By Marianna Cerini, NCS
(NCS) — Can a single pink carpet look flip you into a fashion icon? If it’s a Giorgio Armani suit and also you’re Julia Roberts, sure, it may possibly.
In 1990 Roberts, then simply 22, wore a charcoal grey Armani suit from the designer’s menswear assortment to attend the forty seventh Golden Globes, the place she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her efficiency in 1989’s “Steel Magnolias,” a class she went on to win. The Georgia-born actor had simply begun to break by way of in Hollywood. “Mystic Pizza,” launched two years earlier, had launched her to audiences, however she wasn’t but tremendous well-known, or particularly identified for her trend.
The suit – sharp, outsized, unapologetically masculine – modified all that. More than three a long time on, it nonetheless stands as certainly one of the most quietly radical pink carpet moments in Hollywood historical past.
Roberts had the suit tailor-made at the Beverly Hills retailer the place she purchased it, refining the lower with out blunting its menswear edge. She paired it with a crisp white shirt, a purple floral tie and flat brown brogues, delivering what might simply be described as a masterclass in androgynous dressing. To soften the ensemble, she wore her signature curls unfastened and pure, offset by recent, understated make-up and a tender pink lip. The end result was a simple mixture of glamour and ease, and, as Roberts later advised British Vogue in a video interview, certainly one of her “all-time favorite” appears.
“I did my hair, my girlfriend did my makeup,” she mentioned. “I don’t even know that people wore really fancy gowns to the Golden Globes then the way they do now, but I thought that I was very extra in this outfit. I could not have known that it was going to become this, like, statement outfit. I just thought I looked fabulous, and I still have that suit.”
Yet a assertion it turned. While the Golden Globes of that period, as Roberts herself has famous, weren’t but the high-octane, couture-heavy spectacle they’re at present – earlier than model partnerships and thoroughly orchestrated styling got here to dominate the pink carpet – her daring sartorial alternative nonetheless lower in opposition to the grain. In a sea of clothes and traditional silhouettes, the Armani suit learn as deliberate and trendy, strikingly completely different from the relaxation.
In the years that adopted, ladies in tailoring would grow to be a recurring, and more and more highly effective, presence on main awards levels. Think of Gwyneth Paltrow in a ruby pink velvet Gucci suit at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards; Rihanna in a Dolce & Gabbana tuxedo at the 2009 Met Gala; Angelina Jolie in impeccable Saint Laurent tailoring at the 2014 BAFTAs; Ayo Edebiri in a slouchy Loewe suit at the 2025 Golden Globes (a very overt tribute to Roberts) or, much more not too long ago, Keri Russell and Sarah Snook at the 2026 Critics Choice Awards, in a Tom Ford tux and Akris suit respectively. If Roberts’ alternative didn’t single-handedly rewrite the guidelines, it undeniably helped open a door that others later walked by way of.
It additionally set the tone for her personal private method to public dressing. Over the a long time, the actor has repeatedly turned to fits and suit-inspired tailoring for her largest appearances, from tuxedo-inspired jumpsuits at the twenty first annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2015 and the 2022 Cannes Film Festival to sharp shorts and blazers at movie premieres like “Mother’s Day” in 2016 and “Gaslit” in 2022.
Even off the pink carpet, her affinity for tailor-made suiting endures. In March 2025, Roberts wore a grey tailor-made suit to obtain the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres at the French Ministry of Culture in Paris, a look that felt like the closest homage but to her 1990 Golden Globes suit.
She revisited the reference once more final October, when she appeared on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” to promote her new movie “After the Hunt,” for which she is as soon as once more nominated at the Golden Globes (this time for Best Female Actor – Motion Picture Drama). For the event, Roberts selected a fitted cobalt-gray suit with a blue tie that echoed the authentic – up to date this time with slimmer proportions and modern tailoring. The jacket was shorter and extra exact, the trousers high-waisted and clean-lined. She completed the look with a mild grey shirt and a tie accented with a cluster of brooches, playful particulars that underscored how her relationship with suiting has developed from quiet disruption to a assured fashion signature.
Where she takes it subsequent stays to be seen, however the suit, clearly, isn’t going anyplace.
The-NCS-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.