Welcome to Planet Syd! It’s quite the circus.
Sydney Sweeney celebrated her 28th birthday over the weekend with a space-themed party, and its star-studded guestlist turned out in their most intergalactic outfits. The actor got down with friends and family, including Glen Powell, Lauren Sanchez Bezos, and Diplo, as well as longtime glam squad members like her stylist Molly Dickson, hairstylist Glen Oropeza, and makeup artist Melissa Hernandez. Guests dressed up as space cowboys, astronauts, and aliens. While everyone else looked prepped for a trip to Mars—Sanchez Bezos was on hand for anyone taking things a little too seriously—Sweeney transported herself to 2008, with a look that threw it back to Britney Spears’s Circus album era.
“Sydney had sent me a few reference pics for her galaxy-inspired birthday, and after researching, we found out [that one image] was an archival piece from 2008 by The Blonds,” Sydney’s longtime, go-to stylist Molly Dickson shares with Vogue. “The Blonds said the original dress was currently on hold for a museum project, but they would make a very similar replica.”
The original dress originates from The Blonds’s spring summer 2009 collection, one that delighted in futuristic, high octane glamour that the New York design duo defined. The collection, inspired by the 1941 movie Ziegfeld Girl starring Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr, and Lana Turner, saw models in big, bouncy platinum blonde wigs strut down the runways in chrome-dusted, sherbet-toned dresses in clingy fabrics and shiny corsets in metallics and jewel tones. The look Sweeney took inspiration from was first worn on the runway ensconced in a gargantuan, white faux fur coat, before the model stripped it off to reveal the silver showstopper underneath.
“It is made from rhodium-plated metal mesh material draped on a corset, and features metal shooting stars, detailed with over 1000 Preciosa crystals by hand,” The Blonds tell Vogue. Sweeney’s custom look took six weeks to make and is like-for-like, from the three-dimensional star appliqués across the bodice and hips, to the corseted back and flippy, chainmail-like skirt.
“The dress weighed a bit over 20lbs, but the construction of the dress was so amazing, and fit her so perfectly that she said it was actually comfortable,” Dickson adds. Unlike Spears’s own styling of the dress—with fishnet tights, a black choker, and black platform heels—they paired the shimmering metal dress with similarly sparkly heels by Rene Caovilla, with star detailing that matched the mini-dress.
Sweeney isn’t the only one finding inspiration in The Blonds of recent, either. Taylor Swift has worn several of the designers’s glittering rompers and bejewelled corsets in the promotional campaign for her forthcoming The Life of a Showgirl album.
For glam, Oropeza followed Spears’s and The Blonds’s big, bold vibe, with a voluminous blowout, while Hernandez gave Sweeney some pastel blue eyeshadow and pearly pink cheeks.
It looked to be a fun night off for Sydney Sweeney, who’s been kept busy by a slew of projects. Most recently, the actor has been on the film festival circuit promoting her forthcoming movie Christy. The biopic, already stoking awards season buzz from its first previews, sees the actor transform into the boxing legend Christy Salters Martin, as she rises through the ranks of her sport in the ’80s and navigates her own personal strifes and abuse. From Sweeney’s own accounts, it was an intense experience, training multiple times a day for three months with a boxing coach and weight trainers to achieve the look.
Her subsequent press wardrobe, in comparison, has delighted in her signature red carpet and glitzy event style, with super-feminine, dramatic silhouettes and princessy aesthetics. Sweeney and Dickson have been experimenting with more playful sartorial risks in the few months too; sailor chic via Coperni, subversive corporate attire with a pantsless suit and tie combo via Jean Paul Gaultier, and silky power suiting by Oscar de la Renta. Expect more dramatic and considered dressing from the Sweeney-Dickson duo to come as we enter awards season.
See below for more of Sydney Sweeney’s space-age affair.
