Nigeria: Zainab Jiwa catches Zendaya’s eye on red carpet
By Zuleihat Owuiye, Nigeria
Zainab Jiwa was standing on the red carpet for _The Odyssey_ premiere in Leicester Square, wearing a custom gold gown with a hood that caught the light. Across the carpet walked Zendaya.
“She just walked past, and she saw me there. Her jaw just dropped, so did mine,” Jiwa tells me.
“It was just a stare-off for a minute, and she was like, ‘Oh my god, amazing, amazing,’ and then she just walked off.”
“I’m still in shock,” the 29-year-old adds. “The thought of her noticing my outfit blew my mind.”
The clip of the interaction has now been viewed 19 million times on TikTok. Her phone hasn’t stopped buzzing since.
Hours before the premiere, Jiwa was at home in Harrow, northwest London, filming a get-ready-with-me TikTok. She was trying to squeeze into a corset.
“I can’t zip this! Mummm?” she called out, a scene any 20-something still living at home will recognize.
The difference is what came next. Instead of heading to a party or dinner, Jiwa was going to the London premiere of one of the summer’s biggest blockbusters. As a guest and now a recognized presenter, she’s become a regular on red carpets — often one of the only women there wearing a hijab.
Even though you’re covered, you can still find a way to be on theme,” she says. She calls it “halalifying the look.”
“I have a fun time working around the fact that I cover my hair or I cover my arms. I’d always say, ‘but how do I halalify this?’ I enjoy that bit the most because it shows there’s no restriction really here.”
For years she kept film as a hobby and posted videos about her favorite movies and outfits inspired by them. Then studios started noticing.
presenter with 660,000 followers on TikTok and nearly 400,000 on Instagram. She’s interviewed Denzel Washington, Paul Mescal, Tom Hiddleston, and yes, Zendaya herself — often while wearing head-to-toe looks that pay homage to the film.
She joins a new wave of digital creators who now sit on the red carpet alongside traditional press. Names like Amelia Dimoldenberg of _Chicken Shop Date_, Reece Feldman, and Jake Shane have made the same leap from social media to studio junkets.
It’s not glamorous all the time. Sometimes she gets an invite the night before. That means a mad dash to find or make an outfit, then getting to Leicester Square by public transport.
She works with designers and brands, but is deliberate about keeping costs down by reusing pieces. Storage is another issue.
“Oh my god, my house is chaos,” she says. “Outfits often end up shoved somewhere.” She has a cat, siblings who drop by, and parents who get called in for wardrobe emergencies.
For _House of the Dragon_ season two, she wore a red gown by a student designer featuring three faces wearing hijabs. For _Spider-Man: Brand New Day_, she added spiderweb henna to her hands. For _Gladiator II_, it was gold armor.
She admits she once worried that dressing modestly would limit her in an industry built on skin and spectacle. Instead, it’s become her signature.
“There’s always hate in this industry,” she acknowledges. Some commenters say her outfits aren’t modest enough.
“But for every negative comment, there’s so many positive ones. If I’m doing it to inspire other people, or entertain other people, or educate other people, if that’s still happening, then I really don’t care about the rest.”
Zendaya has spent the last few years defining “method dressing” — wearing fashion that directly references a film’s themes. Jiwa is doing a version of that from the other side of the rope, as a fan and creator rather than the star.
That’s why the moment at _The Odyssey_ resonated. It wasn’t a stylist vs stylist moment. It was a creator being seen by the person who helped popularize the very thing Jiwa is doing.
And it speaks to a bigger shift in film culture. Premieres aren’t just for celebrities and critics anymore. Studios now invite creators because they bring their own audiences, their own commentary, and their own fashion.
Jiwa represents that shift perfectly: a Muslim woman from Harrow who turned a love of movies into a job, and who proves you don’t have to choose between faith, fashion, and fandom.
Despite the viral moment and the A-list interviews, Jiwa keeps coming back to the same thing.
“I love film and TV. I think it’s a really fun way to build community,” she says. “I’m just a fan. At the end of the day, I’m just a fan.”
The summer has been busy. She’s covered _Wicked: For Good_, _House of the Dragon_, and _Spider-Man_. Coming up are _Dune_ and _Doomsday_.
She arrives for our interview at BBC Broadcasting House in an olive shirt, tie, and brooches. “I put in effort today,” she says with a smile.
Back home, the gold gown from _The Odyssey_ is probably shoved in a corner somewhere. But the memory of that stare-off with Zendaya isn’t going anywhere.
It lasted a minute. It got 19 million views. And for a creator who started by asking her mum to zip a corset, it’s proof that you can show up as yourself — hijab, hood, and all — and still stop someone in their tracks.
