Oscars fashion show looks back at 50 years of frocks

Long before the world developed an obsession for the celebrity wardrobe, and when magazines such as Grazia and Heat were but a twinkle in their creators' eye, anyone even remotely interested in fashion looked forward to the frock-fest that is the Oscars ceremony. Now, this annual event is just one of many red carpet parades. It remains, however, the godmother of them all and that is, at least in part, because of its history.

Clearly acknowledging this fact, the Oscars producer Laura Ziskin is giving over this year's Oscar fashion show, which typically forecasts the styles that fashion insiders feel might make the red carpet come the big night, into a retrospective of some of the more memorable outfits spanning five decades.

A Celebration of Oscar Fashion will feature many of the most show-stopping looks ever to have made their way down the Academy Awards red carpet. Curated by the larger-than-life-size US Vogue editor-at-large Andre Leon Talley, it will be unveiled to a private audience of press, stylists and stars in Los Angeles at the end of this month.

Highlights will, by all accounts, include Diane Keaton's trademark masculine trouser suit, Sharon Stone's highly irreverent Gap T-shirt and floor-sweeping Valentino haute couture skirt combination and, of course, Barbra Streisand's 1968 transparent jumpsuit complete with of-the-moment bell-bottom trousers. The latter was worn by the actress long before the tyranny of the celebrity stylist took hold, transforming the Oscar red carpet into the well-mannered but all too often bland and politically motivated parade that it is today.

With this in mind, the Marjan Pejoski swan dress with matching purse worn by Bjork in 1991 will, sadly, be conspicuous by its absence. "They won't give it to us," Ziskin told the Associated Press.

Still on the Leon Talley and Ziskin wish-list, meanwhile, is the Versace dress Ellen Barkin wore in 1993; the Halston gown worn in 1990 by Glenn Close; and Julie Andrews' 1965 outfit (which was featured in last year's Oscar poster), as well as "anything from Natalie Wood". But of course.

The eccentric, the irreverent and the brave

Björk

Only a woman with a sense of humour would ever think of wearing this particular style in the full glare of the spotlight. Björk's Marjan Pejoski swan dress with matching egg purse is surely one of the most memorable fashion moments of them all - notorious even in such star-spangled surroundings.

Barbra Streisand

In 1968 Streisand was forced to share the Oscar with Katherine Hepburn but, in this Arnold Scaasi sheer pyjama suit, she doubtless received more than her fair share of the limelight. Say what you will about an undoubtedly, well, let's just call it eccentric choice of outfit, it most certainly oozes personality and some might even say charm.

Sharon Stone

It takes considerable confidence to wear a simple Gap T-shirt with an evening skirt, particularly when that skirt is hand-crafted by the Valentino atelier, widely considered to be one of the most accomplished in the world. The effect of Stone's outfit is modern and irreverent, stopping just short of disrespectful.

Diane Keaton

Ms Keaton really should have taken her sunglasses off when she put her outfit together or at least have provided hapless onlookers with a pair of their own to prevent snow blindness. Rule number one: if a woman wears a trouser suit to a black-tie event it has to be a trouser suit that fits. Harsh, perhaps, but true.