There are few moments that can be considered bigger in a Hollywood actress’s career than winning an Oscar – and while we may forget the films for which they won, it’s the gowns they wore to collect that all-important statue that often prove most memorable.
Look back at the style life of Gwyneth Paltrow and you can’t help but revisit the powder pink Ralph Lauren gown she wore as she teared up on stage, while Julia Roberts’s Valentino dress plucked from the archives is often credited with kick-starting a vintage movement on the red carpet. Audrey Hepburn first stepped out publicly in Givenchy on her Oscar-winning night, marking the start of one of Hollywood’s most famous fashion friendships, while Elie Saab became a household name after Halle Berry chose his design for her big moment.
Some gowns go down in the Oscars fashion history for more dubious reasons – one of the most enduring images from the 2013 Oscars was of Jennifer Lawrence tripping on her voluminous Dior gown as she made her way to the stage, while in the same year Anne Hathaway made headlines for the last-minute dress change that saw her ditch her Valentino design (and promptly upset the design house) for a column dress by Prada.
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1930: Best Actress
Winner: Norma Shearer for The Divorcee
The Dress: A dress by costume designer Gilbert Adrian, who famously created costumes for films including The Wizard of Oz and Marie Antoinette.
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1936: Best Actress
Winner: Bette Davis for Dangerous
The Dress: A design by Orry-Kelly – a costume designer who worked on films including Casablanca and Some Like It Hot, and won three Oscars himself for his work. Davis specifically chose the design as she believed it looked like something the “hired help” might wear, in protest of her contract with Warner Bros that she wanted to be freed from.
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1939: Best Actress
Winner: Bette Davis for Jezebel
The Dress: A black rulle gown with a spray of white feathers.
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1941: Best Actress
Winner: Ginger Rogers for Kitty Foyle
The Dress: The Academy set sartorial guidelines for the 1941 awards in respect of World War II – guests were asked to wear understated clothes in a sombre palette, preferably domestically made in the US. Rogers chose a grey silk dress that adhered to the guidelines.
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1954: Best Actress
Winner: Audrey Hepburn for Roman Holiday
The Dress: The start of a beautiful fashion friendship, the 1954 Oscars marked the first time Hepburn had worn a Hubert de Givenchy dress in public. The dress was originally designed by Edith Head as part of Hepburn’s Roman Holiday wardrobe, but was adapted by Givenchy for the Oscars. Soon after winning the award, Hepburn insisted that it stated in her film contracts that Givenchy designed all her costumes.
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1955: Best Actress
Winner: Grace Kelly for The Country Girl
The Dress: Edith Head was the designer behind Kelly’s ice blue dress. Best known for costume design, Head won eight Oscars of her own for her work in film.
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1961: Best Actress
Winner: Elizabeth Taylor for Butterfield 8
The Dress: Taylor acquired hundreds of Dior gowns in the 29 years Marc Bohan was at the helm of the design house. This full-skirted, floral design was later described by Bohan as “a simple sexy look”.
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1966: Best Actress
Winner: Julie Christie for Darling
The Dress: A home-made lamé jumpsuit. “When I first got an Oscar, my friend Alfie made me an outfit from a pattern that we chose together, and we went and bought the fabric together, and that’s what I wore,” she later described.
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1972: Best Actress
Winner: Jane Fonda for Klute
The Outfit: A trouser suit by Yves Saint Laurent.
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1973: Best Actress
Winner: Liza Minelli for Cabaret
The Dress: Minelli chose a canary yellow gown by her close friend, Halston. The pair were central to the Studio 54 scene, alongside their mutual friends Andy Warhol and Bianca Jagger. “We got along instantly, and he became my fashion mate. I did what he said. He really took care of me,” she later said of their friendship.
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1976: Best Actress
Winner: Louise Fletcher for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
The Dress: Fletcher later revealed she had first seen the Fiandaca dress in Bergdorf’s: “I stopped over in New York to shop for a dress at Bergdorf’s, the most upscale shop I knew. I took my best friend, Jimmy, with me. We found it: “This is the dress! There is no other dress!” It cost everything I made on the movie, but I was going to pay it. As I reached for my credit card, Jimmy hissed at me: “No, idiot, write down the designer,”‘ she described. “We called the designer, Alfred Fiandaca of Boston. He said he would be thrilled to have me wear the dress. He even painted pale cuckoos on an extension of the dress that looked like a train, but nobody ever saw that.”
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1978: Best Actress
Winner: Diane Keaton for Annie Hall
The Outfit: It was no surprise that Keaton chose a menswear-inspired look for her big Oscars moment. She had worn her own clothes to play the title role in Annie Hall – at the insistence of Woody Allen – and her androgynous signature look had become one of the most emulated of the time.
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1981: Best Actress
Winner: Sissy Spacek for Coal Miner’s Daughter
The Dress: Spacek eschewed the typical dress for a black jumpsuit.
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1983: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Jessica Lange for Tootsie
The Dress: A mint green sequin dress.
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1983: Best Actress
Winner: Meryl Streep for Sophie’s Choice
The Dress: Streep collected her second Oscar – her first was in 1980 – wearing a Christian Leigh gold beaded gown.
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1984: Best Actress
Winner: Shirley MacLaine for Terms of Endearment
The Dress: A matching cream beaded jacket and dress.
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1985: Best Actress
Winner: Sally Field for Places in the Heart
The Dress: Field went down in the Oscars history books for her famous “You really like me” acceptance speech, and stepped up to the podium in a Holly Harp black strapless gown.
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1986: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Anjelica Huston for Prizzi’s Honor
The Dress: Huston worked in collaboration with designer Tzetzi Ganev to create the asymmetric emerald gown she wore to collect her Oscar. She chose the green shade specifically for luck and to honour her Irish upbringing – she spent much of her childhood in County Galway.
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1987: Best Actress
Winner: Marlee Matlin for Children of a Lesser God
The Dress: A Theoni Aldredge lavender lace gown. Matlin later revealed that the dress had remained in her parents’ home ever since the night she wore it, hanging in her father’s wardrobe – “My mom and I have an unofficial arrangement. I keep the Oscar and she keeps the dress. She takes it out every once in a while and shows it off.”
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1987: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Dianne Wiest for Hannah and Her Sisters
The Dress: A Donald Brooks ballgown. Speaking later of the gown, the actress revealed it had made her feel “like a princess”, but that Woody Allen – who had directed her Oscar-winning performance – had hated it; “He said, ‘You can’t wear that! It’s got those poufy sleeves!'”
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1988: Best Actress
Winner: Cher for Moonstruck
The Dress: Cher had met Bob Mackie – the designer behind her 1988 Oscars dress – back in the Sixties backstage at The Carol Burnett Show, where he was working on a gown. The pair became friends and Mackie created not only the barely-there gown that Cher wore to collect her Academy Award, but the memorable outfit she had worn two years previously to the ceremony that consisted of a two-foot tall headpiece made of rooster feathers and a beaded cropped top. Mackie went on to work with the star on her stage costumes throughout her career.
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1989: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Geena Davis for The Accidental Tourist
The Dress: Like Best Actress winner Jodie Foster, Davis chose a gown in a pale shade of sky blue for the 1989 awards.
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1989: Best Actress
Winner: Jodie Foster for The Accused
The Dress: In contrast to modern-day Oscars, where actresses work with endless brands and stylists to find their perfect gown, Foster bought her pale blue dress herself while on holiday in Rome.
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1991: Best Actress
Winner: Kathy Bates for Misery
The Dress: A midnight blue velvet dress.
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1991: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Whoopi Goldberg for Ghost
The Outfit: A black gown with bold shoulders and sequin embellishment.
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1992: Best Actress
Winner: Jodie Foster for The Silence of the Lambs
The Outfit: A Giorgio Armani jacket and sequin trousers.
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1992: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Mercedes Ruehl for The Fisher King
The Dress: A Valentino black halter-neck gown.
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1993: Best Actress
Winner: Emma Thompson for Howards End
The Outfit: A Caroline Charles beaded top and wide-leg trousers.
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1993: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Marisa Tomei for My Cousin Vinny
The Dress: A white Chanel dress with black piping.
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1994: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Anna Paquin for The Piano
The Dress: One of the youngest winners in Academy Awards history – she was 11 years old – wore a blue dress and matching beret with lace-up boots.
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1994: Best Actress
Winner: Holly Hunter for The Piano
The Dress: Hunter called on Vera Wang to create the custom-made backless dress she wore in 1994 – the year in which she was nominated in both the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories.
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1995: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Dianne West for Bullets Over Broadway
The Dress: A black Donna Karan ballgown.
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1995: Best Actress
Winner: Jessica Lange for Blue Sky
The Dress: A Calvin Klein embroidered velvet gown.
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1996: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Mira Sorvino for Mighty Aphrodite
The Dress: A strapless, floor-length, white gown.
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1996: Best Actress
Winner: Susan Sarandon for Dead Man Walking
The Dress: A Dolce & Gabbana copper ballgown, which was later acquired by the Costume Institute at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and featured in its exhibit, Our New Clothes: Acquisitions of the 1990s.
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1997: Best Actress
Winner: Frances McDormand for Fargo
The Dress: A Richard Tyler backless gown.
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1997: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Juliette Binoche for The English Patient
The Dress: A Sophie Sitbon coat dress.
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1998: Best Actress
Winner: Helen Hunt for As Good as It Gets
The Dress: A Tom Ford for Gucci ice-blue column dress.
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1998: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Kim Basinger for L.A. Confidential
The Dress: An Escada satin gown.
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1999: Best Actress
Winner: Gwyneth Paltrow for Shakespeare in Love
The Dress: A pink Ralph Lauren gown, which has gone down in Oscars history as one of the awards’ most memorable fashion moments.
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1999: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Judi Dench for Shakespeare in Love
The Dress: At just eight minutes long, Dench’s performance in Shakespeare in Love became the briefest in Oscars history to win an award. She wore a dress and coat by Abu Jani-Sandeep to the ceremony.
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2000: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Angelina Jolie for Girl, Interrupted
The Dress: A gothic floor-length gown by Versace.
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2000: Best Actress
Winner: Hilary Swank for Boys Don’t Cry
The Dress: A Randolph Duke olive ballgown.
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2001: Best Actress
Winner: Julia Roberts for Erin Brockovich
The Dress: Often credited with kick-starting a vintage movement on the red carpet, Roberts chose a dress from a 1992 Valentino couture collection. “I have dressed so many people but I have to be sincere, the person that made me feel so very, very happy was Julia Roberts,” Valentino Garavani later said. “When she got the Academy Award for Erin Brockovich I watched it on television and really I was so excited that she appeared in my dress.”
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2001: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Marcia Gay Harden for Pollock
The Dress: A Randolph Duke fishtail dress.
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2002: Best Actress
Winner: Halle Berry for Monster’s Ball
The Dress: An Elie Saab gown with a sheer top and strategically-placed embroidered flowers.
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2002: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Jennifer Connelly for A Beautiful Mind
The Dress: A tiered Balenciaga dress with a chiffon scarf.
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2003: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Catherine Zeta-Jones for Chicago
The Dress: It was no surprise that Zeta-Jones chose Versace for her Oscars moment – she’d worn dresses by the fashion house on both occasions when she had previously attended the awards.
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2003: Best Actress
Winner: Nicole Kidman for The Hours
The Dress: A midnight blue Jean Paul Gaultier gown.
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2004: Best Actress
Winner: Charlize Theron for Monster
The Dress: Theron wore a beaded gown by Gucci to collect her award, which she won for her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos.
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2004: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Renée Zellweger for Cold Mountain
The Dress: Zellweger collaborated with her long-term friend Carolina Herrera on her 2004 Oscars gown. “Renée doesn’t use a stylist, so our discussions were as much a part of the design process as the sketches,” Herrera described. “She had just finished the second Bridget Jones movie, so I took advantage of her being a little curvier than usual. Thankfully Renée loves fittings, because nothing matters more than a perfect fit, especially with a strapless… I copied the bow in my bridal line and it was one of the best-selling wedding gowns I’ve ever done.”
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2005: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Cate Blanchett for The Aviator
The Dress: Valentino custom-made Blanchett’s asymmetric gown. “I already knew I wanted to wear Valentino – I wanted something with a classicism to it, and he’s the master of that,” Blanchett later described. “I’d seen a dress in yellow. I loved it; I thought it was really striking. And when I tried it on, the sun was beaming through the windows, and the fabric was shot through with a pink and blue. Because the Oscars starts out as a daytime event, I thought it would be amazing in the sunlight.”
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2005: Best Actress
Winner: Hilary Swank for Million Dollar Baby
The Dress: The beauty was in the detail with Swank’s Guy Laroche gown, which featured a daringly-low plunging back.
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2006: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Rachel Weisz for The Constant Gardener
The Dress: A Narciso Rodriguez gown, which was custom made by the designer to accomodate Weisz’s baby bump.
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2006: Best Actress
Winner: Reese Witherspoon for Walk The Line
The Dress: Witherspoon found the vintage Dior gown she wore to collect her Oscar in a boutique in Paris.
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2007: Best Actress
Winner: Helen Mirren for The Queen
The Dress: For her winning year, Mirren wore a gown by Christian Lacroix.
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2007: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls
The Dress: An Oscar de la Renta gown.
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2008: Best Actress
Winner: Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose
The Dress: “Marion initially requested something simple, but I wanted everyone to see the woman I saw,” Jean Paul Gaultier said of the mermaid gown he custom-designed for Cotillard to wear in her Oscar-winning year.
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2008: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton
The Dress: An asymmetric design by Lanvin.
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2009: Best Actress
Winner: Kate Winslet for The Reader
The Dress: Winslet had been nominated five times at the Academy Awards before winning in 2009. She wore an Atelier Yves Saint Laurent by Stefano Pilati gown to finally collect her statue.
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2009: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Penelope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona
The Dress: A vintage Balmain ballgown from 1950, which she had first seen eight years before at vintage couture emporium Lily et Cie.
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2010: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Mo’Nique for Precious
The Dress: A Tadashi Shoji spring/summer 2010 electric blue gown.
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2010: Best Actress
Winner: Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side
The Dress: A metallic Marchesa column dress.
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2011: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Melissa Leo for The Fighter
The Dress: A custom-made lace dress by Marc Bouwer.
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2011: Best Actress
Winner: Natalie Portman for Black Swan
The Dress: Portman was pregnant when she won her Oscar and wore a custom-made gown by Rodarte, which was particularly fitting as sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy designed the ballet costumes for the Academy Award-winning film.
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2012: Best Actress
Winner: Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady
The Dress: Streep’s custom-made Lanvin gown was made from eco-certified fabric.
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2012: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Octavia Spencer for The Help
The Dress: Tadashi Shoji was a natural choice for Spencer’s custom-made gown – the actress had forged a close relationship with the designer after wearing his dresses throughout her career. Shoji created the bespoke gown after Spencer spotted a sketch in his studio – “She saw my sketch and she loved my design. Just one sketch, that’s it.”
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2013: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Anne Hathaway for Les Misérables
The Dress: Hathaway’s dress choice made headlines when Valentino released a statement only hours before the red carpet arrivals began confirming that the actress would be wearing Valentino Couture, only for her to arrive in Prada. She later issued a public apology to the fashion house, claiming to have made the last-minute switch on learning another actress was wearing a similar design: “Though I love the dress I did wear, it was a difficult last-minute decision as I had so looked forward to wearing Valentino in honour of the deep and meaningful relationship I have enjoyed with the house and with Valentino himself. I deeply regret any disappointment caused.”
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2013: Best Actress
Winner: Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook
The Dress: A voluminous Dior ballgown, which Lawrence famously tripped on as she made her way to the stage to collect her Academy Award.
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2014: Best Actress
Winner: Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine
The Dress: An Armani Privé embellished gown with jewellery by Chopard.
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2014: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Lupita Nyong’o for 12 Years A Slave
The Dress: A pale blue plunging Prada gown with a Fred Leighton headband and jewellery.
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2015: Best Actress
Winner: Julianne Moore for Still Alice
The Dress: A custom-made Chanel Couture gown worn with Chopard jewels.
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2015: Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Patricia Arquette for Boyhood
The Dress: A gown by Rosetta Getty.
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This article was previously published on Vogue.co.uk
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