Julia Roberts's Oscar Dress
By the time she won her first Oscar, Julia Roberts had long
been a box office star, critical darling, fashion icon, and STAR. So it
was no surprise that her vintage Valentino gown landed her among the
best-dressed in Oscar history.
Julia’d been nominated in 1990 and 1991 for Steel
Magnolias and Pretty Woman (as Best Supporting Actress and Best
Actress, respectively), and now she was back in the conversation for Erin
Brockovich in 2000, a biopic that ticked all the boxes for a Julia Roberts
flick (leading lady, strong and independent, bombastic speeches and many
chances to shine).
She’d won all the precursors leading to Oscar night: the
Golden Globe, the Critics Choice, the SAG Award, the BAFTA…all that was left
was the Academy Award.
Naturally, she chose classic elegance for Oscar night. A
gown reminiscent of one that might’ve been worn by Audrey Hepburn or Grace
Kelly once upon a time: vintage Valentino.
The simple black Valentino gown featured a ‘y’-shaped white
stripe down the front of the gown that curved over the shoulder into straps
that then fanned down the back of the gown into a smaller train of black with
more white stripes.
Julia Roberts’ Oscar dress was a piece from the 1992
Valentino couture collection, previously worn by Christy Turlington for fashion
week. It became a sensation once more when Julia showed up to the Oscars in
early 2001, trickling down the fashion pipeline to become the must-have prom
dress design that year.
How Julia came to wear the gown is a bit of inside baseball:
her stylist, Debbi Mason, knew a Valentino employee named Cristina Viera, who
made a personal offer to the star. At a fitting in Beverly Hills, Julia was
reported to have quipped that she thought it was a pretty dress, and despite
some last-minute tailoring (the dress was quite tight on her), it was ready for
Oscar night.
She even referenced her dress during her acceptance speech,
pausing her acknowledgements of the people who helped make Erin Brockovich possible
to “make my dress pretty” first.
There are plenty of clickbait headlines out there about how
you won’t believe what happened to this Valentino gown after the Oscars, but
I’ll spoil it for you here and now: she’s kept it in a box under her bed, along
with other items from her film career that she can’t part with, and she has
hopes that someday her daughter Hazel (now 19) will wear it.
At the Venice Film Festival in 2008, Valentino spoke of Julia Robert’s Oscar gown, saying that it was a highlight of his career to see her in it. “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,” he said. “I was so excited that she appeared in my dress.”
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