Olivia Rodrigo owns a piece of rock history that most White Stripes fans know by sight. The singer has revealed that she bought the white Gunne Sax dress worn by Meg White on the cover of Elephant, paying US$25,600 at auction for one of the album’s most recognisable visual details.
The garment featured in the artwork for The White Stripes’ 2003 album, where the duo’s red, white and black aesthetic became as much a part of their identity as the opening riff of ‘Seven Nation Army’. The vintage dress was originally expected to fetch between US$4,000 and US$6,000 when it went through Julien’s Auctions. Its final price was considerably higher.
Rodrigo discussed the purchase in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, explaining that she had planned to wear the dress at her inaugural Daisy Chain Fields festival in Irvine, California, in August. She ultimately left it out of the wardrobe because the weather was too hot for the floor-length piece.
The detail says something about the distinction between collecting a meaningful item and actually living with it. An album cover can preserve a garment in perfect cultural memory; a summer festival still has heat, lights and the practical demands of a performance. Rodrigo has suggested she may find a cooler occasion to wear it.
Her attachment to The White Stripes is longstanding rather than a sudden fashion discovery. As a teenager, she ran a fan account devoted to the band and publicly described herself as a major Jack White admirer. She later became friendly with White and helped induct The White Stripes into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2025.
The dress also carries a history of its own. It came from Tracee Mae Miller, who worked closely with the band and supplied the garment for the original album-cover shoot. Its appearance on Elephant tied it to an image that has remained instantly identifiable for more than two decades.
As Rolling Stone reported, the auction lot even included a CD copy of Elephant. That is a small, almost comic accessory beside the sum spent on a garment that has become inseparable from the record.
Rodrigo’s own career has repeatedly made room for guitar music and the artists who shaped it. This purchase makes that relationship unexpectedly literal: a contemporary pop star now owns an object from one of the defining rock album sleeves of her childhood.
The dress may not have made it onto the Daisy Chain Fields stage, but it has found another custodian. Whether Rodrigo eventually wears it in public or keeps it preserved, the original cover image remains the reason it matters.
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