Dannielynn Birkhead is creating her own sense of style, her dad Larry Birkhead tells PEOPLE exclusively at the Barnstable Brown Derby Eve party
Credit: Larry Birkhead/Instagram
NEED TO KNOW
- Dannielynn Birkhead, Anna Nicole Smith and Larry Birkhead’s daughter, stepped out with a new look at the Barnstable Brown Derby Eve party
- For the occasion, Dannielynn wore a Gothic Dress from Punk Raver with hair consisting of “super iced platinum with jet black tips”
- “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,” Larry tells PEOPLE exclusively
Anna Nicole Smith and Larry Birkhead's daughter Dannielynn Birkhead has arrived at the 2026 Kentucky Derby.
On Friday, May 1, Dannielynn, 19, and her father Larry were photographed on their annual outing to the Barnstable Brown Derby Eve party where the 53-year-old photographer couldn't help but be proud of the 19-year-old who is “coming into her own,” he tells PEOPLE exclusively.
For the occasion, Dannielynn opted to wear Punk Rave's Gothic Dress that featured an embroidered, strapless corseted gown with a draped sheer skirt. She paired the gown with a bold hair look involving “super iced platinum with jet black tips.”
Credit: Larry Birkhead/Instagram
When it came to her hair, Dannielynn told her dad “she wanted something edgy and cool.”
One of Smith’s friends, a hairstylist, stepped in to help. “She chopped it all off and put some wild colors in it,” Birkhead tells PEOPLE.
“I was kind of bracing myself at the hair salon,” he adds with a laugh. “I guess she's at the age to do what she wants to do.”
He admits that while he was “a little worried about it” at first, his daughter is “obviously old enough” to make choices in her life.
Larry noted that the look is a departure for Dannielynn. “This year is a different style for Dannielynn,” Birkhead tells PEOPLE. “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.”
“So we've got this total style change up for her,” Birkhead tells PEOPLE of Dannielynn, who has been known to wear bright colors when attending the event in the past. “And this is kind of, I think her coming into her own, doing her own thing and kind of exuding her own style and, and her choices that she made."
“Although, it was tough because she was in school taking finals, so I had to help kind of send these pictures back and forth and then she kind of eliminated one by one and then I think she got to the end and said, ‘Quit bothering me. I'm in finals,’ " Larry added. "And I said, ‘Okay, is that the one?’”
Dannielynn also helped Larry with his look for the event: a crystal embellished black blazer with glittering lightning bolts at the lapels, from Philipp Plein. “She said I needed to up my fashion game,” he quips. “That I had no sense of style. And so she was determined to pick my outfit out.”
With the help of his daughter, Birkhead tells PEOPLE he went with Philipp Plein, and showed off his “black rhinestone studded” look with a “lightning bolt outline” on the red carpet.
“It's very wild for me,” he adds.
When Dannielynn was born in September 2006, Birkhead was not initially listed as her father.
A court battle later established paternity, and Birkhead was awarded custody of his daughter. However, she was just 5 months old when Smith died from an accidental drug overdose in 2007.
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Despite her mother’s death, Dannielynn has found ways to remain close to her mother, like wearing her gowns to the derby.
Birkhead and Dannielynn appeared in a 20/20 special on the 14th anniversary of Smith's death in February 2021.
"Anna should be remembered as this larger than life figure that was really a caring, giving person," Birkhead said at the time. "A beautiful lady who loved her fans and loved her family."
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