WeedSlut Is the Bold and Brash Label Designing Dresses for Everyone From Addison Rae to Ella Langley

Save this storySave StorySave this storyWhat do musical stars Addison Rae, Tyla, Adéla, and Ella Langley have in common? Besides their prime position on the pop culture charts, each has an individual voice with an even more distinct sense of style. Yet there’s one unexpected thing that unites the group: WeedSlut, the bedazzled New York City-based brand founded and operated by Zoë Kestan.

Over the course of the last decade, Kestan’s trajectory has been a wild ride: She founded her conceptual brand as part of an amorphous downtown scene, cornered NYC nightlife, took a pause while she endured a media frenzy due to a public relationship with Hunter Biden, and more recently re-jump-started the indie label, complete with an accessible commercial element for fellow WeedSlut fans.

The 33-year-old NYC native took up an interest in design from a young age: Her stepfather worked in the garment industry, and this eventually blossomed into her earning a degree in textiles from RISD. From there, Kestan dove headlong into print, weaving, knitting, and snagged a summer job at Telfar, though much of her practical clothing design and sewing knowledge is self-taught.

Such an untraditional brand name certainly raises eyebrows, but Kestan has never been one for the straight and narrow. “WeedSlut started in some ways as a proto-influencer stage name during early Instagram days,” Kestan tells Vogue of her Instagram handle’s 2013 origin. As both a smoker and a former club dancer, “I loved the intensity and semi-shock value of it, but also felt it was true to what I wanted my work and clothes to express. The name captured a lifestyle and sexuality I was embodying in the NYC fashion and art scenes, and the brand naturally developed as a way to expand that world beyond myself.”

Photo: Zoë KestanOver the last two years, Kestan has begun to expand the commercial side of WeedSlut’s business—something that was teased at the brand’s original runway show in 2017—by launching a range of core items such as lingerie, scallop-edged logo tees, and her signature mesh babydoll dress. However, it’s still Kestan’s custom pieces that have produced the most interesting moments—whether that be a mesh bra top for Adéla’s recent music video or cheeky lace panties for Tyla. In 2025 Kestan connected with Addison Rae and her stylist Dara Allen via choreographer Lexee Smith and costumed much of the artist’s debut album tour in go-go halter minis, flowing mesh-overlay dresses, and neon garters.

With Addison, Kestan found immediate synergy. They already shared friends, interests, and references, but the designer’s work hasn’t been limited to her immediate sphere. This summer Kestan crafted flower-power dresses for “Choosin’ Texas” singer Ella Langley in collaboration with the artist’s stylist Stefani Colvin. “When someone like Ella approaches us, I sit down and I listen to the music—and I’ve done this with other artists too—where I just try to understand them and their vision and find their motifs and their styles,” says Kestan. For Langley, key touchpoints were a flowy and feminine aesthetic inspired by ’70s bohemia and the dandelion motifs found in her new album.

WeedSlut’s reach unexpectedly spans two Americas. “Choosin’ Texas” might be the longest number one song on the charts, but monoculture no longer reigns supreme. If “Headphones On” by Addison Rae topped your Spotify Wrapped last year, chances are slim you’ve also been listening to Langley, and yet WeedSlut might be the sole surprising thing at the center of that Venn diagram. Says Kestan: “It feels like I can find a new WeedSlut world that exists in these different genres. We’re applying our lens to it and seeing what comes out of that.”