Alexandra Leclerc Transforms F1 Paddock with Dior Dress
The engines hadn’t even fired in Madrid when another kind of spectacle stole the early headlines. On the sidelines of the Spanish Grand Prix, Alexandra Leclerc arrived in a piece of fashion history: Christian Dior’s iconic newspaper dress, the John Galliano design that first walked the runway in the Fall/Winter 2000 collection and later became synonymous with Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City.
This time, it wasn’t on a New York sidewalk or a Manhattan movie set. It was in the thick of Formula 1, worn by a 26-year-old influencer who just happens to be married to Ferrari star Charles Leclerc and is pregnant with their first child.
A Dress with a Story
The dress is instantly recognisable: a collage of “newsprint” panels, cut into a sharp mini silhouette. Sarah Jessica Parker, as Carrie Bradshaw, turned it into a pop-culture relic in season 3 of Sex and the City and again in Sex and the City 2. The look resurfaced in 2025 on Jenna Ortega at the Hurry Up Tomorrow premiere, proving its staying power on the red carpet long after its controversial debut.
That debut, back in 2000, raised eyebrows. Galliano unveiled the piece as part of Dior’s so‑called Hobo collection, which CNN reported was “inspired both by the displaced people the designer saw while jogging and by the ‘Tramp Ball’ trend from the 1920s and 30s whereby the wealthy dressed as the homeless for glamorous soirees.” It was a collision of couture and social commentary that didn’t sit easily with everyone.
Over time, though, the dress slipped from scandal into legend, helped by television, film and a generation of stars who embraced its boldness. Now it’s made the jump again—this time from Manhattan fiction to motorsport reality.
From City Streets to Pit Lane
On Friday, Sept. 11 in Madrid, Alexandra Leclerc stepped into that legacy. Photos from the paddock show her in the vintage mini, styled with a coordinating purse, black open-toe heels and dark sunglasses. At her side: Leo, her much-photographed dog, padding along like a seasoned plus-one.
It was a deliberate choice, a knowing nod to fashion history in a setting usually dominated by team polos and branded caps. While mechanics tuned engines and engineers pored over data, Leclerc turned the asphalt into a catwalk, folding high fashion into the high-speed theatre of F1.
The message was clear: the paddock is no longer just a workplace. It’s a stage.
Building a Maternity Style Playbook
This wasn’t a one-off. With the F1 season gathering pace, Alexandra has been quietly assembling one of the grid’s most talked-about wardrobes—and doing it while redefining maternity style in the process.
At free practice on Friday, Sept. 4, at Autodromo Nazionale Monza in northern Italy, she arrived in a black keyhole cutout dress dotted with white polka dots, finished with a bow-tie halter neckline. She kept the accessories sharp and minimal: her trademark small-framed black sunglasses, hair scraped back into a tight, polished bun.
The next day, she shifted gears again. An all-black, knee-length dress, plunging halter neckline, black kitten heels, tiny black sunglasses. No fuss, no excess, just a clean, confident silhouette that sat comfortably between fashion-forward and race-day functional.
Each appearance has added another frame to the same picture: Alexandra Leclerc is treating the F1 calendar like a curated lookbook, and the bump is central to the story, not an afterthought.
From Viral Style to Beauty Muse
Her eye for a headline look hasn’t gone unnoticed away from the track. Alexandra’s viral outfits helped catch the attention of Hailey Bieber, whose beauty line Rhode named her its first “muse-ambassador,” as reported by Vogue. The partnership grew into a full collaboration, with Alexandra co-creating her own collection for the brand.
Her approach to beauty mirrors the ease of her trackside style. “I really am all about makeup that looks and feels like skin,” she told the outlet, summing up a philosophy that leans toward natural polish rather than heavy transformation.
That balance—high-impact fashion, low-fuss finish—plays perfectly in the unforgiving glare of F1 weekends, where every step is photographed and every look is instantly shared.
The New Power Player in the Paddock
Formula 1 has long had its WAGs, its celebrity partners, its occasional red-carpet crossovers. What Alexandra Leclerc is doing feels sharper, more intentional. She’s raiding the archives—Dior 2000, no less—and dropping a piece of fashion folklore into a sport obsessed with the future.
As the season accelerates and the title battles intensify, one subplot is already clear: Alexandra isn’t just watching from the sidelines. She’s rewriting what the sidelines look like.
