Olivia Rodrigo’s latest looks are giving fans a serious case of déjà vu.
Throughout the press tour for her new album, “Guts,” the Gen Z chart-topper has showed off a series of vintage styles that embrace Y2K nostalgia — none more so than a lacy Betsey Johnson LBD that was once worn to a Texas prom.
And fans have WTF Designer Archive‘s Carlos Alonso-Parada and Mary Sze, who’ve also worked with the likes of SZA and “Euphoria” breakout star Chloe Cherry, to thank for some of Rodrigo’s recent throwback fashions.
Stylists often reach out to Alonso-Parada and Sze over TikTok to request looks, but the duo also operate a vintage booth at Dallas antique mall Lula B’s.
“One of the vendors there reached out to us and said she was bringing in a lot of her personal dresses from when she was in high school and college,” Alonso-Parada tells Pvnew Style.
“Not knowing what to expect, we hit the jackpot with several Betsey Johnson dresses.”
Shortly after, Alonso-Parada and Sze received an Instagram message from the assistant to Rodrigo’s stylist, Jared Ellner, who needed some last-minute looks.
“We stayed up all night photographing everything we had that looked like their mood board,” Alonso-Parada recalls, adding that they “ended up sending 28 pieces” — including the delicate floral-embroidered number Rodrigo wound up wearing for the red carpet opening of her “Guts” Gallery in NYC in September.
The Betsey Johnson dress was an instant hit on social media, with one TikToker sharing a photo of herself wearing the same dress to her eight grade graduation. (This writer also happened to wear Rodrigo’s exact midi to bat mitzvahs back in the day.)
“I’m always so honored when [Rodrigo] chooses one of my vintage pieces to wear because the way she wears them is exactly how they were designed — to make them your own,” Johnson told us in 2022 of the pop star’s embrace of her work.
“I never thought in a million years that my designs from the ’90s would be so popular 20 years later. And worn by some of the most stylish girls on the planet!”
The black lace slip’s not the only WTF Designer Archive find Rodrigo’s worn recently; she also borrowed a 2002-era Yves Saint Laurent bodysuit designed by Tom Ford for a Spotify shoot, which had to be overnighted for the occasion; luckily, Alonso-Parada and Sze’s tailor had it “perfectly fitted for her within an hour.”
And while many celebrity looks are loaned for appearances, Alonso-Parada and Sze tell us Rodrigo wound up purchasing a pair of items from their archive — a Chanel piece and another vintage Betsey Johnson design — because she loved them so much.
Considering the Disney alum’s love for past-decade fashion finds, it’s only a matter of time before those vintage treasures make their way onto a red carpet (or stage).
