The Best Oscars Dresses Of All Time, From Audrey Hepburn To Halle Berry

This one-shouldered vintage gown from Valentino, which she wore with frosted green eyeshadow, is still one of our all-time favourites from Jennifer Lopez.

According to Cher, her boyfriend at the time almost passed out when she walked out of her bedroom wearing this showgirl outfit by Bob Mackie. She also said, in a video interview with Vogue, that she wanted to wear it because the powers that be, aka the Academy, didn't like her. 'They hated the way I dressed, and I had young boyfriends, and they just thought I wasn't serious so I came out and said as you can see I got my handbook on how to dress like a serious actress.'

Apparently Barbra Streisand didn't realise that her winning look, a spangled suit by Arnold Scaasi, was almost entirely see-through. And while it might not have won best dressed plaudits on the night, it has undoubtedly made it into the most memorable outfits hall of fame.

This belted dress with a subtly floral print and classically full skirt didn't just prove lucky for Hepburn, who went on to receive a statuette for her turn in Roman Holiday. The ceremony also marked the first time she wore a Hubert de Givenchy design to a Hollywood event. The designer had dressed her for Sabrina the previous year, marking the start of a sartorial partnership that would see Hepburn write Givenchy into her future film contracts. 'His are the only clothes in which I am myself,' she remarked in 1956.

Wearing a fabulous take on the traditional tuxedo, Billy Porter wowed in Christian Siriano at the 2019 Academy Awards.

'I think I just stepped on the fabric and they waved the stairs or something. What went through my mind? A bad word that I can't say.' J. Law's 2013 Oscars dress is worthy of your attention, and not just because it precipitated that memorable swoon. A dramatic pale pink confection by Raf Simons that closed Dior's Haute Couture show in 2013, it proved that Lawrence can pull off Old Hollywood style like no one else (despite her persona being as far from the staid stars of the studio era as possible.)

An old style adage decrees that blondes shouldn't wear yellow. Michelle Williams put paid to that particular rule with her sunshine yellow gown from Vera Wang, arguably one of the most instantly memorable Oscars dresses of recent years. From the bold colour to the ruffled shoulder detailing, the draped skirt to Williams's swept up hair and bright red lips, this is modern Hollywood glamour at its best.

Winning Best Supporting Actress for 12 Years A Slave, Nyong'o wore a custom-made Prada design in a pale blue shade that reminded her of her home city, Nairobi.

Many of Cate Blanchett's most memorable red carpet fashion moments have come courtesy of Mr Armani, and this is arguably one of – if not the - best. For the 2014 ceremony, which saw Blanchett take home the Best Actress statuette for Blue Jasmine, her ensemble was worth an estimated $18.1 million: $100,000 for this stunning embellished gown in pale blush, then a further $18 million for her Chopard earrings, bracelet and ring.

The thigh-high split of her black Atelier Versace gown may have launched a thousand memes when Angie attended the Oscars ceremony in 2012, but it's her 2004 dress that is arguably her best: a white satin gown by South African designer Marc Bouwer that immediately recalls the infamous halter-neck style worn by Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch, bringing Old Hollywood glamour into the 21st century.

For her Academy Awards debut in 2005 (promoting Dreamgirls), Beyoncé chose a vintage strapless gown in black velvet by Atelier Versace. She paired the simple dress with some serious hardware: chandelier earrings and a diamond bracelet by A-list jeweller Lorraine Schwartz (who also designed Bey's 18-carat diamond engagement ring).

Gwyneth's pale pink Ralph Lauren gown, with its spaghetti straps and full, Disney princess skirt, is arguably as famous as the tearful acceptance speech she made after winning Best Actress for Shakespeare In Love. The actress later revealed that she's kept all of her Oscar gowns for her daughter Apple. 'Maybe she'll wear it to prom and do a Pretty in Pink thing and resew it and cut it up,' she mused to People, before backtracking with 'I don't know if I'd let her chop that one up.'

She may have lost out to Queen Helen Mirren in the race to the Best Actress trophy at the 79th Academy Awards, but Penelope Cruz was a winner on the red carpet in this sweeping blush-coloured number. While pale pink princess gowns are a mainstay of classic Oscars style (see Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Lawrence et al), the feathered skirt and sculptural bodice make this Atelier Versace number a showstopper in its own right.

Kapow! After a year of digital ceremonies, Zendaya wowed and then some on the red carpet at 2021's Oscars, arriving in sunshine-shaded Valentino Haute Couture.

The picture that sparked a thousand articles, debates and memes (a Debenhams poll published in The Daily Telegraph in 2008 voted it the ninth most iconic red-carpet dress of all time). Perhaps not the most 'fashion' in the traditional sense, but certainly the most memorable.

Elie Saab gowns have become a mainstay of red carpet style, with Halle Berry among the label's legion of famous fans. The actor memorably wore a Saab creation with a sheer bodice when she made history as the first Black woman to win the Best Actress award in 2002 - and chose a simpler style by the same designer for the next year's ceremony, wowing in layers of embellished gold tulle.

The 2001 Academy Awards was one of the biggest nights in Julia Roberts's career: she was nominated for – and went on to win - Best Actress for her role in Erin Brockovich. To find the perfect dress, she looked back through Valentino's archives, eventually choosing to keep things simple in this classic black and white style from 1984. Appropriately enough, the designer said he had been inspired by the allure of movie stars when working on the collection nearly twenty years before Roberts's Oscar moment.

The queen of pregnancy dressing - correction, any dressing - Rihanna knocked it out of the park in 2023, with this polo neck, leather bra and slashed hips situation. 10/10.

Sequins can look a little dated on the red carpet, but not in the hands of Michelle Yeoh, who did a masterful take in this one-shouldered gown by Balenciaga.

When Celine Dion arrived at 1999's Oscars, she wasn't just wearing a suit, a backwards suit at that - she was creating a cultural moment in real time. From the double-breasted back that left a triangle of shoulder blade on show to the slanted brim of her fedora, it certainly stood out in the sea of ball gowns - in the best way.