Zara Larsson channels mermaid glamour, echoing Chanel’s cruise vision

The easiest way to wear the mermaid mood this summer is to keep the fantasy small and let one detail do the work. Zara Larsson proved the point at Billboard Women in Music 2026, where she stepped onto the Hollywood Palladium stage in Los Angeles on April 29 wearing a Rohit Mane look scattered with pink and purple starfishes and seahorses, then accepted Billboard’s Breakthrough Award while promoting Midnight Sun.

Styled by Caterina Ospina, the outfit had just enough spectacle to feel special without sliding into dress-up. Mane said he wanted the design to feel “very water-esque” and “fully crystallized and reflective,” with the effect of a mermaid emerging from the ocean and starfish caught on her body. That image matters because it is exactly where coastal glamour can go wrong: too literal, too themed, too much. Larsson’s version kept the sparkle, but the silhouette and finish did the elegant work, letting the aquatic references read as polish rather than costume.

Ospina said she had been following Mane’s work for months and saw his designs as something “a modern, cool mermaid would wear,” adding that the pairing matched Zara’s vision of “fresh, confident and pure summer magic.” That is the sweet spot for readers who love coastal-grandmother dressing but want a little more fantasy in the mix. The easiest translation is not a full mermaid look, but a few carefully chosen cues: shell motifs instead of obvious sea creatures, watery tones like seafoam and aquamarine, fluid fabrics that move, and a trace of shimmer that catches light rather than demands it. Linen, cotton and relaxed tailoring still keep the mood grounded.

The Chanel connection only sharpened the timing. Matthieu Blazy presented his first Cruise collection for Chanel in Biarritz, France on April 28, one day before Larsson’s performance, in a city that matters to the house because Gabrielle Chanel opened her first couture house there in 1915. Reports from the show described shimmering gowns and aquatic references that evoked mermaids, placing Larsson’s look in the same summer conversation. Chanel’s seaside setting gave the collection a built-in resort logic; Larsson’s version, meanwhile, offered the more wearable end of that idea.

Taken together, the message is simple: the season’s sea-inspired dressing does not need to be literal to land. One reflective fabric, one tidal color and one polished nod to the ocean are enough to make the look feel current, expensive and ready for daylight.