Once Season 2 of Wednesday landed a premiere date on the 2025 TV schedule, we knew it was only a matter of time before Jenna Ortega would be back to slaying another press tour with new fashion looks. Across the past couple of months, Ortega and her team have absolutely delivered, between that snakeskin sheer look and her bejeweled Emmys moment. But, I’ve always wondered how much agency the actress has over what she shows up to red carpets in.
When it comes to the relationship between a big name and their styling team, I assume it’s typically a collaboration since it’s a form of self-expression for all involved, but how much? When it comes to Jenna Ortega, her hairstylist Cesar Deleon Ramirez said this about working with the Wednesday star:
Jenna is highly involved, she gives me the freedom to design and present her with look ideas, then she adds her input to help me conceptualize the look to fit her vision. It’s very collaborative between the whole hair, makeup and styling team.
Ramirez has been behind a ton of Ortega’s recent red carpet looks, from the braided ponytail that was paired with the snakeskin gown to giving Ortega 1940s-era curls to pair with the dress she wore made out of measuring tape to this year's Met Gala. While talking to HypeBae, he confirmed my suspicions that Ortega very much is all in on the process with them. As he continued:
It’s as if we are collaborating on a sculpture together and we each add our inspiration and marry it all together. We have a great team that I’m extremely inspired by and Jenna has a lot of input which is very helpful.
Ortega is just 22 years old, but has proved to be the kind of young celebrity who aims to always be herself and speak out about what’s important to her. That’s proven by the producer role she took on for Wednesday Season 2, and through giving her input into her many viral red carpet moments.
During the interview, he called her signature aesthetic “new age vamp beauty” before talking about how he’s always trying to balance paying homage to her projects with the looks without sacrificing a sense of authenticity. Ortega turned heads for bleaching her eyebrows and pulling off a grungy ensemble to the New York premiere of the new season, and putting her own spin on the back cutout dress trend with the wet hair look for another Wednesday event. Plus, what about the time she wore the same newspaper dress Carrie Bradshaw once rocked on Sex and the City?
Obviously, it’s important to give credit where credit is due here. Ortega has an amazing team of experts who are making her look incredible at all these events and magazine shoots. But, I love that Ramirez calls the process a “sculpture” that every member of the team, including Ortega, is chipping away at together. It must be especially validating for all their work to get noticed and influence the current wave of high fashion, too.
