Pamela Anderson Is Having A Sexy Fashion Comeback
Breaking down the best looks of her documentary press tour.
A lot of people think they can be Pamela Anderson, and no one knows this better than her stylist, Rebecca Ramsey. Reached in Los Angeles via phone to discuss Anderson’s recent looks, Ramsey suddenly shrieks with excitement. “Someone is walking by me right now in this huge fluffy hat. It is so Pam!”
She saw an even more literal homage to Anderson’s famed 1999 VMAs look at the New York premiere of Anderson’s documentary, Pamela, A Love Story. “An older woman was wearing a big pink hat, and she carried a hat box around! It was amazing,” Ramsey says. Maybe you’ve seen the tributes, too, like the ones on TikTok, where a Pamela Anderson filter with more than 345 million views will give you her signature smoky eye and skinny brow. “Everyone keeps saying the skinny brow is coming back, but, you know, she has always had them,” Ramsey points out.
Related article: Why We’re Still Fascinated With Pamela Anderson’s Style
Some of the desire among young people to look like they were hand-plucked from the ’90s can be traced back to Anderson. Sure, dressing like you’re from the decade that preceded your birth has always been appealing; it feels almost paranormal, a way to time-travel and become a version of yourself that could never exist now. But there’s a very specific kind of ’90s throwback dressing—halfway between the serious elegance of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and the eccentric playful kitschness of the Spice Girls—that feels pioneered by Anderson herself. It’s a look that can encompass a white crop top with light-wash cutoff denim shorts or a slinky neutral slipdress with sharp kitten heels. And there’s no one who has ever pulled it off quite like Anderson, whose megawatt smile radiates the kind of confidence everyone wants.
Her style is sexy without being over-the-top, and put-together without feeling complicated. It also tends to generate the mistaken impression that being this sexy is easy: Just wear something simple that shows some cleavage and you’re done. Unfortunately, that attitude is what made people think they were entitled to Anderson for decades. As her son Brandon Thomas Lee says in Pamela, A Love Story, “I don’t think people consider her the owner of her own image. It’s Pamela Anderson: public property.”
Ten minutes into our conversation, Ramsey and I are already raving about Anderson’s ’90s looks. Of course, there’s the pink feathered hat she wore with sequinned pants and a white corset in 1999. But there’s also her black leather bustier and mesh opera gloves from the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, and her gigantic wide-brim hat and sheer dress from the 1997 American Music Awards. What she was doing in the ’90s—creating saucy looks that were seductive and incredibly individualised without being unnecessarily serious—is what so many people think they’re doing now with fast-fashion dupes inspired by her ’90s wardrobe.