Halle Berry's Oscar Dress

Halle Berry showed up an underdog at the Academy Awards in 2002, but her historic win landed her in the history books and her stunning Elie Saab gown made her a fashion icon. It's certainly one of my favourite modern looks!

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Nominated for Monster’s Ball, Halle was only the sixth African American woman nominated in the Best Actress category in Oscars’ history.

Her fellow nominees included Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Sissy Spacek and Renee Zellweger (all of whom, with the passage of time, had either or have since won an Oscar), and the precursor awards had all been pretty evenly split: Nicole and Sissy took home the Golden Globes for Comedy/Musical and Drama; Judi took home the BAFTA; and Halle had won the SAG Award.

But she was still the underdog on Oscar night, and she showed up at the Kodak Theatre in a stunning, jaw-dropping, drop-dead gorgeous Elie Saab gown that instantly made her a fashion icon, helped put Saab on the map, and ensured that she’d forever be in conversation about the best Oscar dresses of all time.

This gown is truly gorgeous; a work of art. Mesh at the top, with floral embroidery that strategically wrapped around the bodice, it flowed down into a lush, burgundy taffeta skirt and train—Sabrina-esque in style.

But unlike other Oscar dresses, which are sometimes specially commissioned by an actress, or through a brand deal that sees an actress wear designs by a specific fashion house, Halle’s gown was couture that had already been shown on the catwalks at Paris Fashion Week in July 2001.

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Halle’s stylist was Phillip Bloch, and he chose the gown for her after realizing it was an Oscar winner’s dress, not an Emmy’s dress—he’d earmarked it for someone else then recalibrated after he looked at it some more. In a 2002 interview with The Globe & Mail, he said “it really was a matter of waiting for the right occasion.”

He had Halle try it on after the Oscar nominations were announced, and she considered it an early favourite…but it had to undergo alterations: the mesh top had no floral embroidery, and it had to be added by combining elements from another Saab gown.

And later that evening, after dominating the fashion talk, Halle’s name was called as the Best Actress for Monster’s Ball. And we can’t talk about her gown and not acknowledge her legendary speech, in which she exclaimed that “this moment is for Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll. It’s for the women that stand beside me, Jada Pinkett, Angela Bassett, Vivica Fox. And it’s for every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened.”

There’s a wider conversation to be had about diversity in film and diversity in the types of films that get Oscar recognition; and while there are strides all the time, change is slow. Michelle Yeoh became only the second woman of colour to win Best Actress…20 years after Halle’s win.

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Halle’s Saab gown has never strayed far from the top of best dressed lists even 20 years later; it’s routinely voted one of the best red carpet looks of all time. In the same Globe & Mail story that Phillip Bloch contributed to, Saab commented: “This will change in that people who did not know my work will know it now, but my work will always be the same for me.”

Halle’s gown went on display at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in 2023, in what I think is a permanent acquisition? Halle’s Instagram post about it certainly makes it sound so, but if I’m wrong, please let me know in the comments!

She wrote: “Look who made it to the Academy Museum in Los Angeles, California! Not only will this historic @eliesaabworld gown remain in the expert care of the museum’s curators and conservators, but it will also be accessible to generations of people for whom the dress also holds meaning and forever be a reminder that all things are possible. Thank you @academymuseum!”