There is something quietly charming about the way Hailey Bieber treats her birthday outfits like private love letters to fashion history, slipping into pieces that feel pulled from someone’s nostalgic memory rather than a stylist’s mood board. Her 29th birthday in Los Angeles followed that instinct perfectly. Instead of chasing a trend, she reached backward into the late 1990s, a time when pop girls wore glitter like second skin, and found a top that once shimmered under the lights of Total Request Live.
The halter she chose—a disco-bright archival DKNY piece sourced from Heripum in the Netherlands—instantly recalls Britney Spears in the “Born to Make You Happy” music video. Same gleam, same cut, same energy. The high neckline leads to a flouncy, midriff-baring hem that moves like it remembers choreography, and the criss-cross back straps anchor it in that sweet spot where nostalgia and nightlife meet. Spears originally wore hers with matching trousers, the kind that felt very “pop princess with a plan,” but Bieber softened the club edge by pairing it with vintage bootcut Levi’s, letting the denim bring the shine back down to earth.
Then she added the kind of shoes that make fashion lovers pause mid-scroll: strappy Manolo Blahnik sandals reminiscent of Carrie Bradshaw’s best “I’m late but still fabulous” moments. The whole look felt like unlocking a missing scene from Sex and the City, the kind where Carrie stumbles into a party wearing something that doesn’t try too hard because it already knows what it is.
And because Hailey Bieber never commits to a single reference when she can layer three, the Britney moment wasn’t the only archival breadcrumb she left behind. Days earlier, she appeared at a Rhode gathering wearing a vintage Versace leather coat from the spring 2002 runway, the exact same coat Donatella slipped into when she took her bow later that year. Fringed hem, lace-up back, attitude intact. She styled it with early-2000s Prada trousers, turning the entire ensemble into a subtle whisper of the era’s glossy, rebellious glamour.
It’s becoming a birthday ritual for her—the kind of tradition that doesn’t need an announcement. One year it’s Mugler, another it’s Tom Ford-era Gucci, and this time it’s a Versace relic paired with a DKNY top attached to the memory of pop royalty. What makes it feel special isn’t just the fashion but the ease with which she wears it, as if these archival pieces aren’t precious museum items but familiar friends she invites back into the world for one night.
