Julia Roberts has served many memorable Academy Award looks over the years — but perhaps none is as iconic as the vintage Valentino gown she wore to the 2001 ceremony. All eyes were on her that evening, as it was the year she took home the Best Actress statuette for her performance in Erin Brockovich (her first Oscars win!). The dress, which originally debuted as part of the designer's 1992 couture collection, has become just as famous as the ceremony Roberts wore it to, to the point where it has its own Wikipedia page. If you've been wondering what, exactly, happened to the black-and-white number that made so many swoon, you can rest assured that the sample hasn't been neglected in a showroom somewhere: According to Roberts, it's at her house.
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In an interview with People, the actress revealed that she still has her 2001 Oscars dress — although, it's not exactly a framed relic in her household. "It’s under my bed, in a box," she said. Not that it's simply taking up space or anything: Roberts explained that she kept the dress with the hopes that, one day, her daughter Hazel, who's now 12, will wear it. "I have this little space in my house that my husband refers to as the heritage collection. Things I go, 'I can’t get rid of [this], what about Hazel?," Roberts told the publication. While Daniel Moder believes Hazel would likely rather fill her closet with her own dresses rather than her mom's hand-me-downs, Roberts maintains her stance: "I say, 'Well, maybe she’ll want it.' So I keep keeping things." Seriously — can you imagine showing up at a school dance in some vintage Valentino, last seen on your mom when she picked up her first Oscar?
That gown represents a lot, not just for its wearer, but also for the man who designed it. "I have dressed so many people but I have to be sincere: The person that made me feel so very, very happy was Julia Roberts," Valentino Garavani said at the 2008 premiere of Valentino: The Last Emperor, per The Telegraph. "When she got the Academy Award for Erin Brockovich I watched it on television and really I was so excited that she appeared in my dress. It makes me so very happy and proves once more that movie stars love my clothes."
But Roberts didn't have to wait until Hazel could fit into her 2001 Oscars dress to see it have another moment within her family. Her niece Emma (you may know her) wore a black-and-white vintage Armani Privé gown to the 2017 Academy Awards that had many thinking back to the Valentino number — a connection she didn't exactly dismiss. On the red carpet, though, she did reveal that she actually played a role in picking out that look for her Aunt Julia. "I remember when [she] was trying on dresses for the year she was nominated and won, and the dress she wore, I said lovingly, 'You should wear the skunk dress!'" the actress told E!. Clearly, Emma's always had an eye for style.
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