While chatting to Elle for the magazine’s September issue, the Dune star, 26, took a little walk down memory lane, revealing which past looks of hers she regrets most. Top on her list? The outfit she wore to the first press tour in 2012 for her Disney Channel show Shake It Up.
A teenage Zendaya memorably posed for photos atop a rooftop in Munich, Germany, dressed in a pair of dark flare jeans and a pink-and-white striped cardigan over a yellow T-shirt, topped off with yet another cardigan, this one a bright aqua color. It was one of the first collaborations between her and her longtime stylist, Law Roach, whom she met through a family friend when she was 14.
The Golden Globe winner said she’s still fired up about that fashion fail all these years later — and she playfully pinned it on Roach. “I’m angry at him to this day,” she joked. “Like, why would you put me in this? Bitch, you could’ve done better!”
Zendaya also took aim at the very first outfit Roach styled for her: a shimmery silver blazer paired with a miniskirt, which she wore to the 2011 premiere of Justin Bieber’s documentary Never Say Never. She said she considered the look “edgy” back then but now finds it simply cute.
At the time, she was all about keeping her style age-appropriate but she gradually started experimenting more and taking risks. As an example, she threw it back to 2014, when she attended a Teen Vogue Young Hollywood party wearing a towering bowler hat that had fashion fans drawing comparisons to Smokey the Bear and Pharrell Williams.
“People were like, ‘Oh no, Zendaya’s gonna start looking like this now?’” the Euphoria star recalled to Elle, adding that she and Roach still stand by the accessory choice.
Zendaya attributes her keen interest in fashion partly to her mother, who at 6’4” has had to resort to having her clothes custom-made for her.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
“She was always made to feel like she couldn’t enjoy certain fashions because they literally didn’t make them for her or because people always made comments about her height, and she was self-conscious about it,” she explained.
“I also felt like there was part of her that loved fashion. But it was hidden. I think she vicariously lived through me experimenting,” she added, describing a childhood filled with lots of dress-up play using vintage
Now that she’s hit her stride fashion-wise, Zendaya continues to change up her look. In December, she chopped her signature long hair, debuting a shoulder-length bob that her pal Kelly Rowland said was “giving me 90’s grunge!” in a comment on her Instagram Reel at the time.
On Tuesday, she posted a new selfie on her Instagram Story, revealing an update to the hairdo, with a fresh trim and a voluminous blowout. “Needed a little refresh,” Zendaya wrote in the caption, tagging celebrity hairstylist Sarah Shears.
