What’s Behind the Sudden Surge of Gladiator-Inspired Celebrity Style?
Even Zendaya has questioned whether she’s truly “cut out” for fame, recently admitting she uses fashion as a kind of armor to navigate it. She’s not alone. Lately, a wave of celebrities has embraced pieces that verge on literal suits of armor; garments that blur the line between red carpet spectacle and protective shell.
Between the sheer gowns and high-gloss sparkle, a new contender has entered the red carpet coliseum: medieval-inflected gladiator dressing. Drawing from the Dark Ages but refracted through fantasy, the look translates surprisingly well for modern actresses and pop stars. Think cascades of crystal-studded chainmail, gilded embroidery, and sculptural, armor-like shoulders sharp enough to double as defense. TikTok has christened it “Medieval Weird Core,” or simply “Weirdeval,” but the aesthetic’s resonance reaches far beyond a fleeting micro-trend.
Dior creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri nodded to the phenomenon during the house’s cruise 2025 show, staging a procession of gothic silhouettes against the landscape of a Scottish castle.
Dior’s creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri nodded to the phenomenon for the French brand’s June cruise 2025 show, presenting a series of gothic styles against the landscape of a Scottish castle. The collection quickly popped up on the radars of celebrity stylists. Natalie Portman stepped out at the Deauville Film Festival in September in a sheer chainmail dress cinched with a sleek belt and finished with puffed sleeves—then doubled down just days later during Paris Fashion Week in another look from Chiuri’s lineup. Portman typically gravitates toward Dior’s tea-length silhouettes, but these ensembles carried a haunted glamour that felt thrillingly out of character.
Even before Portman, Taylor Swift had already tapped into the collection’s gothic mood, choosing one of its patterned corset capes for the MTV VMAs. Swifties, of course, immediately read the look as a cryptic nod to the long-anticipated Reputation (Taylor’s Version.) But Chiuri’s references ran deeper than fan theories: the collection drew inspiration from Embroidering Her Truth: Mary, Queen of Scots and the Language of Power, Clare Hunter’s novel about the maligned and misunderstood Mary Stuart. Comparing the most dominant pop star of the 21st century to a 16th-century queen may read like a leap, yet Swift’s decision to wear this exact piece, from this exact collection, at this exact moment felt pointed all the same.
Swift publicly endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race on September 10, less than 24 hours before stepping onto the VMAs red carpet. The statement ignited immediate backlash from right-leaning pundits who urged the singer to “stay out” of politics, and even prompted Harris’s opponent, Donald Trump, to post a blunt “I hate Taylor Swift” on social media.
It’s hard to ignore that Swift and many of her celebrity counterparts are gravitating toward protective, almost armor-like dressing in an election year, particularly as debates around reproductive healthcare and bodily autonomy intensify. That same night at the VMAs, Chappell Roan delivered an even more overt statement through fashion.
The singer arrived on the red carpet in a sheer Y/Project confection layered with a 300-year-old robe, silver-toned tin boots, and dagger-sharp nails—accessorized, naturally, with a sword and a bodyguard in coordinating medieval garb. Later, clad in a full suit of armor, Roan performed her upbeat anthem “Good Luck, Babe!” alongside a troupe of dancing knights before firing a flaming arrow from a crossbow. She closed the evening by accepting her award in a metal-mesh Rabanne ensemble complete with a matching head veil. The brand’s creative director Julien Dossena has become one of fashion’s most visible champions of neo-medieval dressing—his chainmail a modern echo of the house’s founder—but similar armor-adjacent silhouettes have surfaced across the spring runways at Prada and Dior.
Roan’s outfits followed comments she made about “predatory” fan behavior which she said had “become normalized because of the way women who are well-known had been treated in the past.” The singer’s comments were quickly commended both publicly and privately by stars like Sabrina Carpenter and Lady Gaga.
In moments like this, Bill Cunningham’s timeless observation rings especially true: “Fashion is the armor to survive everyday life.”
