Award season is synonymous with celebrities and red carpets — and celebrities (and their ilk) getting papped on red carpets.
The Golden Globes happened over the weekend, and the Academy Awards, the biggest event on the tinsel town calendar, are just around the corner. Gold statues and blubbering acceptance speeches are all good and fun, but what we’re really looking forward to is seeing what the star-studded guests wear. Yes, we’re talking about the dresses — the good, the bad, the nip slip causing and the ugly. Here’s our pick of the most memorable award season frocks in recent history— some worth fawning over, others cringe worthy, but all having made a lasting impression.
1. Halle Berry in Elie Saab
Halle Berry topped best-dressed lists across the globe after she wore this Elie Saab embroidered gown with strategically placed flowers to the 2002 Oscars. There couldn’t be a more flattering dress for Berry — the burgundy and peek-a-boo sheer suits her perfectly.
2. Bjork in Marjan Pejoski
Icelandic singer Bjork ruffled serious fashion feathers in 2001. The swan dress plus sparkly bodysuit she wore to the Oscars got a hugely bad wrap at the time, but, with hindsight, it’s been applauded as bold, irreverent and iconic.
3. Courtney Love in vintage slip and Galliano
In 1995, C-Lo appeared at the Vanity Fair Oscar party in a vintage silk slip. Apparently she opted for something second-hand because no designer would risk loaning her a dress. We have no idea what state the slip was in the morning after, but we do know that for at least three hours the queen of grunge looked super glamorous. Which can’t be said of her 2000 Oscars outfit. If she was meaning to tear up the red carpet in this shredded Galliano number, it didn’t work.
4. Julia Roberts in vintage Valentino
At the 2001 Oscars, Julia Roberts turned heads in vintage Valentino, before picking up a Best Actress statue for Erin Brokovich. She wore the tulle overlay black and white couture gown with panache — and it was a huge improvement on the ill-fitted tweed suit she wore to the same event a decade before.
5. Celine Dion in Christian Dior
More in suiting up gone wrong: this white tuxedo of an elephant in the room. In 1999, Celine Dion, for reasons unbeknownst to us, chose to wear a Dior twinset to the Oscars — backwards. Her choice of accessories was just as dumbfounding. The lop-sided fedora: why?
6. Cher in Bob Mackie
For Cher, the Academy Awards are an excuse to dive into the dress-up box and give costume designer friend Bob Mackie a call. The pairing is the stuff of either Hollywood heaven or hell (we can’t quite decide). But there’s no denying that when Cher wore a feathered headdress and beaded midriff top to the 1986 Oscars it was memorable.
7. Demi Moore
Demi Moore usually looks so chic. Which is why we were so surprised that she was busting out of this brocade mullet dress at the 1999 Oscars — and that she was wearing it in the first place. Not to mention the lace-hemmed bike shorts. A can-can costume gone wrong if ever we did see one.
8. Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter wore this puffy polka dot dress to the 1987 Oscars. It kind of looks like it belongs in Beatlejuice. Or in any of Tim Burton’s films, which is fitting, since Helena Bonham Carter frequently stars in them. The actress also made headlines last year when she wore mismatched shoes to the Golden Globes.
9. Uma Thurman in Christian Lacroix
The dress worn by Uma Thurman to the 2004 Oscars is a kimono meet fairytale character costume meet something purchased from Tree of Life. Shouldn’t she be on a Swiss hill top yodeling, instead of at an A-list event?
10. Michelle Williams in Vera Wang
Michelle Williams exuded old school Hollywood glamour at the 2006 Academy Awards. She glowed in this yellow Vera Wang gown; her wispy hair looks beautiful, as do her ruby red lips. Heath Ledger doesn’t make bad arm candy, either.