Gigi Hadid was a different kind of material girl on Vetements's Spring 2025 Paris Fashion Week runway—a shipping material girl.
The model and Guest in Residence founder walked her second runway of Paris Fashion Week looking like the result of a late-night Mytheresa shopping spree. Her mini dress, if you can even call it that, appeared to be made with yellow DHL tape, the very same material ensuring my orders from overseas boutiques make it to me in one piece. Silhouette-wise, layers of shipping tape wrapped around and around her torso—like Gigi Hadid had been desperate for an ABC-party costume and a friend who works in overseas logistics stepped in to complete her look.
Hadid's DHL dress came with nothing but pointed-toe pumps, wrapped all over in the same yellow and red tape. Her grown-out lob was slightly wet and deeply parted to the side; her makeup was left minimal and ever-so-slightly glowy. The naked manicure Hadid had worn with a gold Rabanne naked dress the night before was swapped for grungy black polish.
If Hadid's DHL tape dress—and a runway finale with rapper Travis Scott— appeared engineered for a pause in your Paris Fashion Week scrolling, that's entirely the point. Vetements prides itself on designing memeable pieces that poke at the self-serious institution otherwise known as fashion. Sometimes it's to a powerful effect; other times, it can feel a bit like feeding the algorithmic beasts. The label is currently headed up by Guram Gvasalia, brother to Balenciaga creative director Demna—who, it should be noted, took the same mischevious energy to Balenciaga in 2015 with mixed results. The duo broke up creatively in 2019. Online, commentators noted that Hadid's DHL dress slightly resembled a Balenciaga caution tape jumpsuit once worn by Kim Kardashian, in 2022.
Whether one Gvasalia brother was nodding at another through his designs is unknown right now. What we can definitively point out is how different Hadid's dress looked from her other brief appearances throughout fashion month. Earlier this week, Hadid walked the Rabanne runway alongside space-age sequins and a resurgent windbreaker trend, wearing layered stripe button-downs and wide-leg shorts. She looked more ready for a leisurely boat ride than a journey through the mail.
Her fashion month journey has also involved a walk down Versace's Milan Fashion Week runway in a floral cut-out dress. Hadid castings are rarer and rarer these days as she focuses on her cashmere brand, campaign gigs, and raising her daughter, Khai. So really, seeing Hadid hit the catwalk in a DHL tape dress does feel a lot like getting a package you've been waiting for.
