Anya Taylor-Joy wows crowds in a quirky red carpet dress from 1996

Anya Taylor-Joy is reliably unexpected on the style front. Photo / Getty Images

Queen’s Gambit actor Anya Taylor-Joy wowed crowds with a freakish, space-age Paco Rabanne outfit at the Australian premiere of the new Mad Max film.

If we can expect one thing from Taylor-Joy’s red-carpet appearances, it is that she is reliably unexpected on the style front.

The latest look is a case in point. For the Australian premiere of her latest film Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga on Thursday, she arrived in a daring gold chainmail minidress covered with Sputnik-like spikes, completed by a matching headpiece.

It presents some logistical questions: can she, and did she, sit down while wearing it? How did she travel from her hotel to Sydney’s State Theatre?

You’d be forgiven for thinking it was a pandemic-era look designed for stylish social distancing, but it’s a creation that goes way back: a Paco Rabanne couture look from 1996.

Can she, and did she, sit down while wearing the Paco Rabanne couture dress from 1996? Photo / Getty Images

The headpiece also bears a resemblance to the infamous “cigarette hat” worn by Elizabeth Taylor in 1967. An homage to one Taylor from another.

Rabanne, who died in 2023, was known for his space-age designs and at one stage believed he had come to Earth from the planet Altair 78,000 years ago. He designed Jane Fonda’s green bodysuit in Barbarella, and Audrey Hepburn wore one of his metal dresses in the 1967 film Two for the Road.

With its chainmail fabrication, Taylor-Joy’s look is typical of Rabanne’s style, which is enjoying a renaissance thanks to fashion’s current love of all things 90s and the popularity of the Paco Rabanne brand under its current creative director, Julian Dossena. Chainmail evening bags sell for up to £1400 (NZ$2900), although an H&M collaboration in November last year made his signature pieces accessible to the masses.

This kind of daring aesthetic is par for the course for Taylor-Joy. She is a woman who enjoys fashion and loves pushing the envelope. For the London premiere of Dune: Part Two, she wore a Dior couture creation with a habit-like headdress, although she attracted some backlash on social media for “cosplaying a Muslim woman”.

She also wore a fresh-off-the-catwalk Maison Margiela Artisanal gown for the New York premiere, which drew as much criticism as praise for its ultra-narrow corseted waist.

Like most celebrities, she works with a stylist – Ryan Hastings – who can secure access to rare vintage pieces like this, but it takes a certain kind of personality and commitment to carry it off.

No matter how bold the outfit, Taylor-Joy’s red carpet gowns never eclipse the woman wearing them. Achieving that in gold chainmail with Sputnik spikes is a rare talent indeed.