Дата публикации: 29-05-2026 11:29:28

Olivia Rodrigo has three words to share with anyone who thinks she shouldn’t be wearing babydoll dresses: “I don’t care.”
In the music video for her song “Drop Dead,” the singer frolics around the Palace of Versailles in a lingerie-inspired babydoll dress that reveals short, lacy boyshorts.
The childlike dress style has always been a bit controversial, and some were quick to criticize the 23-year-old for her sartorial choices, saying she was “sexualizing” herself.
Rodrigo weighed in on the controversy during an episode of The New York Times podcast, “Popcast.”
“That’s been making me so upset. Not even for me. I don’t care,” she said.
“I’m just very protective of younger women and girls, and I don’t ever want them to be fed that rhetoric. It’s like a weird cult. You shouldn’t be responsible for some guy sexualizing you in a way that was never your intention,” she added.
What are babydoll dresses and why are they striking a nerve? TODAY.com spoke with two style experts to find out.
What is a babydoll dress?
Maggie Gillette, a fashion expert and partner at The Curio, describes a babydoll dress as a “short style with an empire waist and A-line shape.”
Olivia Rodrigo performs on stage during an exclusive Billions Club Live show to celebrate the partnership between Spotify and FC Barcelona before El Clásico on May 8, 2026 in Barcelona, ​​Spain.
“It often features short or cap sleeves, ruching and delicate trims like lace or ribbon that gives it an air of innocence,” she says.
Julie Matos, a New York City-based celebrity stylist, adds babydoll dresses are known for having a softer silhouette “that floats away from the body instead of clinging to it.”
“It usually comes with feminine details like lace, bows, puff sleeves or sheer layers, which is why the look always feels romantic but still a little rebellious,” she says.
How did babydoll dresses get their name?
Due to the name, Gillette says there’s often a “misconception that the dress came from childrenswear.”
“This actually wasn’t the case. The shape came about because of fabric rationing in World War II when designer Sylvia Pedlar shortened the nightgowns she was creating to save fabric,” Gillette says. “The name actually came from the 1956 movie ‘Baby Doll’ in which the lead character wore a nightgown of this style throughout the film.”
In the 1950s, Gillette says, the look was “reinvented” as a dress by Balenciaga. It later became “one of the defining silhouettes of the 1960s mod movement.”
Olivia Rodrigo babydoll dress controversy, explained
When Rodrigo sported a babydoll dress in her “Drop Dead” music video, some social media users had strong opinions on the matter.
“Olivia darling, you were sexualising yourself by pulling up your dress to show off your briefs, so don’t act coy now,” one X user commented.
“Olivia Rodrigo is wearing the babydoll dress ironically. Okay… but now it’s almost definitely going to be a fashion trend that millions of young girls are going to wear which is problematic. It’s inappropriate for underage girls over the age of 5 to wear that outfit. Didn’t think that through Olivia,” another said.
But some social media users didn’t understand what all the fuss was about.
“A simple google search will show you that the babydoll dress is for adult women. olivia did nothing wrong,” one wrote.
“The fact Olivia Rodrigo has to even address the babydoll dress discourse at all is incredibly sad,” another X user commented.














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During her appearance on “Popcast,” the singer was quick to point out that she has worn “revealing” outfits on stage that haven’t faced this level of criticism.
“I’ve been on stage in a sparkly bra and little shorts, which is my right. I felt cool and comfortable in that. And that wasn’t inappropriate. But me like fully covered up in a dress that people deemed to be like childlike was inappropriate. It just shows how we really normalize pedophilia in our culture,” she said.
Rodrigo criticized the concept that women are responsible for unwanted sexual advances based on their fashion choices.
“It’s this rhetoric that we’re fed as girls since we’re so little, which is like, ‘Don’t wear that because then a man is going to sexualize your body and it’s your fault.’ It’s so weird,” she said.
Were babydoll dresses always controversial?
Rodrigo said she drew fashion inspiration from Courtney Love and Kathleen Hanna, who have both worn babydoll dresses, and said she didn’t think she “looked sexy” in the dress.
“I felt cool and comfortable in it. And I just think if we start dressing in a way that’s like, ‘Oh I don’t want some freak to think that I am sexy, like a baby’ or some crazy thing like that, I just think it’s losing the point,” she said.
Gillette says babydoll dresses “instantly courted controversy because of its short hemline,” which was “seen as quite shocking at the time.” Throughout history, the dresses have been linked to feminist movements and represent fashion as “social rebellion,” she says.
The dress’ lingerie origins also “evoked the thought that this is something that should remain hidden,” she adds.
Matos notes that the dress style’s “balance of innocence and sensuality” has always sparked conversation.
“Fashion constantly revisits that tension, especially whenever ultra-feminine dressing comes back around,” she says.
Specifically for Rodrigo, her new style may be part of “dressing for an ‘era’ right now,” Matos says. Rodrigo’s third studio album, “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So In Love” drops June 12, and her “Unraveled Tour” kicks off Sept. 25 in Connecticut.
“Fashion becomes part of the storytelling around an album,” she says.
Rodrigo is hardly the first artist to tap into the babydoll aesthetic. Matos says other artists including Sabrina Carpenter, Lana Del Rey and more have all sported the dress over the years.
“In Olivia’s case, the reaction feels bigger because she’s still growing publicly from teen star into adult artist, and people always read heavily into what young female performers wear,” Matos says. “So the discussion becomes less about the dress itself and more about what people think it says about this next chapter of her career.”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
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