Red carpet outfits are often on loan from designers, though some celebs get their looks custom-made. However, sometimes, they opt for a third option — buying or sewing their looks themselves.
Here are 32 red carpet outfits celebs bought or made themselves:
1.
At her first Cannes Film Festival in 2005, Eva Mendes wore a dress from a department store. She told People, “I was like, I’ll just wear this one, this knit gold, that feels right. Nobody would’ve known it was a $40 dress.”
She said that, when the then-president of L’Oreal asked her “who” she was wearing, she was confused. She continued, “I was like, ‘What do you mean? It’s mine.’ Everybody just loved the dress, and I was like, it’s just from Melrose!”
2.
At the 2024 NYC premiere of It Ends With Us, Blake Lively wore the exact same vintage 2002 Versace dress that Britney Spears wore to the designer’s runway show. On Instagram, the boutique Tab Vintage reported that Blake bought the dress.
Here’s what the dress looked like on Britney.
3.
According to Vogue, when Demi Moore made her Oscars red carpet debut in 1989, she wore a look she DIYed herself out of a corset, bike shorts, and floral fabric.
4.
Discussing her dress at the 2022 SAG Awards, Jada Pinkett Smith told E!, “It’s vintage. It’s something that I bought a while ago. [I] had it in the closet and I was like, ‘You know what? I think girl is ready for the SAG Awards!’ So, pulled it out.”
5.
In 2018, Michaela Coel made her own dress for the Black Panther premiere. In a since-deleted tweet, she said, “Last minute invite to WAKANDA, had 2hrs to ready myself. I had bought two of the same skirt from auntie who has the stall outside the pharmacy in Accra mall. I cut one skirt to make it into a top and sew da ting together into a dress. Resourceful b*tch.”
6.
Sharon Stone told the podcast Table for Two with Bruce Bozzi, “When I first got invited to the Oscars [in 1992], right before Basic Instinct had come out. Movie hadn’t come out, so no one would lend me a dress. And then it came out, like, a few days, right before the Oscars or something, and I was gonna present, but no one would give me a dress. It was unbelievable because I didn’t have any money to buy anything. And I was like, ‘Oh my God, all these people in their $40,000, $50,000 dresses.’ And I went and bought a Betsy Johnson jumpsuit because that was it, a polyester jumpsuit. That was the best I could do. And I’m doing my own hair and makeup.”
“And I was just like, ‘Wow, like this is awful. Like, how am I going to do this?’ But then I got there. and I was, like, in the fourth or fifth row back, which was really good. And I was on the aisle, and I was seated right behind Anthony Hopkins. And when I walked by, he put his hands together and put them over his head like [a] champion and held them up to me when I passed him, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, he saw my movie, and he’s giving me that thing.’ And I told my dad, and my dad was like, ‘Kid, you could look good in a burlap sack.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, right.’ And so after that, I thought, you know, it doesn’t matter. I could wear a t-shirt to the Oscars, and so I did,” she said.
7.
Sharon pulled her 1996 Oscars look from her own closet after disaster struck her original dress. On No Filter with Naomi, she said, “Vera [Wang] was making me two dresses, and we were trying to make one from this Fortuny fabric, and it kept stretching and changing and moving, so we weren’t quite sure it would come together, but we were experimenting. We were making this other great dress, this pink dress, and it came, and the FedEx guy dropped it out of the back of his truck and backed up over it. The box broke open, and the dress had a black tire track across the whole of the front of [it]. The day before the Oscars.”
She continued, “I was just so freaked out because I was nominated, and that’s the biggest thing to ever happen when you’re a little actress, and you get to work with Bob [De Niro] and Marty [Scorsese], and I just couldn’t believe it. I finally made it to this big moment in my career, and the guy ruined my dress. There’s a big tire track down my dress.”
So, she called Basic Instinct costume designer Ellen Mirojnick for help. Sharon said, “She just looked at the dress and looked at me, and she was like [sigh]. She’’s like, ‘Go get your favorite clothes out of the closet.’ I said, ‘My favorite clothes? I don’t have any!’ She said, ‘Get anything; it doesn’t matter what it is.’ I just kept throwing them on the bedroom floor, and she just kept sitting there looking at them like it was a science problem. She eventually started putting things together, so we ended up putting together this Gap shirt and a ready-to-wear Valentino skirt. Then I had this Armani tuxedo dress that I wore as a jacket, and I picked a gardenia out of the garden. And that was it!”
8.
At the 2016 Golden Globes, Jamie Lee Curtis told The Hollywood Reporter, “I had seen this dress, so I called the store and told them that I’d like this dress in a size eight. They told me that it was on sale at 50 percent off. I’m probably the only person nominated who bought their own freakin’ dress! But I’m proud to wear my own dress.”
9.
Gabourey Sidibe told Teen Vogue that no designers offered to dress her for the 2009 Cannes Film Festival — her first major red carpet — because she was “too fat.” So, she purchased a dress from Torrid. She said, “Even though we are moving towards more visibility for plus-size people, there is a lot [of] pushback. So it’s important to keep fighting [and] to keep being visible until the conversation changes and [it] is no longer about our bodies because I’m not my body. I’m a whole person.”
10.
For the 2025 Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy awards viewing party, celebrity chef Sandra Lee bought a $99 gown from Instagram. She told People, “I was initially hesitant to order because they never are as good as they look on the website, but this dress was the exception. It was just as beautiful!”
However, when the dress arrived, the roses “were not as exquisite as the dress itself.” So, she added her own embellishments, including a ruffled tulle bottom and “silk flowers and precious antique trims that [she] discovered in New Orleans.” She said, “The dress took about six hours to reimagine, and then I grabbed an antique purse that I’d purchased at a vintage store and then I embellished it to match the dress.”
11.
Hayden Panettiere purchased her own Tom Ford gown off the rack for the 2014 Golden Globes. She told People, “I’m obsessed with it! I freaked out that I’m even wearing it. Anything he makes is just stunning…I bought this one. I actually get to keep it, which is really weird to me, that I don’t have to worry about somebody showing up on my doorstep going, ‘Where’s the dress? Give it back!’ It’s like buying a piece of art. You can hopefully keep it forever.”
And on the red carpet, she told E!, “It’s the first time I’ve ever worn him, because I’ve been begging ever since. I feel sexy in it, I feel comfortable in it, and I’m in Tom Ford. I would wear a plastic bag if it was designed by him.”
Tom Ford famously only dresses one woman per red carpet. At the time, Hayden was criticized for purchasing her own gown, but the designer squashed any drama. The morning after the awards show, Hayden tweeted a picture of flowers he sent her along with a note that said, “Dear Hayden, You looked beautiful last night. Thank you for the kind words. Much love, Tom.”
12.
But Hayden wasn’t the only actor who purchased her own red carpet gown for the 2014 Golden Globes! Edie Falco bought her Lanvin dress for the event. She told The Hollywood Reporter, “I went into Jeffrey on West 14th Street, talked to my personal shopper there, and bought it. Why not? It’s the least I can do.”
13.
At the 1958 Academy Awards, Joanne Woodward won Best Actress in a gown she made herself. According to Vanity Fair, she was very excited for the world to see her handiwork.
14.
When Tiffany Haddish was shopping for a dress for her Girls Trip premiere in 2017, she bought a $4,000 Alexander McQueen dress, which she’s famously reworn to multiple events. In 2021, she told People, “I [was] like, ‘Oh, hell no. This is my mortgage. I can’t wear this dress…I was just devastated [I couldn’t return it]. I was very upset that I spent that much money on a dress, period. Then I was like, ‘Well, I’m going to wear this dress everywhere I go. I’m going to get my money’s worth.’ …The dress has made me the money that it cost, plus, at this point.'”
She wore the dress to the 2018 MTV Movie & TV Awards. She’s also worn it on Saturday Night Live, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, and People’s Most Beautiful Issue.
15.
At the 2014 Academy Awards, Kelly Ripa wore a dress she’d ordered online. On Live with Kelly and Michael, she said, “So when you do these award shows, designers will loan you dresses, and you try them on, and it’s, like, very dramatic all the time. It’s just fraught with all kinds of, ‘This needs to be tailored,’ ‘We can’t tailor this because we don’t own it’…blah blah blah.’ And I was on what I call ‘the mall,’ which is Net-a-Porter.com online, and I was flipping through, just looking at what’s new, and I see this gown. And I click on it, and it’s Roland Mouret, which is a designer I wear all the time. And I was like, ‘Can I really order an Academy Awards dress online? I mean, is that crazy?'”
“And I clicked on it, and I bought it. I bought it. I purchased it. So it’s mine. So I can alter it. I don’t have to ask for permission and all this stuff, so guess what? We altered it. It was the most comfortable — everybody else you see, they’re corseted, and they’re freaking out. Can they eat? Can they swallow? My dress: zipped it in, put it on, walked it out there. We had pizza backstage. I was like, ‘Look at me! Look at me go, like a real person walking the red carpet,'” she said.
16.
Per People, at the 2020 Academy Awards, Jane Fonda rewore her Elie Saab gown from the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.
She paired it with a coat she bought on sale in 2019, which she said would be the “last article of clothing [she] will ever buy.” The coat became a symbol of her environmental activism when she wore it to climate protests in 2019, which she called Fire Drill Fridays. According to W Magazine, at one of the protests, she told the crowd, “When I talk to people about, ‘We don’t really need to keep shopping. We shouldn’t look to shopping for our identity. We don’t need more stuff,’ then I have to walk the walk too.”
17.
When Megan Mullally hosted the 2019 SAG Awards, she couldn’t find a designer to dress her, so she ordered her own Alexander McQueen gown online. In an Instagram post, she said, “yes, i will be hosting!! thanks [SAG Awards]! will i be dressed as a spanish senorita? we don’t know. looks like i will be buying my dress online though, as per my usual, even though there is literally a 100 percent chance that i will be on camera, because I’M HOSTING IT. designers do not send me dresses. i’m online scrolling through the gowns sections of various websites- which i know how to do pretty well at this point- and then i tried to order something from saks fifth avenue and they cancelled my order 😂 oh, the glamor of it all. in other news, hosting this great show honoring amazing actors is going to be cool, and i may get to meet olivia colman. please send jokes.”
On the red carpet, she told Access Hollywood, “I always pick out clothes online and buy my own stuff because, first of all, I like it because I can just wear what I want to wear, but also, the major designers are not interested in sending me any dresses. Not at all. Alexander McQueen did send two dresses, but they didn’t work out, but this is an Alexander McQueen dress that I bought online…I said, ‘I’m literally hosting. like, there is a 100 percent chance that I will be on camera.’ But people were like, ‘No, no thanks.’ But that’s okay. I think it’s funny, but I think it’s interesting for people to know that because I think that everybody in the general public just thinks, ‘Well, everybody is getting dresses thrown at them left and right,’ but that’s not actually the case.”
18.
Melissa McCarthy designed her own dress for the 2016 Golden Globes in collaboration with creative director Judy Swartz and fit specialist Daniela Kurrle. She told Vogue, “I had just finished designing the spring collection for my line, which was inspired by Studio 54 and all things Bowie. I’ve always been obsessed with the drape and sex appeal of certain 1970s dresses. The second we saw that metallic panne velvet, we all thought kimono dress.”
19.
Fashion influencer Nancy Tyagi attended the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in a gown she made herself. On Instagram, she said, “Radiating elegance at Cannes in a self-stitched creation that took me 30 days to make💜 Gracing the red carpet in a show-stopping gown, and styling it with CaratLane diamonds to complete the look! Ready to shine and inspire with every step.”
In another Instagram post, she said, “Stepping onto the red carpet at the 77th Cannes Film Festival as a debutant feels surreal. I poured my heart and soul into creating this pink gown, which took 30 days, 1000 meters of fabric, and weighs over 20kg. The journey has been intense, but every moment was worth it. I’m overwhelmed with joy and gratitude for the love and support from all of you. This is a dream come true, and I hope my creation dazzles you as much as your support has inspired me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!”
20.
Amanda Seyfried bought her own dresses for the NYC and LA premieres of Mean Girls in 2004. She told Jimmy Kimmel Live, “I did not have a stylist. I used the only money I had to buy a dress — but there were two premieres, and so I had to buy two dresses because you wear different dresses.”
21.
Describing her NYC premiere dress, Amanda continued, “I didn’t know any of the rules, so I was wearing a white bra and black underwear and no slip. And I paid $600 for that dress. I couldn’t even afford a ride home, no, I’m kidding. I didn’t have a publicist. I didn’t have a stylist. I did my makeup.”
22.
At the 2021 ESPYs, professional wrestler Bianca Belair wore a dress she made herself. She showed the process of creating her gown in a YouTube video. In the caption, she said, “This weekend was surreal! I went to the ESPY’s as SmackDown Women’s Champion!, WON an EPSY with Sasha Banks, and I made the dress I wore!!!! Let me tell you this story: I could not find a dress to get to me in time once I found out I was attending the ESPY’S. So, I found some inspiration from a few a dresses I found online and told my Husband… ‘Forget it, I’m going to make my dress’… I was terrified and I’m pretty sure people that I told thought I was crazy for taking a risk like this at this time!!. Imagine the FIRST time you try to make a formal gown is for an event like the ESPY’s… but something in me just told me to TRY!!!”
She continued, “It took me two FULL days. No sleep and a lot of just sitting and staring at the fabric and thinking. It literally felt like putting together a puzzle without a picture to guide me. I still can’t believe I made it but now I am very curious to [see] what more I can do! Y’al!… never underestimate yourself! God created us to do amazing things. Push yourself and don’t be afraid to TRY and FAIL because eventually you will succeed! I’m tooting my own horn on this one.”
23.
On the 2017 Emmys red carpet, Rachel Bloom told E!, “I bought this dress, ’cause Gucci’s not lending me a dress. I did buy this dress, indeed. Yeah, I love it, and I can resell it. I mean, here’s the thing, is also, I can, I’m now at the place where I can afford it. So, you know, I’ve said in an interview before, ‘Oh, sometimes it’s hard to get places to lend me dresses because I’m not, like, a size 0,’ but also, I can afford it, so it’s okay. And again, I can always resell it on The Real Real.”
24.
In a since-deleted Instagram post, Eva Mendes said, “The debut of my latest @nyandcompany collection has me throwing back to my first red carpet [The Others premiere in 2001]. I did my own hair and makeup, and that’s a $6 dress from Goodwill. I’ve always loved a cheap find. Viva thrift shops! #tbt.”
25.
At the 2018 ACM Honors, country singer Kassi Ashton wore an outfit she made herself. She told The Boot, “Well, my mom didn’t have much money. She would have clothes donated to her, and so she learned how to take ’em in drastically, and that’s where I picked it up from. I’ve always been the kind to, if it doesn’t exist, create it. That’s pretty much where the clothes thing came from. I get an idea in my head, and if I can’t find it, I’m forced to sew it. I don’t think I’m a very good sewer; I just have good ideas. And it’s not falling apart, so we’re all good.”
26.
Zendaya told InStyle, “When I was 14 and at my first movie premiere, my outfit was a bunch of stuff that I had from Target. And I thought I was fly. I felt cool. To this day, I think that’s really all that matters. Then you know you’re doing the right thing.”
27.
In 2011, Rebel Wilson bought her own gown for the Bridesmaids premiere, which took a significant chunk out of her salary. She told the podcast Diary of a CEO, “It was my first job in America. I mean, it was very lucky to get it… But to be paid that little. Basically, that $3,500 I then had to pay to the union to join the union. So, I basically made no money. I lost money, because I had to pay to go to the premiere, like to buy my dress and everything. So, I lost money doing Bridesmaids.”
28.
At the 2020 Grammys, Lana Del Rey told Entertainment Tonight, “I had another dress, and then my boyfriend and I were getting a belt for him at the mall. And I saw this, and I loved it, so this is a last-minute dress. But I love it!” Her Aidan Mattox reportedly cost $600, and she had it tailored around the waist.
29.
At the 2016 Golden Globes, Bryce Dallas Howard told People, “I’m wearing Jenny Packham — I just picked it up at Neiman’s [Marcus] this week. I like having lots of options for a size six as opposed to maybe one option, so I always go to department stores for this kind of stuff.”
30.
Before the 2016 Critics’ Choice Awards, Bryce went online shopping and picked out a Pierre Balmain dress from Forward by Elyse Walker, which cost $1,300. She told People, “When you’re not ‘sample’ size, or when you don’t have a direct relationship with a designer, or if you don’t have a lot of notice, those types of size six dresses just aren’t that available that much. … So, what I found is that if something is sort of last-minute, or I don’t have a good relationship with a place, then I go to Neiman’s, or I get something online.”
31.
While promoting Rocketman in 2019, Bryce wore only secondhand or consignment dresses to promote sustainability. On Instagram, she said, “Hey online family, I’m in Cannes! You know what that means… big time fancy schmancy dressing up! I always feel conflicted when shopping for a press tour, because often these are clothes I will only wear once. In the past, since I’ve purchased rather than borrowed I realized ultimately this wasn’t an entirely sustainable practice. For several years now, I’ve relied on [The Real Real] religiously to both buy and consign my own clothes. So for this @rocketmanmovie press tour, I challenged myself to exclusively dress in consigned and previously owned pieces. This is my first look: the [Ralph Lauren] dress, [Manolo Blahnik] shoes, and [Smoke x Mirrors] sunglasses are all from [The Real Real].”
32.
And finally, Bryce’s 2021 Golden Globes dress also came from The Real Real. On Instagram, she said, “As many of you know, I love the sustainability of consignment fashion and often find secondhand pieces for press ✨ When I found out I was presenting at the #GoldenGlobes, I immediately went back to my tried and true friend, [The Real Real]! Tonight’s ‘fit is a [Temperley London] sequin ombré dress (which matches my hair!) with magenta [Alexander McQueen] pumps from a press tour a few years ago.”
Is there anything in your closet you’d love to wear on the red carpet? Let us know in the comments!
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