Reel Fashions: The Styles We Love, Inspired by Our Favorite Films

Sure, there have been some great sartorial moments on the red carpet provided by the outfits the stars wore to the Academy Awards. Who can forget the completely transparent trouser suit Barbara Streisand donned in 1969, when she tied with Katherine Hepburn for best actress for her role in Funny Girl; Cher’s showgirl-worthy black headdress and bare-midriffed, jewel-encrusted costume (her “revenge” on the Academy for their refusal to nominate her in ’86 for her performance in Mask); or the crystal-covered body stocking, complete with long, swanlike neck and orange beak resting on her chest, that best original song nominee, Icelandic singer Björk, wore in 2001?

But those, of course, were attention-grabbing moments (though Streisand insists she didn’t know her outfit would be see-through until the stage lights hit her). Some lasting trends have been born at the Academy Awards, too.

Audrey Hepburn accepted her 1954 best actress award for Roman Holiday in a boat-necked, belted dress by Hubert de Givenchy that was both sophisticated and sweet, proving you don’t have to wear something glitzy to look glamorous. In 1955, when Grace Kelly accepted her Oscar for The Country Girl, she wore an ice-blue silk gown by costume designer Edith Head that was literally fit for a princess — which is exactly what Kelly became the following year when she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco.

When Kelly wore the dress for a second time in ’55, on the cover of Life magazine, she showed the world there’s no shame in re-wearing a favorite outfit, even for very public occasions. EGOT winner Rita Moreno went Kelly one better when, in 2018, at age 86, she restyled the dress she’d worn 46 years earlier to the 1962 Oscars to pick up her Academy Award for West Side Story by simply making the gown strapless. And in 1999, when Sharon Stone paired her then-husband’s crisp white shirt from the Gap with a glamorous Vera Wang skirt, she advanced the trend of high-low dressing.

The stunning powder blue Prada ballgown with a plunging V-neckline and a low cut back that Lupita Nyang’o wore to accept her 2014 statue for 12 Years A Slave was one of the best Oscar fashions of all times. And, her outfit made Nyang’o someone to watch not only on the screen but on the red carpet — it was influenced by a dress worn to the Oscars 45 years before, by none other than Elizabeth Taylor.

Also in 2018, four-time Oscars host Whoopi Goldberg walked the red carpet in a bold cerulean blue-splattered-with pink-and-yellow-flowers off-the-shoulder gown with pockets by Christian Siriano which, for extra comfort, she paired with Timberlane-like grey combat boots, anticipating the “ugly shoe” trend that has dominated the runway in recent years.

And then there are the trends that, instead of being born on the red carpet, are inspired by what the stars wore in their on-screen roles. With the Academy Awards just behind us, it’s a good time to take a look at how styles from the movies have influenced fashion.