Anna Nicole Smith's teenage daughter has just honoured her late mother in the most unforgettable way — by stepping out in the same dress she wore 21 years ago to the exact same event.
Dannielynn Birkhead - 18-year-old daughter of Smith and Larry Birkhead - made a moving appearance at the 2025 Barnstable Brown Gala on Friday, May 2, wearing a black floor-length gown first seen on her mom at the 2004 gala.
Featuring a plunging neckline, crystal-embellished bodice straps, and a daringly low back, the gown was pure Anna — glamorous, dramatic, and unforgettable.
“Dannielynn is wearing Anna Nicole’s dress that she wore 21 years ago to this same event. Life full circle,” Larry Birkhead wrote on Instagram. “She said she chose the dress because it was her Mom’s and ‘super cool.’”
But for Dannielynn, it wasn’t just about fashion — it was about connection. “This is the closest to a hug I can get from her,” she said on the red carpet, per PEOPLE.
For Larry, the moment was overwhelming. “It was emotional because the last time I saw that dress was on Anna,” he told PEOPLE, recalling that he'd met the late model and actress at the same gala back in 2003.
“When Dannielynn was a little girl, she walked over and she put her hand on the dress,” he added. “And now that she's actually old enough to wear it, it just seems surreal that we're at this moment.”
While the choice to wear the gown was all Dannielynn’s, Larry said it pushed her out of her comfort zone: “It's a little edgier for her than most dresses she wears. I think she's doing a fashion experiment for herself. Also, I think it's really meaningful for her to wear.”
And there are plenty more pieces where that came from.
Larry revealed that he’s spent “over $200,000 in storage bills” preserving Anna Nicole’s wardrobe and belongings for his daughter. “She could literally pick out an outfit a day for the rest of her life and never wear the same thing twice with everything,” he said.
“When somebody passes away, you think, ‘Oh, I'm not getting rid of anything,’” he shared. “And then you go through the emotions of, okay, do I really want this? Do I really need this? ... and you think, ‘Well, if there's just one thing in there that she can connect with, that gives her a sense of who her mom was.’ So it was really special that she picked out the dress to wear.”
After sharing photos to Instagram, fans flooded the comments with support, with one person writing: "Beautiful like her momma!"
A second added: "You both look amazing!!! At first glance, I saw Anna and thought it was a very old pic. Wow, does Dannielynn look like her Mother. To see her all glammed up like that, she looks like a beautiful young lady coming into her own."
The Kentucky Derby has become an annual tradition for the father-daughter duo — one born purely by accident.
“It was really born out of the babysitter canceling on me the first year I brought her,” Larry said. “Then everybody was like, ‘Oh, how cute.’ And I thought, ‘Well, she wasn’t that much trouble last year.’ So it became a tradition. Then people started looking for us and then the outfits had to be bigger.”
And every year, they bring the looks. In 2024, Dannielynn wore a dramatic all-black outfit once worn by Janet Jackson, while Larry kept things classic in a grey suit with a black tie. In 2023, she went bright and floral in a sunflower print dress by Leo Lin — with her dad matching in coordinating tones.
But this year felt different. This wasn’t just about fashion — it was about legacy.
Anna Nicole Smith passed away in February 2007 from a drug overdose in the Bahamas when Dannielynn was just five months old.
What followed was a media circus over her daughter’s paternity, with several men — including Smith’s lawyer Howard K. Stern and a former bodyguard — claiming to be the father. It took DNA tests to prove that Larry was, in fact, Dannielynn’s dad.
After winning custody, he raised her quietly in Kentucky, away from the spotlight. He’s continued to honour Anna’s memory, sharing tributes like the black-and-white photo he posted in 2022 to mark 15 years since her death.
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“Still remembering this one 15 years after her death. She was truly one of a kind. She struggled for love and acceptance. Just when she found a little piece of one or the other, life seemed to sabotage,” Larry wrote at the time. “Today, I remember your heart, your soul and your beauty, both inside and out.”
He added, “Your love is alive still to this day, in the form of a truly one-of-a-kind teenager with her Mom’s smile, beauty and courage.”
Looking back on the place where he first met Anna, Larry said it best: “It’s great to be part of something that changed my life in so many ways.”
And reflecting on the night his daughter brought Anna’s legacy back to life on the red carpet, he added: “I think her mom would be proud. She might tell me I should have dressed her in more pink — but I think she’d be happy. That she is the young lady she turned out to be.”