American Express Gold card dress of Lizzy Gardiner

Australian costume designer Lizzy Gardiner wore a dress made of 254 American Express Gold cards to the 67th Academy Awards on 27 March 1995, where she won an Oscar for Best Costume Design for her work on The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. All of the cards were genuine, but had expired.[1]

American Express Gold card dress of Lizzy Gardiner

Designer	Lizzy Gardiner
Year	1995
Type	Dress made of American Express Gold cards
Material	American Express Gold cards

Background and history

The gown had originally been conceived for the film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert along with many other outlandish costumes such as one made solely out of pink flip flops,[2] but American Express had forbidden it.[3] Gardiner said, "I'm broke, and I didn't have anything to wear. So I went through my list of past good ideas."[3] The dress was auctioned off for charity in March 1999 for $12,650, with the proceeds going to AmfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research.[3][4] It, along with other costumes for Priscilla, was inspired by Sydney's drag queen culture of the 1990s.[5]

Design

The outfit was made of 254 expired American Express gold cards,[6][1] and was split to the waist.[5] The under garment was made entirely of the cards, except for the slim gold straps at the top, although the gold shawl which went over the under garment only had cards lining the edges. Gardiner completed the outfit with gold platform shoes.[7]

Reception

Cosmopolitan magazine cited the dress as one of the worst Oscar dresses of all time, saying, "It's a dress made of American Express Gold cards. We're not sure what else to say about this one, except that the obvious lesson is this: For the love of God, do not design your own dress for the red carpet."[8]

Time magazine also voted the dress as amongst the worst Oscar dresses of all time saying, "Our problem with the outfit Gardiner wore to accept her award isn't that her dress was made out of a bizarre, nontraditional material. Our problem is that the material of choice was the American Express gold card. It's tacky. And how did she sit down in that thing?"[9]

In contrast, Variety magazine's Complete Book of Oscar Fashion referred to Gardiner's dress as "clever".[10]

Seeing the promotional potential of the dress, American Express were reported to have wanted to showcase the dress in its travel offices throughout the US.[6]

The dress is now held by the National Gallery of Victoria.[5][11]

References

1. Jones, Jen (August 2007). Fashion. Capstone Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-1-4296-0129-0.
2. Mansour, David (2005). From Abba to Zoom: A pop culture encyclopedia of the late 20th century. Andrews McMeel Publishing. p. 161. ISBN 978-0-7407-5118-9.
3. Crouse, Richard (2005). Reel Winners: Movie Award Trivia. Dundurn Press Ltd. p. 70. ISBN 978-1-55002-574-3.
4. Serwin, Lisa (2009). So Many Shoes, So Little Money: A Girl's Guide to Finance. Lisa Serwin. p. 42. ISBN 978-1-4392-3121-0.
5. "How a dress made of credit cards stole the show during Priscilla's Oscar win". ABC News. 5 June 2017. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
6. Gellene, Denise (24 April 1995). "Designer Cashes in on That American Express Gold Card Dress". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 25 May 2011.
7. Orange Coast Magazine. Emmis Communications. October 2002. p. 89. ISSN 0279-0483.
8. "Oscars Best and Worst Dressed". Cosmopolitan. 25 February 2011. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
9. "The 25 Best and Worst Oscar Gowns of All-TIME". TIME. 22 February 2011. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
10. Reeve., Chace (2003). The complete book of Oscar fashion : Variety's 75 years of glamour on the red carpet. New York, NY: Reed Press. p. 151. ISBN 1594290016. OCLC 53233868.
11. "The American Express ® gold card dress | Lizzy GARDINER (designer) | NGV | View Work". www.ngv.vic.gov.au.