Look of the Week: Rachel Zegler’s nod to this famous ‘Hunger Games’ moment

By Leah Dolan, CNN

(CNN) — “West Side Story” breakout Rachel Zegler is set to join the blockbuster “Hunger Games” franchise with the release of prequel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” on November 17. In the film, Zegler plays Lucy Gray Baird, a “tribute” from District 12 in the tenth iteration of the movies’ titular Games — with her character’s similarities (and contrasts) with original “Hunger Games” heroine Katniss Everdeen woven through the narrative. And last night, at the movie’s world premiere in Berlin, Zegler used the power of fashion to demonstrate a similar parallel.

The 22-year-old arrived on the red carpet in a strapless black Alexander McQueen look from the label’s Fall-Winter 2022 collection. The gothic gown featured a dramatic mermaid tail, printed over which is a print of a large-scale, blood red orchid, with petals so abstract they resembled licking flames.

Fans were quick to compare Zegler’s look with another famous “Hunger Games” frock. In the second film, “Catching Fire,” based on Suzanne Collins’ 2009 book by the same name, Katniss stuns the rich, immoral and out-of-touch inhabitants of the Capitol with a dress that spontaneously combusts as she twirls for their approval.

It’s an important moment of rebellion. The pristine white bridal gown steadily burns from the hem to right up to the neckline, eventually revealing a second outfit: A sculptural winged dress modeled after a mockingjay bird, the symbol of defiance against the Capitol regime. (So controversial was this reveal, Everdeen’s stylist is later executed by the authoritarian dictatorship.)

While neither Zegler nor her stylist Sarah Slutsky have acknowledged the comparison in writing, the star did share a side-by-side image of her red carpet look and Everdeen’s flaming dress on Instagram.

Elsewhere, Zegler’s co-star Hunter Schafer arrived in a similarly striking look — a Haute Couture piece from Schiaparelli’s latest collection. The midi-dress, which at first glance seems entirely constructed out of gouache paint strokes, seems like just the sort of piece Schafer’s character, the quirky Capitol stylist Tigris Snow, would wear.

Clearly, not only are Zegler and Schafer well-researched, they’re well-dressed.

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