Dannielynn Birkhead has spent years attending the Kentucky Derby in looks that invited comparisons to her late mother, Anna Nicole Smith — sometimes deliberately, sometimes simply by virtue of the striking resemblance she carries. At the 152nd Kentucky Derby on Saturday, the 19-year-old made a different kind of statement: this one entirely her own.
Dressed in a bold, goth-inspired ensemble that drew immediate attention at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, Dannielynn arrived alongside her father Larry Birkhead looking nothing like the polished, traditional Derby attendee her past appearances might have led anyone to expect.
“[She] wanted something edgy and cool,” Dannielynn told her dad, according to People.
The Looks That Turned Heads
The transformation unfolded across two days of Derby weekend events.
At the Barnstable Brown Derby Eve party on Friday, Dannielynn wore a Punk Rave embroidered strapless corset gown featuring a sheer draped skirt — a piece that announced the goth-rock direction clearly and without apology. Her hair had been cut shorter and styled in platinum blonde tipped dramatically with jet black.
The look was crafted with help from a hairstylist who was also a close friend of her late mother — a detail that gave the transformation a layer of personal meaning beyond pure fashion.
For the Derby itself on Saturday, she wore a strapless black gown featuring large white floral designs, paired with a black-and-white fascinator, bracelets, and platform heels. Larry appeared beside her in a crisp white suit, black shirt, and black shoes — a pairing that set off his daughter’s dramatic look without competing with it.
A Father’s Honest Reaction
Larry Birkhead has been his daughter’s constant companion at Derby events since she was small. He has watched her grow into someone navigating the complex, public inheritance of being Anna Nicole Smith’s daughter — with everything that entails.
He was candid about how he felt watching the transformation take shape.
“I was kind of bracing myself at the hair salon,” he admitted with a laugh. “I guess she’s at the age to do what she wants to do.”
He framed the shift in aesthetic not as departure but as arrival — his daughter’s genuine self beginning to emerge publicly.
“This is a different style for Dannielynn. People are always looking for her to wear something of her mom. And she’s done that a couple times, but this is kind of Dannielynn showing off her own sense of style, and she said it’s a goth rock theme.”
Honoring Mom While Being Herself
For all its boldness, the look was not a rejection of Anna Nicole Smith’s memory. Dannielynn told Access Hollywood that the new direction was a way to embrace her “beautiful” mother while simultaneously asserting who she herself is becoming.
In previous years, Dannielynn has worn pieces from her mother’s wardrobe to Derby events — a touching and widely noted tradition. This year, the homage is more oblique: a hairstylist who was part of Smith’s circle helping shape her daughter’s new look, the spirit of the late model’s fearless self-presentation channeled into something distinctly of the daughter’s own making.
At 19, Dannielynn Birkhead is old enough to decide what the tribute looks like. And this year, it looked like a girl choosing herself.
The Rest of Derby Fashion
Dannielynn was not the only one commanding attention at Churchill Downs this weekend. The 2026 Kentucky Derby delivered a wide range of celebrity fashion moments.
Camille Kostek — the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model — wore a sleek black dress with a structured silhouette and polka-dot detail, topped with a wide-brimmed hat. On Friday, she had kicked off the weekend in all pink.
Melissa Joan Hart arrived in a deep blue velvet gown, while Danica McKellar wore a sheer, floral embroidered dress — both women completing their looks with striking statement hats.
Nicole Scherzinger, the former Pussycat Dolls frontwoman, leaned into a vintage-inspired aesthetic with a sleeveless white dress adorned with bold black polka dots and black bow details at the waist.
Miss America Cassie Donegan balanced pageant formality with Derby sensibility in a black floral dress and a dramatic black hat accented with a red flower.
Joey Fatone of NSYNC and his partner Izabel Araujo made a playful pair — Araujo in a fitted floral dress with a decorative hat, Fatone in a mint suit with colorful sneakers. Lance Bass and actress Odette Annable coordinated in soft pastels, with Bass in a cream double-breasted suit and Annable in a silky yellow dress.
The Kentucky Derby has always been as much about what people wear as what horse wins. At the 152nd running, no look generated more conversation than Dannielynn Birkhead’s — not because it was the most traditionally glamorous, but because it was the most genuinely revealing. A young woman, at 19, stepping away from the expectation that she will forever be defined by what she inherited, and toward something that belongs only to her. Larry Birkhead, watching from beside her in his white suit, seemed to understand exactly what was happening. He had been bracing himself at the hair salon. By the time the cameras found them at Churchill Downs, he looked proud.
