Designing Zendaya

Two modern masters of communicating across generations team up for a direct-hit collection.

- Eric Wilson

Last October Zendaya and Tommy Hilfiger were holed up in a penthouse suite at the London Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, previewing their first collection for editors far in advance of its upcoming début on a Paris runway on March 2. Traffic was a mess that morning, and I’ll admit I had built up quite a sweat running the last few blocks above Times Square to get there in time. That’s how much I was looking forward to this, which is strange, as I’ve seen a lot of celebrity-designed collections over the years, and most of them are now long forgotten.

So why get so excited about this one?

Well, to start, Zendaya exemplifies everything that is great about her generation. She’s engaged, outspoken, and optimistic; plus, she embraces statement-making fashion so daringly and unapologetically. But there’s also Hilfiger, the undisputed maestro of star-powered collaborations these days. Even Zendaya got a little starstruck when he approached her about the project.

“I got a personal call from Tommy himself, which was crazy,” she tells me later, “and he promised me that I would be able to be as creative as I wanted and truly execute my vision, whatever that vision may be, down to the font on the packaging, as he said.”