Rebuilding a movie star: How Lindsay Lohan is staging her Hollywood comeback, one outfit at a time

Yahoo

08-08-2025

Winks to her beloved characters and high-fashion red carpet moments set the tone for Lohan's Hollywood return.
'Well, this is genius,' says Alex Badia as he stares at photos of Lindsay Lohan's designer-fueled Freakier Friday press tour. 'And you know, it hasn't always been that way for her.'
Badia is the head of the fashion department at Women's Wear Daily; he's also its on-camera correspondent for awards shows and the Met Gala. Movie stars don't faze him; neither do $20,000 couture gowns. And yet, the been-there-worn-that style expert is more than impressed with the fashion comeback tour currently being staged by Lohan, 39, for her Freakier Friday promo duties. 'This isn't even a fashion thing,' Badia tells Yahoo. 'It's more like a marketing campaign for Lindsay 2.0.'
Lindsay 1.0 was already amazing. The Long Island native was drop-kicked into superstardom via The Parent Trap remake (1998), followed by Freaky Friday (2003) and the Queen Bee of teen movies, 2004's Mean Girls. But while Lohan was growing from ingenue to star, her public substance use overshadowed her talent. Years of drunk driving busts and drug possession charges led to 13 days in jail, followed by 15 years in movie jail, making made-for-TV fare and guest appearances (and Lawyer.com commercials!) while slowly rebuilding her life. Lohan eventually settled in Dubai and became a mother in 2023, right when comforting Y2K trends like micro mini skirts and Uggs emerged, plus sequels like And Just Like That… and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. That's around the time when Lohan's longtime mentor, Jamie Lee Curtis, stepped up to advocate for the star's second chance at Disney.
Freakier Friday is shaping up to be Lohan's global bid for A-list reentry. To honor her comeback, Disney has carefully crafted a press campaign that fashion psychologist and bestselling author Shakaila Forbes-Bell calls 'a classic example of show, don't tell.' Aside from a sparse clutch of high-profile interviews for outlets like Elle and The Tonight Show, Lohan has kept relatively quiet and let her clothes do the talking.
The looks have been built by Andrew Mukamal, Lindsay Lohan's current stylist, who is best known for engineering Margot Robbie's Barbie press tour into its own all-pink party. (Mukamal told Yahoo he couldn't comment on this story — another example of the clothes doing the talking here.) Along with Blake Lively's longtime makeup artist Kristofer Buckle and Sabrina Carpenter's regular hairstylist Danielle Priano, Mukamal ensures that Lindsay Lohan's Freakier Friday looks work as megaphones blaring a singular message: she is ready and able to return to stardom.
The first rule of fashion redemption: Keep it classic
Lohan kicked off her comeback tour on July 22 with a series of classic gowns, including a baby pink Miu Miu twirler and a tiered chiffon dress from Rabanne.
'You see this type of super-glossy look a lot with celebrities who have a bad reputation,' a crisis communications director at a luxury brand, who asked for anonymity, tells Yahoo. (Her company sometimes dresses Lohan.) When a celebrity is in image rehab, Badia explains, 'their job isn't to be trendy. It's to assure people they're reliable.' In that way, wearing an Oscar de la Renta column dress could send the message that she's a pillar of the industry — and that she's still standing.
The second rule of fashion redemption: Flash back to move forward
On July 28, Lohan appeared in a yellow tweed skirt suit by Balmain. Fans of the actress immediately clocked its similarity to a teenier yellow suit worn by her tween character, Annie James, in The Parent Trap.
The same day, Lohan wore a Roberto Cavalli dress that twinned with the other sibling she played in the film, Hallie Parker. 'It's so intentional,' says Badia. 'They know the immediate press it gets.'
The fashion flashbacks continued as Lohan wore a 'Pink Slip' T-shirt and pink cardigan that referenced both her Freaky Friday band name and her Mean Girls nemesis, Regina George. A custom-made lavender gown Lohan wore to the U.K. premiere by the emerging French designer Ludovic de Saint Sernin mirrored her final dress from Freaky Friday.
'Redoing these looks is a form of nostalgia, which is really powerful in fashion because it can immediately invoke positive feelings,' says Forbes-Bell. Connecting fashion with childhood memories 'also invites fans to engage with play and childlike wonder.'
There's also a gameplay element to the throwback looks. Spotting a movie fashion reference from 20 years ago is the kind of 'if you know you know' brag that bonds internet fandoms and stokes bored group chats. Building Easter eggs into Lohan's wardrobe tour makes the experience more interactive, and lets those watching from afar feel like they're in on a fun secret.
The third rule of fashion redemption: Secure the YSL bag
As Hollywood moves further into the streaming economy and content gets cheaper to make through AI and TikTok, celebrity salaries can become a casualty. (Witness The White Lotus cast getting paid $40,000 per episode in 2025, when past TV royalty like the Friends cast earned $1 million for 30 minutes of air time in its final seasons.) Because of this new cash crunch, 'it's more important than ever for actresses to secure fashion and beauty campaigns,' says Badia. 'The red carpet is essentially an audition for those campaigns.'
To show that she can attract the right kind of press for designer brands, Lohan's third clothing rail is stuffed with runway looks, including slinky gowns from Saint Laurent and Chloé, a suit from Sergio Hudson and a Carrie Bradshaw tutu situation from the edgy French label Jacquemus. Together, these pieces cost nearly $18,000. But a star like Lohan's potential haul as the face of a luxury brand is an estimated $3 million per campaign, according to the New York Times.
Nobody who's coveted a $2,900 Miu Miu bag thinks money can't buy a little swing of happiness. Still, Forbes-Bell suspects the real value of Lohan's red carpet tour isn't something she can charge to her American Express. 'She looks like she's having a blast,' says Forbes-Bell. 'As humans, we're drawn to beautiful things, but they have to feel real. Her outfit is gorgeous and her smile is real. That's what fans are here to see.'
This weekend, Freakier Friday officially hits global cinemas, and Lohan's bankability will be tested at the box office. So, too, will her ability to sell style along with movie tickets. One early hint? After Lohan wore Cavalli's zany pheasant-print minidress on July 28, searches for the brand spiked nearly 340%. Despite its $3,025 price tag, it zipped from shelves with the speed of a celebrity tabloid rumor. At Cavalli's boutique, every version of the dress is gone. Online at Farfetch, there's literally one left as of press time. In the words of Freaky Friday fans, it's the ultimate.
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