American Express Gold card dress of Lizzy Gardiner
Encyclopedia
Costume designer Lizzy Gardiner
wore a dress made of 171 American Express
Gold cards to the 67th Academy Awards
on March 27, 1995, where she won an Oscar for Best Costumer Designer. All of the cards were genuine, but had expired. It has been called one of the worst Oscar dresses of all time.
along with many other outlandish costumes such as one made solely out of pink flip flops, but American Express had forbidden it. Gardiner said, "I'm broke, and I didn't have anything to wear. So I went through my list of past good ideas." The dress was auctioned off for charity in March 1999 for $12,650, with the proceeds going to AmfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research.
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."
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?"
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.
Lizzy Gardiner
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...
wore a dress made of 171 American Express
American Express
American Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...
Gold cards to the 67th Academy Awards
67th Academy Awards
The 67th Academy Awards, honoring the best films of 1994, were held on March 27, 1995 at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, California. They were hosted by well-known comedian and talk show host David Letterman....
on March 27, 1995, where she won an Oscar for Best Costumer Designer. All of the cards were genuine, but had expired. It has been called one of the worst Oscar dresses of all time.
Background and history
The gown had originally been conceived for the film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the DesertThe Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is a 1994 Australian comedy-drama film written and directed by Stephan Elliott. The plot is based on the journey of three drag queens who travel across the Australian Outback from Sydney to Alice Springs in a tour bus that they have named...
along with many other outlandish costumes such as one made solely out of pink flip flops, but American Express had forbidden it. Gardiner said, "I'm broke, and I didn't have anything to wear. So I went through my list of past good ideas." The dress was auctioned off for charity in March 1999 for $12,650, with the proceeds going to AmfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research.
Design
The outfit was made of 254 expired American Express gold cards. 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 clumpy gold shoes.Reception
CosmopolitanCosmopolitan (magazine)
Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...
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."
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?"
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.