Overcoming the «what do I wear?» dilemma This is what Zalando's new campaign with PinkPantheress and Uma Thurman teaches us
There is one question that everyone shares, from TikTok teenagers to Hollywood stars: «What do I wear?». Once it was a simple gesture, a light thought before leaving the house. Today, it has become a moment of collective anxiety, fueled by endless feeds, unwritten rules, and a constant flow of microtrends that are born and die within weeks. On social media, the hashtag #GRWM has perhaps become the most popular type of content, with millions of people watching how others choose their looks, seeking inspiration but also feeling the pressure of context, whether it’s a date or a workday. Brands have long picked up on these new cultural dynamics, to the point of centering entire campaigns around the daily and seemingly mundane act of choosing what to wear. Among them, Zalando, with its new FW25 campaign, decided to place the claim “What do I wear?” at the center, reinterpreting it in a positive way, without stress, as an almost rebellious act of breaking free from expectations.
The chosen setting is that of a European Sunday market, with stalls of fruit, vegetables, and vintage objects, the ideal backdrop for a Gen Z weekend. The spirit of the generation was also channeled into the choice of the two campaign protagonists, British singer and producer PinkPantheress (often considered the ultimate Gen Z artist) and Uma Thurman, an icon for an entire generation of film lovers. Moving between the stands, the actress encounters alternative versions of herself: an ironic game of doubles that reinforces a simple yet striking concept – inspiration can come from anyone and anywhere. Alongside her, PinkPantheress brings her fluid and instinctive style, complete with her signature handbag always at hand.
Rather than presenting a wardrobe to replicate, the campaign seems to propose an attitude: taking cues here and there, turning viral trends into something personal instead of passively following them. It’s the same mechanism seen in GRWM videos, where the act of getting dressed becomes storytelling and shared inspiration, but also a reminder that there is no right or wrong way to decide what to wear. In this sense, the words of the protagonists are emblematic: Uma Thurman underlines that style allows one to explore different sides of identity, while PinkPantheress compares it to music, made up of trials, mixes and experiments that don’t always have a perfect outcome. Two different perspectives, yet united by the idea that fashion should remain a free space, where even mistakes become part of the game.
In this scenario, the new Boards also come into play, functioning as a natural extension of what already happens on social media. If on TikTok people compulsively save GRWMs, microtrends, and screenshots of looks to try “someday,” here the idea is to bring more personal order to that visual chaos, turning it into digital collections that truly reflect one’s tastes. Not so much a technical feature, but a way of translating the logic of the endless feed into an archive that belongs to the creator.
But the point is not the platform itself, it’s what it tells: the centrality of personal style. Because between a tomato girl summer and yet another aesthetic born from nowhere, what remains is the ability to use trends as material to remix, not as a manual to follow. It’s the same lesson behind GRWM videos; anyone can inspire, but fashion only becomes toxic when it is lived like a constant exam. In the end, the question “What do I wear?” never stops being universal, but its perspective changes. It’s no longer the search for the perfect look but a daily ritual that reflects mood, identity, and experimentation. And it’s in this space that even mistakes or unlikely pairings make sense, because they are part of a freer and less judgmental language.
