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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
As told to Emine Saner

Sadie Frost’s forever fashion: ‘I bought this dress for the Oscars – I had no idea it was see-through’

Sadie Frost wearing her favourite dress
‘It’s so delicate, beautiful and simple’ … Sadie Frost wearing her favourite dress. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

I have always been low maintenance and would usually leave things until the last minute. When Jude [Law, whom Frost was married to at the time] was nominated for an Oscar in 2000, it was the same. I went to the vintage shop One of a Kind in Notting Hill and found this amazing dress that really does feel like a second skin. It’s this lovely cream colour, with a beautiful jewelled high halterneck and a really low back. I think it would have cost a couple of hundred pounds, which I don’t think is too bad for an Oscars dress.

I have friends who are in fashion and they laugh at me because I have always been kind of anti-fashion. I grew up working on the market at Camden Lock and my mum ran an old clothing store. It was always about just throwing clothes on; sometimes they looked good and sometimes they didn’t.

Sadie Frost with Jude Law at the Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty in 2000.
Sadie Frost with Jude Law at the Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty in 2000. Photograph: Evan Agostini/Getty Images

The evening of the Oscars was one of those moments when I felt happy and beautiful. It was an exciting event, something that I thought I might never go to again, and it was a special moment. It’s not often you feel that confident in yourself, inside and out.

I have worn the dress quite a few times over the years, on evenings out or when friends have come round for dinner and I have wanted to dress up. It’s incredibly see-through, but I didn’t realise quite how see-through until I saw pictures with my nipples showing. In those days, you didn’t do things like that and I definitely didn’t do it for attention – it was just a lovely dress. Now, I wear it with a layer underneath. There is something really luscious about it, but I also like wearing it over a striped T-shirt, really clashing two styles. Or with wellies, for a walk.

When I moved to the countryside, I brought all the things that I really cared about and I had to really think about what mattered. I want to give this dress to my daughter, Iris; I think she will look beautiful in it. There are a couple of stains and little holes, but it’s so delicate, beautiful and simple. It’s nice to have a dress that is very dear to me.

New clothes are often characterless, but when you buy something from a vintage store there is a character to it. I love wearing these faded dresses that have a few holes and the odd tea stain. They are still really beautiful and there is something interesting about the stories that they tell and where they have been. I think this dress was handmade, maybe in the 40s – it’s gone to the Oscars and now it’s hanging out in a field in Wiltshire.

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