Lindsay Lohan is letting her outfits do the talking on the Freakier Friday press tour. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Monica Schipper/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images, Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/WireImage via Getty Images and MEGA/GC Images via Getty Images)"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 reemerged, 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.
AdvertisementAdvertisementFreakier 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 classicLindsay Lohan at the the Los Angeles premiere of Disney's Freakier Friday. (Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic via Getty Images)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 forwardLindsay Lohan in a tweed suit, an apparent callback to The Parent Trap. (zz/XNY/STAR MAX/IPx via Associated Press)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. AdvertisementAdvertisementThe 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."Lindsay Lohan in 1998's The Parent Trap, left, and Lindsay Lohan in 2025 promoting Freakier Friday. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Everett and James Devaney/GC Images via Getty Images)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