The Statement Dress

For as long as I can remember, whether it was flicking through my mother's Hello magazine as a young girl or scouring fashion blogs today, there has always been images of the world's most beautiful celebrity women. Each and every one of these gorgeous ladies have been captured on the red carpet or seen at various A-lister events wearing fabulous, jaw dropping gowns. After seeing many images taken at the recent Met Gala, it got me thinking - where did the statement dress begin or when did it become such a fashion statement to be seen on screen in the latest dress?

Amongst celebrities it's become iconic. It's all about THE DRESS. This results more often than not being splashed over the press in the what's hot and what's not pages, meaning whether you get it right, or wrong (in some unfortunate cases) the whole world knows about it.

I've been thinking about the dresses worn by our favourite celebrities that became real game changers. Ones that where so iconic, it erases the saying - you wear the dress, it doesn't wear you. These are my top 10 show stoppers that not only had the press and public going crazy, but prove that sometimes it's absolutely fine for the dress to wear YOU...

1 - Marilyn Monroe 1955
Created by costume designer William Travilla for The Seven Year Itch, the combination of the billowing skirt and white halter neck resulted in both Marilyn and the dress featured to become one of the most iconic images of the 20th century.





2 - Audrey Hepburn 1961
Worn for the ultimate chick flick, Breakfast At Tiffany's, Hepburn wore the most famous black dress in fashion history as character Holly Golightly. Designed by Hubert de Givenchy, the original thigh high split was considered too racy at the time of release.





3 - Princess Diana 1981
If ever a princess dress existed, this was it. Embellished with 10,000 pearls and with a 25 a foot train, designers Elizabeth and David Emmanuel made Royalty history with this wedding dress.





4 - Cher 1988
Whilst accepting her Oscar for best actress in Moonstruck, Cher wowed audiences with a sparkling plunging neckline, twenties fringing and carefully placed sequins to protect her modesty. This stunning dress was designed by Bob Mackie.





5 - Elizabeth Hurley 1994
It was splashed over every tabloid, the black silk crepe Versace dress, held together with 24 gold plated safety pins was the talk of the town. Liz Hurley became a superstar overnight, and fame doesn't come much quicker than that!





6 - Geri Halliwell 1997
It was at the 1997 Brit awards that for the first time, a Gucci little black dress was customised with a Union Jack tea towel. Geri exploded onto our tv screens and newspapers as the ultimate symbol of girl power. For the 2007 Spice Girl reunion, Roberto Cavalli designed a new, glitzy version.





7 - Jennifer Lopez 2000
Versace did it again with another jaw dropper. This fabulous bamboo print was printed onto sheer green silk and wore by the then J-Lo to the Grammys, rocketing her firmly into Hollywood history.





8 - Bjork 2001
Macedonian designer Marjan Pejoski draped Bjork in a giant swan for the Academy Awards. The singer really got into character for the event and pretended to lay an egg on the red carpet!





9 - Keira Knightley 2007
This dress was crucial in one of the most memorable (and steamy) scenes in movie Atonement. The backless emerald number by Jacqueline Durran was breathtaking on Knightley.





10 - Lady Gaga 2010
Lady Gaga made a political statement saying "I'm not a piece of meat" with a dress made entirely of raw beef designed by Argentinian Franc Fernandez and styled by Nicola Formichetti.