Keke Palmer Explains Those Leather Leonardo DiCaprio Chaps
While it may be impossible for some to name their favorite Leonardo DiCaprio movie, Keke's ready to commit in a major way. She showed her love of the actor's 1996 Romeo + Juliet by wearing a black crop top emblazoned with Juliet's last name, "Capulet," plus black leather chaps featuring photos of a young Leo surrounded by rose petals. Who knew the answer to "Wherefore art thou, Romeo?" was "I'm right here on your flare chaps"? (Also: On your fuzzy bikini top, because why not?)
If you grew up in the ’90s, there’s a 99% you had a crush on Leonardo DiCaprio (hellooo, Jack Dawson). That’s the case for singer-actress Keke Palmer, who took her nostalgia for the actor to the next level when she wore a pair of leather chaps covered in cutouts of his face while out in N.Y.C. last month.
We get it: Who wouldn’t want to have Leo attached at the hip all day? But we still had to ask the Scream Queens star about her risk-taking, head-turning fashion choice at the launch of her ShoeDazzle x Keke Palmer collection in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
“I brought it back to my favorite era — the ’90s,” the Palmer, 23, says about the look, adding that it’s “everything I wanted to try and do right now.”
“They’re actually designed from Namilia’s runway show, so when my stylist Michael showed that to me immediately was like ‘I have to wear this’ because, first of all, everybody loves Titanic,” she continues. “I was just like ‘This is so amazing.’ It’s quirky and interesting, and also very sexual the way the cutouts were.”
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Aside from heating up the sidewalk with a little skin, Palmer has been “playing with aspirational street style” for quite some time now “mixing it up with vintage, a lot of pinks, and very expressive of what’s inside.” And she proved that expressive style once again at her ShoeDazzle launch, wearing a hot-pink, vintage DSquared2 minidress with a matching fur coat (which she dubbed her “Cam’ron moment”) and pumps from her collection.
“My self confidence has definitely improved over the last few years from me just accepting who I am and not really worrying about what other people say about it, so I think a huge part of my style is a huge part of that,” Palmer says about her current wardrobe phase. “You can see what’s creatively going on on the inside of my mind.”
And, naturally, as a Generation Y baby, some of her biggest street style influences to date include “Diddy, Lil’ Kim and that whole era.”
“ is definitely one of my favorite fashion moments,” she says. “I look at a lot of men, a lot of guys for inspiration.”
Will she be dressing like her favorite boy-bander next? We can’t wait to find out.
What do you think of Palmer’s latest style phase? Share below!
