At 57, Elizabeth Hurley Has Thoughts on That Revealing ’90s Safety Pin Dress
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Elizabeth Hurley reflected on the “very surprising” public reaction to her 1994 Four Weddings and a Funeral premiere dress.
The black Versace gown featured a high slit held together by large gold safety pins.
It was criticized as too revealing, but ultimately became an iconic garment in fashion history.
Two mega-hits were born out of the 1994 premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral: the movie itself, and the controversial gown Elizabeth Hurley wore to the event. The high-slit, safety-pinned garment covered tabloids everywhere, and 30 years later, Hurley remains shocked by the impact it had, especially given that she threw it on at the last minute.
Hurley and Four Weddings star Hugh Grant were dating at the time, and because their small flat didn’t have a full-length mirror, she could barely see how the Versace dress fit before running out the door. “I hadn’t even seen the [full] dress until I saw it on the papers the next day,” she said in a new interview with Variety. She added that she also didn’t have a stylist or makeup artist, nor a handbag or shoes. “We didn’t have anything. We had nothing,” she said.
“But of course, people also didn’t know that his movie was going to be a sensation,” she continued. “We were completely and utterly clueless. So the next day when the papers went demented, both about the movie and, bizarrely, about my dress, it was very surprising to both of us. But, of course, we’re both very grateful for both those things happening.”
The black gown embellished with oversized gold safety pins was initially criticized as too revealing, but it has since earned its own peg in fashion history—so much so that she recreated the look in a more “demure” style for a 2019 Harper’s Bazaar interview, and in honor of her recent 57th birthday, she posed in a similarly constructed pink Versace mini-dress on Instagram.
“I was so unprepared for what happened that night,” she told Bazaar, remembering the dress’ debut. “I urgently needed to find a dress to wear for Hugh’s premiere, and in those days I had no idea about fashion.”
That’s not something she can say about herself today as owner of her own swimwear line, Elizabeth Hurley Beach, and someone who’s consistently sharing confident styles (including lots of bikini pics) on Instagram.
In the Bazaar interview, Hurley added that the original black dress still fits, but you won’t catch her wearing it to anymore premieres. “Just because it still fits doesn’t mean I would wear it today,” she said. “It wouldn’t be appropriate!”
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