You may want to sit down and take a deep breath before proceeding… Because I’m doing it. I’m actually citing Halle Berry’s beloved and iconic Oscar dress as one of my all-time worst. Like my choice for Best Dressed, context plays a huge part in how and why these dresses hit or miss.

• First things first. I absolutely promise you this: if anyone other than Halle Berry wore this dress, it would have made most Worst Dressed lists. Halle Berry had the best year of her professional career, gracing many a red carpet in spectacular style, and as America’s sweetheart, could have worn a sack made from dead puppies without criticism. At this point, she was untouchable and an absolute lock for the Best Actress Academy Award, the first African American woman to ever win this distinction. I repeat: no matter what she wore to the 2002 Academy Awards, she was safe.
• As to the dress itself, it is the very definition of too much: yards upon yards of skirt fabric, embroidered bust covering flowers (itself a total fashion crime), exposed midriff, and color palette reminiscent of Thanksgiving dinner. If the designer’s (Elie Saab) inspiration was the Garden of Eden meets Autumn In New York, then mission accomplished. Otherwise, this dress was a huge pile of no. Thankfully, her styling was otherwise impeccable with low-key hair and makeup and minimal jewelry.
• My final point about the worst best dress? Halle Berry is stun.ning. Her flawless beauty, grace and confidence on that red carpet made the dress, not the other way around. Only the smallest handful of actresses have that kind of magnitude, and the only ones who immediately come to mind are Nicole Kidman, the late Grace Kelly, and of course, Halle Berry.

Image via www.stuff.co.nz/