Anna Nicole Smith’s Daughter Dannielynn Birkhead Wears Her Plunging LBD 21 Years Later

• Dannielynn Birkhead stepped out at a pre-Kentucky Derby gala on Friday night wearing her late mom Anna Nicole Smith’s plunging bedazzled black dress.

• Smith last wore the iconic gown back in 2004 at the same Barnstable Brown Gala.

• Dannielynn’s dad Larry Birkhead revealed that his daughter is starting to take an interest in the late model’s clothing.

Before stepping out at Churchill Downs for the 2025 Kentucky Derby, Anna Nicole Smith’s lookalike daughter Dannielynn Birkhead gave her late mom a sartorial shout-out as she attended a pre-Derby gala on Friday, May 2. The 18-year-old had fans seeing double as she re-wore one of the Playboy model’s most iconic black dresses to the annual Barnstable Brown Gala—the exact same event where Smith wore the waist-plunging, open-backed dress 20 years earlier.

Stepping out with her dad Larry Birkhead, Dannielynn looked all grown up—and like her mom’s mini-me—as she replicated the look that Smith wore to the Barnstable Brown Gala in 2004 down to her signature Pamela Anderson-esque platinum blonde updo.

Telling reporters on the red carpet that re-wearing the dress was “closest to a hug [she] can get from her” mom, Dannielynn stunned in the daring floor-length black halterneck gown. The pre-Kentucky Derby dress featured a plunging neckline that dove all the way to her waist with crystal bedazzled straps running across her bodice to create mini cutouts. As she turned, she showed off a thigh-high slit in the front as well as a plunging low back that was also accentuated with rhinestone-covered straps holding it in place.

In photos shared by her dad on Instagram, Dannielynn also paid tribute to her mom by copying Anna Nicole Smith’s beauty look. Piling her platinum blonde hair in a voluminous updo with face-framing pieces, the teen accentuated her features with pink lipstick, a similar blush hue, and dramatic lashes. Dannielynn ditched her mom’s statement chandelier earrings in favor of a diamond cuff bracelet, diamond cocktail rings, and black strappy sandal heels.

Birkhead, who met Smith at the Barnstable Brown Gala in 2003, told People that seeing his daughter in the dress brought back bittersweet memories. “It was emotional because the last time I saw that dress was on Anna,” he shared, calling the look “a little edgier for [Dannielynn] than most dresses she wears.”

The photographer revealed that it was the teen’s choice to wear the iconic dress, sharing in an Instagram post of the pre-Kentucky Derby look, “She said she chose the dress because it was her Mom’s and ‘super cool.’”

“I think she’s doing a fashion experiment for herself,” he told People, adding, “I think it’s really meaningful for her to wear. I’m just glad she’s going through and starting to wear some of [Smith’s clothes] because she could literally pick out an outfit a day for the rest of her life and never wear the same thing twice with everything.”

Only time will tell whether Dannielynn steps out in another one of Smith’s outfits for her Kentucky Derby dress on Saturday, but Birkhead emphasized that there’s plenty of options to choose from. Revealing that he spends “over $200,000” storing the late Playboy model’s clothes, he shared, “[I] just hope that she would appreciate some of these things someday. She’s just now starting to get into the curiosity of some of the fashion and things in her mom’s world.”

Read the original article on InStyle