Just a week after Dakota Johnson and Taylor Swift indulged in some bestie dressing in the latter’s “Patient Zero” music video, the pair are making the case for sartorial independence.
On Saturday night, Swift made a surprise appearance during Johnson’s Saturday Night Live opening monologue, where the actor was hosting for the third time. Johnson, reflecting on the romantic upheavals since her last stint on the Studio 8H stage, credited her friends with seeing her through.
Cue Swift, whom Johnson introduced as her “literal therapist.” Swift quickly clarified the arrangement: Johnson simply turns up at her house once a week and eventually has to be driven home by her security.
The cameo also doubled as a fashionable reunion. Johnson, styled by Kate Young, went full 2013 bombshell in a scarlet latex Versace mini dress, paired with Giuseppe Zanotti Intriigo 90 mules. As though the high-shine red number needed any additional wattage, she added Roberto Coin diamonds and rubies, including the $124,000 Wide Cobra Collar and a Cento Circle of Life ring.
Swift took an altogether more fall-ready, even Folklore-esque route. She wore Simkhai’s off-the-shoulder Wells plaid minidress (a firm fave brand), cinched with a Saint Laurent Cassandre chain belt and grounded with Burberry’s knee-high Pillar leather boots.
Dana Rebecca Designs hoops and her Cartier Unlimited bracelet supplied the jewelry, alongside her custom eight-carat antique old mine brilliant-cut engagement ring and wedding band by Kindred Lubeck of Artifex Fine Jewelry care of husband Travis Kelce. (Who, sadly, was not in the audience.)
It marked Taylor Swift’s first SNL appearance since October 2023, when she introduced the musical guest Ice Spice. Following the goodnight moment, Swift appeared again to present Johnson with a cake to mark her 37th birthday.
Elsewhere on the show, Johnson wore a strapless plunging Saint Laurent mini dress, and in the promo, a eucaluptus toned silk top and matching mini skirt by Yana Matkivski—a designer firmly on the rise with fans found in Kaia Gerber, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Nara Smith.
The contrast feels particularly notable given their recent experiments in twinning. Johnson stars opposite Swift and Colin Farrell in the singer’s newly released “Patient Zero” video, where she and Swift appear in several deliberately mirrored looks—including identical Toteme leather coats and coordinated pared-back separates. Johnson also joined Swift at last weekend’s VMAs, presenting her with the inaugural Artist Director Honors before the video’s premiere.
But real bestie style, apparently, needn’t mean sharing a mood board. Both women have spent years honing highly recognizable wardrobes.
Johnson oscillates between a languid, slightly bohemian off-duty uniform and high-octane eveningwear—she has long gravitated toward Saint Laurent, Valentino and Alessandro Michele’s designs, with a particular weakness for anything sheer, embellished, or vaguely disco-adjacent. Swift, meanwhile, tends toward something more polished and knowingly feminine: a great coat, a tall boot, a checked mini, a flash of serious vintage jewelry.
But there is often overlap. Both appreciate Saint Laurent, Versace, and power of a very good dress.
At SNL, Johnson’s skin-tight fire-engine latex and Swift’s collegiate plaid were a reminder that sometimes the best thing about getting dressed with your best friend is looking nothing alike.