Gigi Hadid made waves and headlines during Paris Fashion Week in September 2024, walking for Vetements in an outfit that was anything but ordinary. The Swiss fashion house, founded on an irreverent look at modern style, sent the supermodel down the runway in a full dress made of DHL-branded packing tape. As part of Vetements’ Spring/Summer 2025 collection, the look typified avant-garde fashion and caused a whirlwind of buzz on and off the runway.
The dress of DHL inspiration bright yellow mini covered with the unmistakable red logo of a global shipping giant- pretty much summed up Vetements’ sense of irony. Paired with matching yellow heels, it all felt like a clever comment on where high fashion and everyday life intersect. Hadid’s sleek, shoulder-length bob and neutral runway expression cranked up the visual quotient, rendering her appearance rather striking. Blurring the lines between streetwear and couture down to a fine line, Vetements proved that fashion can be a cultural critique wrapped in humor.
Social media platforms went on fire within minutes of Hadid’s walk, with memes, reactions, and debate filling timelines. Immediately, many drew parallels with Kim Kardashian’s 2022 caution tape outfit for Balenciaga’s similarly striking look that wore the idea of fashion as a viral spectacle on its sleeve. Hadid’s DHL dress kicked off debates about the place of fashion in pop culture, from hailing the outfit as a creative stroke of genius to joking about its ironically ridiculous humor. Sure enough, it didn’t take long for the outfit to become meme fodder, its passage into the eyes and minds of millions outside the rarefied fashion elite secured.
Sure, it was all fun and games, but the moment in question had some serious financial repercussions, too. Experts estimate the Gigi tape dress raked in an astonishing $9 million in publicity value for Vetements alone, factoring in media coverage, digital chatter, and heavy gazes. It was the perfect storm that married Hadid’s star power with the provocative designs of Vetements and the grandeur of Paris Fashion Week. High-profile fashion shows can be stages upon which celebrity influence gets equated directly into brand dollars. The special DHL moment was no exception.
At the center of this particular moment is Vetements, led by creative director Guram Gvasalia– a house never to back away from pushing the envelope. A brand well-renowned for transforming the banality of everyday objects into runway pieces, Vetements has long defied any sense of fashion convention. The DHL dress was just one example of their playful yet sharp critique of consumerism, a reminder to the rest of the world that fashion can—and often should—be fun.
Other A-list appearances at the event, including Travis Scott, used star power to make people think and talk.
