Inside Jenna Ortega’s Most Daring Fashion Statement Yet: Elena Velez’s Damaged Couture
The art of fashion evolution rarely unfolds as dramatically as it did Monday evening, when Jenna Ortega graced Late Night With Seth Meyers in a look that transcended mere red carpet dressing to become a manifesto of modern gothic femininity. As anticipation reaches fever pitch for Wednesday’s highly anticipated second season—premiering tomorrow with four episodes, followed by another quartet on September 3—Ortega’s sartorial choices have become as compelling as her on-screen performances.
Styled by the masterful Enrique Melendez, Ortega’s appearance featured a show-stopping piece from Elena Velez’s Fall 2025 collection that boldly reimagined the traditional corset silhouette. The garment, a study in beautiful destruction, featured a tattered patchwork construction that extended into a girdle configuration, complete with strategically placed tears and deliberately exposed seams. Belt-like sashes formed innovative sleeves while additional straps cascaded from the waist, creating a sense of controlled chaos that felt both avant-garde and deeply personal.
This wasn’t fashion for fashion’s sake—it was storytelling through fabric and form. The damaged details transformed what could have been a conventionally seductive piece into something altogether more unsettling and intellectually provocative. The accompanying pencil skirt, slashed with a diagonal slit and featuring rough-hewn hems, appeared weathered and lived-in, as if each imperfection carried its own narrative weight.
Perhaps most surprisingly, this exercise in deconstruction was rendered in the softest ballerina pink imaginable—a choice that added an unexpected vulnerability to what could have been an aggressively punk aesthetic. The color selection spoke to Ortega’s sophisticated understanding of contrast, proving that true edginess often emerges from the tension between opposing forces rather than obvious shock value.
The actress completed her look with nude mesh sandal heels and a coordinating crocodile-skin top-handle bag, while a silver chainlink necklace echoed the hardware details of her dress. Her beauty choices—bleached brows, smoky eyes, and dark waves parted down the middle—reinforced the gothic undertones without overwhelming the garment’s architectural complexity.
Elena Velez, the visionary New York-based designer behind this creation, has previously articulated her design philosophy to Harper’s Bazaar with remarkable clarity: “A lot of my inspiration revolves around complicated and paradoxical representations of womanhood: our proclivity toward wickedness, moral ambiguity, and application of eroticism.” This ethos couldn’t be more perfectly aligned with Wednesday Addams’s complex character study—and by extension, Ortega’s own evolution as both actress and style icon.
As Ortega’s press tour continues to captivate audiences worldwide, each appearance reinforces her position as fashion’s most intriguing young voice. This latest moment proves that the most powerful fashion statements emerge not from perfection, but from the beautiful, deliberate embrace of imperfection itself.
