Why Are Celebrities Wearing So Many Custom Looks?

One thing my friends in fashion and I agree on in 2025 is that there are way too many clothes — and stars will wear them anywhere. The race to be the first to wear a new collection is tighter than ever, and most celebrities will wear fresh-off-the-runway pieces just to appear on a late-night talk show where their dress is seen from the chest up. In the sea of events, ceremonies, and premieres, A-listers are going a step further to stand out by wearing custom outfits — at an alarming clip. Fashion brands are betting big on every single opportunity now and hoping it pays off, literally and figuratively.

Wearing custom dresses is nothing new but in years past was reserved for major events. Of course, stars want to wear bespoke gowns to hit the Oscars red carpet and attend blockbuster movie premieres, lest someone show up in a similar look from the same runway collection. But now every occasion is fair game: Ana de Armas wore a sparkling Louis Vuitton suit made for her for an appearance at CinemaCon, and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley attended a Tiffany & Co. event in Rio in bespoke Ferragamo and Francesco Murano dresses.

There are a few obvious reasons (and some less so) brands choose to shell out precious coin on stars. For example, de Armas is a Louis Vuitton ambassador, so it checks out the brand wants to outfit her for the promotion of her new movie, Ballerina. Ditto Charles Melton in a bespoke denim bomber from Coach, as he’s the face of the brand. But for someone like Maddie Ziegler, the beloved Gen Z Dance Moms dancer-turned-actor, who just wore custom Acne Studios to the Fashion Trust U.S. Awards, the explanation is a bit less clear. That’s where media impact value comes in.

Media impact value (MIV) is a metric created by Launchmetrics to gauge the monetary value of a media placement. For example, The Hollywood Reporter teamed up with Launchmetrics to assess who “won” awards season, and Chanel came in second place with a MIV of $41.3 million (thanks, Gracie!). The tool helps brands determine who’s worth putting in the custom order with their factories for — and might explain why Acne Studios chose to dress Ziegler for a relatively new event like the Fashion Trust U.S. Awards. Her following is huge and her engagement is high, which both lend themselves to larger MIV.

So yes, the MIV of certain events is rising, and your mom’s favorite actress probably doesn’t have as high of a MIV as a Gen Alpha influencer, which explains why Olivia Rodrigo gets custom outfits as quickly as you can say “Vampire.” But some looming questions remain from this fashion writer: Where do all the custom ’fits go after their five hours under the lights? And when will celebs accept it’s maybe OK to wear something old or already worn? It’ll take a gentler online environment (i.e. the comments section) that looks more kindly on rewears, less focus on MIV and more focus on sustainable practices, and the radical acceptance that maybe you don’t have to wear four looks in one day (sorry, Anya Taylor-Joy). When everything demands a special look, nothing is special, so maybe it’s time to dial it back.