Zendaya wore earrings that are 3,000 years old to 'The Odyssey' London photocall

Zendaya's method dressing era for The Odyssey press tour has a new chapter, and this one goes back roughly three millennia.

At the London photocall for Christopher Nolan's upcoming epic— in which she plays Athena, goddess of wisdom and divine protector of Odysseus— Zendaya arrived in a custom white Jacquemus halter gown, completed with a coordinating headscarf connected to the back of the dress via elegant drapery. She kept shoes familiar with her go-to white Christian Louboutin So Kate pumps, but it was the jewellery that did the real work.

The earrings were sourced by Barron London, the Mayfair store known for its curation of vintage treasures and antique objects. Originally created by British designer Glenn Spiro, they feature disc pendants engraved with sun motifs dating from the first millennium BC in Iran — making them somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 years old — remounted and set with diamonds. She stacked them with an old mine-cut diamond ring and a selection of marquise and Twist diamond rings in yellow gold from Barron London's own collection.

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The detail is worth sitting with: Athena is a figure drawn directly from ancient Greek mythology, and the earrings Zendaya chose to wear to her film's photocall predate the Roman Empire. That is the kind of research-level commitment to a press tour concept that Law Roach has built his reputation on.

The Odyssey era, so far

It also tracks with everything that has come before it on this particular tour. The Odyssey press run began in Tribeca earlier this month, when Zendaya opened in a Khaite Resort 2027 ivory satin-silk midi — an unconstructed, belted silhouette that drew immediate comparisons to the peplos, the draped tunic of ancient Greece — paired with gold gladiator sandals from Christian Louboutin. Every look since has been pulling in the same direction: the ancient world, rendered in contemporary pieces, without tipping into costume.

The Spider-Man: Brand New Day press tour has been running parallel to all of this. It is a separate world visually, ranging from a $35 eBay graphic tee in Paris to a 1997 John Galliano archive piece in London. The Odyssey looks are operating on a different register. More singular and grounded, each piece adding a new layer to the same classical reference point rather than subverting it.

Anne Hathaway also understood the assignment

At the same London photocall, Zendaya's co-star Anne Hathaway — who plays Penelope, the faithful wife of Matt Damon's Odysseus — kept pace on the ancient jewellery brief with a Bulgari Monete Catene high jewellery secret watch, its sliding cover set with an ancient silver coin bearing the likeness of Roman emperor Caracalla, who ruled from 198 AD until his assassination in 217 AD.

The Odyssey opens in two weeks. At this rate, every press stop between now and the premiere is going to require a history lesson.