by In 1994, a little-known English actress named Elizabeth Hurley attended the London premiere of Four Weddings And A Funeral, starring her then-boyfriend, Hugh Grant. To say the evening was transformative is an understatement. Less than 24 hours later, 29-year-old Hurley kissed his under-the-radar status goodbye forever. That’s what happens when your photo appears on the front page of almost every newspaper in the UK.
If you’re not very into fashion, you’ll already know that Hurley became front page news not because of any scandal, but because of one courtesy of her dress – which was scandalous enough in itself, because of her be extremely revealing. Hurley’s little black dress was as “little” as a black dress was meant to be as it was split to the thigh and cinched together and held tight with gold safety pins. Designed by Gianni Versace, it was a perfectly biased masterclass in how to stand out on the red carpet.
Fast forward 30 years, and things are very different – but also, just as strange. At the MTV European Music Awards (EMAs) over the weekend, TV presenter Maya Jama chose to wear a black safety pin dress that looked almost identical to the one Hurley wore in 1994, as further proof, if needed, that how horrible it is.
At this stage in fashion history, entire dissertations have probably been devoted to the Hurley suit, a garment so lodged in the public imagination that it even has its own Wikipedia page. In 2007, a copy was sold in Harrods for £10,690, and in 2008, Debenhams voted it the ‘most iconic’ red carpet dress. In 2012, Lady Gaga was seen wearing a version in Milan, and in 2019, Hurley brought herself back to the look, wearing an updated version, customized by Donatella Versace, for a fashion shoot for Harper’s Bazaar. To paraphrase those M&S ads: this isn’t just any dress, it’s a dress that defines it, defies the vagaries of fashion, and looks as good now as ever.
But while the dress remains timeless, the times themselves have changed. One of the few celebs who had the necessary curves and confidence to pull it off, Jama looked stunning, giving due attention to the attention she received. That said, attention paid to a fraction of what Hurley received 30 years ago says nothing about Jama or the dress, and everything about how challenging it is, in 2024, to stand out on the red carpet.
How much more challenging? Let us count the ways. It will not expose your flesh: cleavage lost the power to shock a long time ago, due to the infinite proliferation of the boob side, under the boob and breasts completely exposed, barely hidden under a thin veil of chiffon. Thigh splits, while sexy, lost their shock value when #AngelinasLeg became a meme after the 2012 Oscars.
Mode dressing – the practice of wearing a theme that reflects the film you’re starring in – is certainly an innovative idea that gained a lot of attention at the height of summer, circa summer 2023, when Margot Robbie dressed almost entirely in pink and promoting it (endlessly). Barbie film. But even an actress as natural as Zendaya started looking less than her best after months of promoting Challengers, a tennis movie, dressed like a ball girl. The public quickly grew tired of modest dressing, which was a relief for most A-listers.
For brand consultant Daniel Marks, standing out on the red carpet requires a sharp strategy that must take into account the purpose of the event as much as the look itself. “Why do you want to stand out, and what are you trying to say? It’s important that you do so for the right reasons – not, for example, by being too gimmicky, so you risk becoming clickbait.”
Although some celebrities can stand to be clickbait: witness Lady Gaga’s “meat dress” at the 2010 VMA Awards, made entirely of raw beef, or Rihanna’s Guo Pei cape at the 2015 Met Gala, which quickly left a thousand pizza memes. Both stars are broad-shouldered (and respected) enough to handle in memes, where other stars might crumble. If you are an entertainer, you can try more. If you are a serious actress, or a model known for her style, you need to be more careful.
As Mark says: “The red carpet can be quite confusing. There is a lot of theatrics. In terms of influence, does it really encourage people to dress a certain way? Sometimes it feels so theme-driven that you lose sight of the original purpose, which is to celebrate a particular movie or moment. It’s less about looking pretty, or even dressing to suit you. For me, what will always stand out is appropriateness mixed with originality.”
But the originality is even harder to come by. It’s becoming more and more challenging to collect column inches simply by wearing an unknown designer – that’s because there are no unknown designers, and even if there are, they’ll only stay that way for a while -second, that is the rapid spread of information in the age of social media. Which is not to say it’s impossible.
Stylist Harry Lambert, who works with Emma Corrin, Sienna Miller and Harry Styles, is an enthusiastic champion of emerging talent, dressing Corrin for the Deadpool & Wolverine press tour in designs by Joshua Ewusie and Freddy Coomes, graduates of recently part of Central Saint Martins, as well. as lesser known names such as 16 Arlington.
It’s little wonder that celebrities are resorting to more drastic measures to stand out, such as wearing waist-type corsets (see Anya Taylor Joy in Maison Margiela). Others are willing to starve themselves if it means they can fit into the “right” dress: witness Kim Kardashian’s punishing diet and exercise regime ahead of the 2022 Met Gala, which involved a sauna suit to eat twice a day and live off “the cleanest veggies. and protein”. His goal? Losing £16 to fit into a rare beaded dress first worn by Marilyn Monroe. It doesn’t matter that she was criticized for removing such an important piece of history from the museum where it was lovingly archived: by wearing the original “revealing” dress, Kardashian broke the internet.
Such Herculean efforts would have been laughed at in 1994, when Liz Hurley hurriedly and grudgingly borrowed “that” safety pin, turning it on without even looking in a full-length mirror (she didn’t have one) . Thirty years later, red carpet dressing is a multi-million dollar business, with “image architects”, “glam squads” and brand ambassadors ensuring the most powerful stars are locked in six or seven figure deals to the biggest names spend
Whether they look better than Hurley is debatable. “Elizabeth’s moment happened by accident – it wasn’t planned,” says Marks. “Which now seems crazy. But I think that spontaneity was kind of magical.”
