McQueen, Chopova and Jaden Smith: A brief history of wearable houses

Last week, according to data revealed by Zoopla, it was announced that the minimum annual income needed to buy a house in London in 2025 is £101,080. With the median London salary currently at £41,581, many of us have a long way to go before getting a foot on the property ladder.

Still, every cloud has a silver lining. We may not be able to buy our own homes, but at least now we can wear them. Take Jaden Smith for example. Sure, he’s likely able to buy his own pad, but that didn’t stop him from manifesting Dracula’s castle at this year’s Grammys.

Created by Romanian designer Dora Abodi of Abodi Transylvania and Hungarian photographer Szilveszter Mako, Smith wore a black, linen headpiece in the shape of a castle, his face framed by turrets. Titled ‘Vampire Castle’, the eye-catching creation was a reference to Abodi’s Transylvanian upbringing, the setting of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, known for its many myths and legends.

Abodi’s own heritage dates back to the 16th century and has ties to Elizabeth Báthory, the Hungarian noblewoman who reportedly tortured and killed hundreds of young girls between 1590 and 1610. Legend has it that she bathed in their blood to retain her youth, serving as the inspiration for Stoker and becoming the blueprint for vampires as we know them. Abodi’s own ancestors were granted a noble title for saving the life of Prince István Báthory, a distant relative of vampiric Elizabeth – the ‘Countess Dracula’, as she was often referred.

So how do we get from a villainous 16th-century noblewoman to Jaden Smith? Well, Abodi has been a longtime collaborator of Szilveszter Mako, whose photography has been featured in countless publications (including Dazed’s summer issue, see here). More and more often, Mako includes an identifiable stamp throughout his pictures: a miniature house of some sort. You may recognise the much-memed GQ Italia cover featuring Willem Dafoe wearing a house on his head, Swedish label Hodakova’s 2022 ad campaign, or his images of Cate Blanchett and Gwendoline Christie. Basically, if there’s a tiny house in the image – or if it looks like the model is cramped inside a tiny house – it was probably shot by Mako.

Smith’s team had seen a Numero magazine shoot that Abodi and Mako worked on together featuring a similar castle-esque headpiece. “An inquiry came through from Jaden’s management because they’d seen this editorial. They wanted something really similar, but for the red carpet it needed to be a wearable art piece. Lightweight, comfortable and looking good from every direction,” explains Abodi. “My main goal was to create a memory. Like when you’re falling asleep and images begin to blur, like a childhood memory. That’s why we made it so brutalist – simple and without many details. Just like a little piece of a dream or memory. We were aware it might have a big impact, but we didn’t expect it to go that viral.”

Surprisingly, Smith wasn’t the only one wearing architecture to the Grammys. While presenting Alicia Keys with the Dr Dre Global Impact Award, Queen Latifah stepped out wearing a gown adorned with skyscrapers. Fresh from the Paris couture catwalks a week prior, Latifah called upon Indian designer Rahul Mishra for music’s biggest night out.

My main goal was to create a memory. Like when you’re falling asleep and images begin to blur... We were aware it might have a big impact, but we didn’t expect it to go that viral

– Dora Abodi

Mishra’s AW25 couture offering was titled Pale Blue Dot, referencing the famous photograph and later book by American astronomer Carl Sagan about Earth’s insignificance. The collection featured several tower block structures and silhouettes inspired by skylines and the “geometry of human dwellings”.

Elsewhere, the SS25 collections have hit the shelves, meaning we’re about to see pieces from September’s shows being worn in real life. Among them, are jumpers from JW Anderson’s SS25 men’s show, decorated with the childlike outlines of various house styles. During the show, an adorable knitted seagull sat on one model’s shoulder (the roof of the house). Perhaps Jonathan Anderson dreams of a quaint cottage by the sea.

We saw a similar design at Chopova Lowena’s Chuckaboo SS25 show, when one model came stomping down the catwalk wearing a house-printed t-shirt. Only, this house looked to be made of chocolate piping and the roof made of apple slices. It seems that Chopova Lowena’s property dreams are a little more Hansel and Gretel than Cornish countryside. 

Fashion and architecture share a long, intricate history. But what isn’t commonly seen is the inclusion of actual buildings as elements of design. Several designers have pulled inspiration from dollhouses in the past – see Dior couture AW19 for example, Chanel couture SS16, or even Marc Jacobs’ SS24 collection. We’ve seen Hussein Chalayan turn furniture into garments, but rarely have we seen houses being worn in shows. 

Like Jaden, Alexander McQueen once sent a model down the catwalk wearing a castle on her shoulder for his SS01 show, Voss. Unlike Jaden’s, McQueen’s was made of wood and much heavier than linen. Then, in 2023, a Central Saint Martins student took a similar approach –  designer Ben Brody created his white show look to resemble a deconstructed house. 

As more examples grace our catwalks and red carpets, maybe it’s time we stop hoping for affordable housing and instead, manifest our forever homes by wearing them on our backs. That’ll work, right?