significance by “sharing the story of Monroe and her iconic career with an entirely new generation.” (Still, Bob Mackie, who drew the sketch for the original gown, called the move a mistake, saying that the dress was designed for Monroe, and Monroe alone: “Nobody else should be seen in that dress."

While these archival designer looks undoubtedly get people talking, the rise of constant referencing begs the question: Is there a limit to all this sartorial time travel? After all, fashion has always been about forward-thinking and reinvention. By leaning so heavily on the past, are today’s stars missing out on an opportunity to carve out their own iconic looks? Valencia doesn’t think so. “There's a saying that I love, ‘If it's not broken, don't fix it.’ If a look, or a piece, has proven to be a success for the celebs and the supermodels of the past, then why not look to these to recreate moments? We're not reinventing the wheel here. I think it's smart to introduce fashion history to the newer generations with the underlying message being: reduce, reuse, recycle,” he says.

Sustainability is something that all three emphasize when it comes to this trend. “As a society, we've become more aware of how harmful fast fashion is for the environment,” says Novak. “Choosing vintage is the most sustainable option for carpets. Second, archival vintage is one-of-a-kind or rare to find — I think wearing something unique that nobody else will have is another huge upside of selecting vintage for a red carpet moment.” Lepire likes to think that “so much beauty has been made already” and “a lot of stylists are understanding that, too, as opposed to like, what's new, new, new.”

Overall, pop culture homages will continue to be entertaining eye candy, even if one risks being accused of being unoriginal. As Valencia says, “Let people have their fun; it's fashion; it's not that deep.” Plus, if anyone ever gets fully tired of this sort of referential dressing, they can always turn to Julia Fox for something entirely new.