How Zendaya used method dressing to channel Athena to kick off 'The Odyssey' press tour

Zendaya stepped out onto the streets of Tribeca to kick off the press tour for The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan's upcoming adaptation of Homer's ancient Greek epic, in which she plays Athena, goddess of wisdom and the divine protector of Odysseus. The film releases in two weeks. And the opening look made clear that Roach has already built the entire visual world around it.

The piece was the Marylore Veil Midi Dress from Khaite's Resort 2027 collection — a satin-silk blend with a plunging neckline, blouson sleeves, and a peplum waist that loosened into a flowing midi skirt. Ivory, unconstructed, draped in a way that drew immediate comparisons to the peplos, the belted Greek tunic central to the visual history of antiquity. Law Roach grounded the silhouette with a black cord belt knotted at the waist with metallic hardware. Long gold chain hoop earrings from Fope finished the look.

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It is what method dressing looks like when it is working at its most considered. It is not costume-y but subtly inhabits the world of the film without collapsing into it.

The shoe switch

The footwear was the other notable departure. Zendaya's press tour appearances have, over the years, built a reliable loyalty to the Christian Louboutin So Kate and Miss Z pumps.

In their place: the Louboutin Millennium sandal in gold crocodile-effect leather, with sets of small buckled straps running from toe to ankle. The silhouette reads as gladiator-adjacent, yet contemporary enough to function as a 2026 shoe while still closing the loop on the Grecian drapery above.

Playing Athena

The context matters here. In Nolan's film, Zendaya is cast as Athena — not the central figure of the epic, but arguably its most consequential one. In Homer, Athena works through precision and guidance, showing up in the right form at the right moment, steering Odysseus and Telemachus toward each other across a decade of distance. She is not a character defined by spectacle.

The Khaite look maps onto that characterisation in a way that a more overtly theatrical archive pull might not have. Measured, referential, and quietly purposeful — which is more or less how Athena operates in the text.

What makes July 2026 genuinely unusual is that Zendaya and Roach are running two simultaneous press tours — Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey — with appearances for both peppered across the same calendar weeks. The Spider-Man cycle has been defined by deliberate contrast: a $35 eBay graphic tee paired with Louboutin pumps in Paris, a 1997 John Galliano archive piece in London. Showcasing range and oscillating between registers without settling into either one.

The Odyssey looks, if this first appearance is any indication, are going to operate differently — building a visual world around one reference point rather than pulling from many. Styling both press tours simultaneously, across the same calendar, is the real test of the summer. This first Tribeca look suggests Roach already knows where the line is.