 | |
| Designer | Lizzy Gardiner |
|---|---|
| Year | 1995 |
| Material | American Express Gold cards |
Australian costume designer Lizzy Gardiner wore a dress made of 254 American Express Gold cards to the 67th Academy Awards on 27 March 1995, where she won the Best Costume Design award for her work on the 1994 film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert . All of the cards were authentic, but had expired. [1]
The gown had originally been conceived for the film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert along with many other outlandish costumes such as one made solely out of pink flip flops, [2] but American Express had forbidden it. [3] Gardiner said, "I'm broke, and I didn't have anything to wear. So I went through my list of past good ideas." [3] The dress was auctioned off for charity in March 1999 for $12,650, with the proceeds going to AmfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research. [3] [4] It, along with other costumes for Priscilla, was inspired by Sydney's drag queen culture of the 1990s. [5]
The outfit was made of 254 expired American Express gold cards, [6] [1] and was split to the waist. [5] The under garment was made entirely of the cards, except for the slim gold straps at the top, although the gold shawl which went over the under garment only had cards lining the edges. Gardiner completed the outfit with gold platform shoes. [7]
Cosmopolitan magazine cited the dress as one of the worst Oscar dresses of all time, saying, "It's a dress made of American Express Gold cards. We're not sure what else to say about this one, except that the obvious lesson is this: For the love of God, do not design your own dress for the red carpet." [8]
Time magazine also voted the dress as amongst the worst Oscar dresses of all time saying, "Our problem with the outfit Gardiner wore to accept her award isn't that her dress was made out of a bizarre, nontraditional material. Our problem is that the material of choice was the American Express gold card. It's tacky. And how did she sit down in that thing?" [9]
In contrast, Variety magazine's Complete Book of Oscar Fashion referred to Gardiner's dress as "clever". [10]
Seeing the promotional potential of the dress, American Express were reported to have wanted to showcase the dress in its travel offices throughout the US. [6]
The dress is now held by the National Gallery of Victoria. [5] [11]
Other designers have produced dresses based on credit cards since Gardiner's creation. In 2015, designer Alexander Wang dressed model Anna Ewers for the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Awards in a dress made of 500 American Express cards, cut into sequins. [12] The Vaquera collective designed a dress in 2017 constructed primarily of credit cards that had the name "Vaquera" rendered in the style of the Hollywood Sign. [13]
Elie Saab is a Lebanon-based fashion designer. He started his business in the early 1980s and specialised in bridal couture.
Jean Louis was a French-American costume designer. He won an Academy Award for The Solid Gold Cadillac (1956).
Reem Acra is a fashion designer born in Beirut, Lebanon, known for her eponymous bridal gown line and her ready-to-wear collection.
In fashion, a sheath dress is a fitted, straight cut dress, often nipped at the waistline with no waist seam. When constructing the dress, the bodice and skirt are joined together by combining the skirt darts into one dart: this aligns the skirt darts with the bodice waist dart. The dress emphasizes the waist as its skirt portion is fitted. While the sheath dress can come in many patterns and lengths, it often is worn with short sleeves and reaches knee length.
The swan dress is a dress resembling a mute swan designed by Marjan Pejoski and worn by the Icelandic artist Björk at the 73rd Academy Awards on March 25, 2001, as well as on the cover of her album Vespertine. A Debenhams poll published in The Daily Telegraph in 2008 voted it the ninth-most iconic red carpet dress of all time. Björk's swan dress was reimagined by Valentino at its Spring 2014 Couture fashion show at Paris Fashion Week, which received praise from fashion blogs and social media. In 2019, the dress was featured in the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the exhibition Camp: Notes on Fashion.
Audrey Hepburn wore a white floral Givenchy dress to the Academy Awards in 1954. The dress is now regarded as one of the classic dresses of the 20th century.
The American actress Halle Berry wore a mesh and embroidery-topped deep-red dress to the 74th Academy Awards on March 24, 2002. It was designed by Lebanese designer Elie Saab.
American actress Uma Thurman wore a Prada dress in lavender (lilac) chiffon to the 67th Academy Awards on March 27, 1995, at which she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Pulp Fiction. The dress was designed by American designer Barbara Tfank.
Lizzy Gardiner is an Australian costume designer, who has been working in Hollywood since the early 1990s. Noted for her originality, she is best known for her American Express gold card dress which she wore to collect her Academy Award for Best Costume Designer at the 67th Academy Awards in 1995 for her work on The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Her highest profile film was Mission: Impossible 2 in 2000 for which she designed the costumes.
Barbara Tfank is an American fashion designer, best known for designing the lavender Prada gown worn by Uma Thurman at the 67th Academy Awards.
Red carpet fashion consists of outfits worn on the red carpet at high-profile gala celebrity events such as award ceremonies and film premieres. The clothes worn to award events such as the Oscars and the Golden Globes consistently receive intense worldwide media scrutiny, making their red carpets an international product placement area of great importance to fashion designers. Despite the publicity given to award ceremonies, other red-carpet events such as the Vogue-hosted Met Gala also have a significant impact on the fashion world.
Red carpet fashion in 2000 was largely overshadowed by the revealing green Versace dress worn by Jennifer Lopez for February's Grammy awards, which became one of the most talked-about and widely publicised red-carpet dresses of the year. For the 57th Golden Globe Awards Halle Berry borrowed a glamorous Valentino dress, that was described as setting the standard for Golden Globe red carpet style, and according to Phillip Bloch, her stylist at the time, "began the time when a dress could actually make a career."
Red carpet fashion in 2002 saw January's Golden Globes called "simple and safe", and the Oscars in March described as "conservative" and "a night of fashion blunders". The events of September 11 the previous year had an effect on red carpet style, with many guests at September's Emmys choosing to wear black in remembrance of those who died.
Red carpet fashion in 2008 was affected by the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, which led to the cancellation of the Golden Globes that year. The Oscars were dominated by uncontroversial designs in solid colours which led to criticism of "safe" choices, and drew attention to those who dressed more individually, such as Tilda Swinton and Marion Cotillard.
"I'll Deal with Him Later" is the second episode of the BBC America television show Killing Eve. It aired on 15 April 2018 in the United States and 22 September 2018 in the United Kingdom.
In the ballroom scene from Disney's 1991 animated film Beauty and the Beast, during which the fictional character Belle dances with the Beast to the film's titular song, Belle wears an opulent golden off-the-shoulder ball gown with a voluminous skirt. Although Beauty and the Beast is set in 18th-century France, the dress's streamlined, anachronistic design borrows inspiration from several different fashion eras, with some of its elements centuries removed from its historical setting.
Lupita Nyong'o wore a blue dress on March 2, 2014 to the 86th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre, at which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in 12 Years a Slave (2013). In collaboration with Nyong'o, the gown was designed by Prada and styled by Micaela Erlanger. After the ceremony, the dress garnered critical praise from fashion blogs and publications, being cited on several 'best dressed' lists and considered one of the most significant gowns in Hollywood history.
Angelina Jolie wore a black dress on February 26, 2012, to the 84th Academy Awards at the Hollywood and Highland Center, where she presented the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Jolie's gown was styled by Jen Rade and created by Versace, a frequent dresser of Jolie on the red carpet. The strapless velvet piece gained praise from media publications, and is considered one of the most memorable dresses in fashion history. The look also spurred several internet memes surrounding Jolie's posing, and became a significant moment in pop culture.
American actor Billy Porter wore a tuxedo dress in black velvet designed by Christian Siriano on the red carpet of the 91st Academy Awards on February 24, 2019. At the time, Porter had recently come into public view for his breakout role in the FX television series Pose and had been receiving attention for his boundary-pushing red carpet attire during the 2018–19 film awards season. Following his appearance at the 76th Golden Globe Awards in a custom silver suit with fuchsia-lined cape, he was invited to host red carpet interviews at the upcoming Oscars pre-show. Porter approached Siriano and together they conceived the tuxedo gown.
Sophie Couture is a couture label founded by Gunel Babayeva, an Azerbaijani fashion designer.
