Zendaya saw me on the red carpet and her jaw dropped - I'm still in shock

ByNoor Nanji

Culture correspondent

"I can't zip this! Mummm?"

This was 29-year-old Zainab Jiwa, calling retired for assistance squeezing into a corset portion filming a "get-ready-with-me" TikTok video. It's a country galore 20-somethings inactive surviving astatine location volition subordinate to.

The quality is, Zainab was connected her mode to the caller London premiere of The Odyssey, 1 of the summer's biggest blockbusters.

She was invited determination arsenic a impermanent and says she caught the oculus of Hollywood megastar Zendaya, acknowledgment to her customized look: a striking golden gown implicit with a hood.

"She conscionable walked past, and she saw maine there. Her jaw conscionable dropped, truthful did mine," Zainab tells me.

"It was conscionable a stare-off for a minute, and she was like, 'Oh my god, amazing, amazing,' and past she conscionable walked off."

"I’m inactive successful shock,” she adds. “The thought of her noticing my outfit blew my mind."

The enactment went viral, external with 19m TikTok views. Her telephone blew up.

While Zendaya has been ruling the reddish carpets with high-fashion "method dressing" – wherever stars lucifer outfits to a film's themes – Zainab is possibly proving that autarkic creators similar her tin springiness Hollywood a tally for its money.

Zainab, who is Muslim and wears a hijab, is besides often 1 of the lone radical covering her hairsbreadth astatine premieres, but she says uncovering ways to incorporated humble deterioration is portion of the fun.

"Even though you're covered, you tin inactive find a mode to beryllium connected theme.”

Arriving for our interrogation astatine BBC Broadcasting House this week, her look was on-point successful an olive shirt, tie, and brooches. "I enactment successful effort today," she says.

She's a self-confessed manner addict. "From the womb," she says, erstwhile I inquire her erstwhile her passionateness started.

Her different emotion is movie - but she initially kept that arsenic a hobby. Still, she posted videos connected societal media for amusive astir her favourite films and outfits inspired by them.

Soon, large studios took notice. Disney was first, offering her a junket interrogation for the bid Moon Knight, wherever she got to interrogation stars connected the reddish carpet.

"I thought it was a scam,” she says. “I can’t ticker that back. I was NOT good.”

Today, Zainab is simply a full-time creator and presenter, interviewing A-listers similar Denzel Washington, Paul Mescal and Tom Hiddleston – portion decked caput to toed successful outfits paying homage to the films.

She's 1 of galore integer contented creators connected the reddish carpet, with others including Chicken Shop Date’s Amelia Dimoldenberg, Reece Feldman and societal media property Jake Shane.

It's not ever easy. Sometimes, Zainab gets invites to premieres the nighttime before, meaning a huffy unreserved to benignant her look earlier travelling to the lawsuit - often by nationalist transport (“and I look ridiculous”).

She works with a scope of designers and brands, but says she besides keeps costs down by reusing items arsenic overmuch arsenic possible.

Her outfits are purposely bold, allowing her to "break the ice" with stars. For House of the Dragon play two, she wore a reddish gown by a pupil decorator featuring 3 faces wearing hijabs.

"I'm a spot extra, but I similar to adhd civilization successful everything I do," she says.

For Spider-Man: Brand New Day, she customised her look with spiderweb henna. For Gladiator II, she wore golden armour.

She admits she has disquieted whether dressing modestly volition marque it harder for her to win successful this industry, but she finds pleasance successful it too.

"I person a amusive clip moving astir the information that I screen my hairsbreadth oregon I screen my arms," she says. "I'd telephone it halalify the look. I'd ever say, ‘'but however bash I halalify this?'"

"I bask that spot the astir due to the fact that it shows there's nary regularisation truly here."

But portion Zainab spends overmuch of her clip rubbing shoulders with Hollywood royalty, location beingness successful Harrow, north-west London is wholly different.

"Oh my god, my location is chaos," she laughs. Storage abstraction is astatine a premium, and outfits often extremity up "shoved somewhere".

She has a cat, siblings who often popular in, and parents who are often enlisted for wardrobe emergencies.

Despite it not being the vocation trajectory they’d expected for their daughter, Zainab says her parents are present "so supportive".

With 660,000 followers connected TikTok and adjacent to 400,000 connected Instagram, she's becoming a cardinal contented creator successful this field. But she besides faces disapproval - including from immoderate who assertion her outfits are not humble enough.

"There's ever hatred successful this industry," she says.

But she adds: "For each antagonistic comment, there's truthful galore affirmative ones.

"If I'm doing it to animate different people, oregon entertain different people, oregon amended different people, if that's inactive happening, past I truly don't attraction astir the rest."

For present though, Zainab is swept up successful enjoying a drawstring of blockbusters.

"The summer's felt bully for movie - I deliberation it's exciting," she says.

"And there's loads much coming. We've got Dune. We've got Doomsday," she says.

"I emotion movie and TV. I deliberation it's a truly amusive mode to physique community," she adds. "I'm conscionable a fan. At the extremity of the day, I'm conscionable a fan."