Paris Hilton leaned into the nostalgia factor last night, recreating one of her most famous outfits of all time—the silver chainmail dress she wore for her 21st birthday—for her House of Y2K event. It has been 21 years since Hilton, now 42, first wore the look, but you’d never guess comparing the two images.
Paris Hilton at her 21st birthday party on May 3, 2002.
Paris Hilton at her House of Y2k launch party on February 23, 2023.
Hilton has had a big week. She announced her son’s name Phoenix and shared the first photo of his face with Glamour UK alongside the very candid interview she gave to the outlet about her life ahead of her memoir’s March 14 release.
Hilton, for what it’s worth, did address her skincare in the piece, saying she’s never done Botox or any injectables, as she’s scared of needles. “I stay out of the sun, I get facials and use EMS electric therapy, preventative things… I have a whole wellness centre at my house with the sickest equipment you’ve ever seen,” she said. “I have a hyperbaric chamber that fits four people, a cryo machine that fits three people, the NuEra Tight machine, which is the new laser that tightens your skin. The Icoone that goes and does a lymphatic thing, but shapes your whole body. I have like 20 machines.”
She also addressed the dark, misogynistic side of the 2000s coverage of women like her, Lindsay Lohan, and more. “Back then, people were not even speaking about mental health,” she started. “[It] was not even on people’s minds to think that we were human beings with feelings, and we were just young girls growing up and discovering who we were. And doing [what] any other normal girl would do–except that our lives were being magnified by the press.”
“One thing that the 2000s was about was really pitting women against each other,” she added of tabloid culture. “Back then a woman standing up for themself, a woman speaking her mind was like, ‘Oh, they’re difficult, they’re hard to deal with.’ Any woman who I’ve seen in this industry growing up as a teenager, who would ever say anything would get persecuted for it, get so much backlash.”
Senior News and Strategy Editor
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she’s not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.