Elizabeth Hurley's iconic safety-pin Versace dress, worn to the 1994 London premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral, is celebrated in a new book, Red Carpet Legends: The Era-Defining Looks that Changed Fashion. The dress, held together by strategically placed golden Medusa-stamped Versace safety pins, helped land Hurley a $1.6 million contract as the face of Estee Lauder.
A Last-Minute Fashion Favour
Author Camilla Morton reveals the dress was a runway sample, lent as a last-minute favour, and had been hanging in the showroom of Versace's London PR at the time. She says: "The dress was held together by strategically placed golden Medusa-stamped Versace safety pins. She and Versace were a media sensation."
Morton adds: "Versace had caught a moment and gone viral before you could even go viral and the actress went from unknown to never needing to worry about what she would wear. That dress shifted the media's attitude to red carpet arrivals, and space was now saved on front pages for unexpected VIPs, premieres, parties and glamorous people, as well as royalty and headline news."
Photographer's Million-Dollar Shot
London society photographer Richard Young, who snapped Hurley at the premiere, was tipped off by a PR about the dress. He says: "When she arrived the safety pins ran up the right-hand side of her dress. It looked demure one side. But this side, a million-dollar shot."
The book also features Princess Diana's 'revenge dress,' worn on June 29, 1994, the night then Prince Charles confessed on TV to being in love with another woman. The black off-the-shoulder dress by British designer Christina Stambolian will be auctioned in December at Sotheby's New York, with an estimate of £110-£220,000.
Elton John's Extravagant Entrance
Sir Elton John's 50th birthday costume, as King Louis XIV, is also highlighted. He arrived at London's Hammersmith Palais in April 1997 in a furniture van, as his headpiece was too enormous for a limousine. Morton writes: "He later admitted, 'it was the most expensive thing I've ever worn,' which is saying something."
The book also recounts Welsh designer Julien Macdonald's horror when Kylie Minogue slashed a dress he had loaned her for her duet with Justin Timberlake at the 2003 Brit Awards. Macdonald says: "It was a prototype, due to be sold. I said 'ok, but can I have it straight back? There's only one in the world and I need to sell it'."
He adds: "Later, I was watching the awards live on TV, waiting to see my dress. It was a floor-length black evening gown covered in 50,000 Swarovski crystals - only she'd chopped the whole thing off into a micro-mini."
JLo's Jungle Dress and Ancient Origins
Jennifer Lopez's Versace jungle dress, worn to the 2000 Grammys, is also featured. Morton writes: "Images of Lopez wearing 'the green dress' were searched for and downloaded from the Grammy website 642,917 times in just 24 hours after the event."
Morton insists red carpet glamour is nothing new, noting: "Aeschylus first mentioned the red carpet in 458 BCE. In his work Agamemnon, he wrote, 'floor of crimson broderies to spread/for the king's path'." Red Carpet Legends: The Era-Defining Looks that Changed Fashion is out now, priced £50, published by Quadrille.
