Sadie Frost: ‘I didn’t have a stylist. In those days the red carpet was a lot simpler’
She’s been dressing for film events for over 20 years. Here, Sadie Frost tells Hattie Crisell how the red carpet has changed beyond all recognition
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DREW BARRYMORE in a rumpled shirt with her G-string peeking out of her trousers (2000); Julia Roberts at the Golden Globes in a man’s suit and tie (1990); Jane Birkin in a loosely tucked pyjama top (1992). Not outfits you’d be likely to see at an awards ceremony or premiere today – because in the last 20 years, red-carpet dressing has evolved beyond all recognition.
We live at a time in which all-powerful stylists present celebrities with gowns carefully selected to project the right message: this actor is intellectual, this actor is adorable, this actor is
a bombshell. But back then, if you were invited to a red-carpet event, you went shopping – or just pulled something out of your wardrobe. You didn’t rehearse photos in different lights to make sure your dress wasn’t see-through; you probably didn’t have someone on hand to arrange your train or jump in if your bra strap slipped. ‘In those days it was a lot more simple – you just turned up and you could get away with a lot less,’ says actor, producer and fashion designer Sadie Frost.
Few people are better placed to reflect on the difference than Sadie, who was a red-carpet mainstay in the late ’90s and early noughties. ‘I was just running around, being a mum and working,’ she says. ‘I didn’t have a stylist – I always wanted to express a personal flair. It’s great wearing designer clothes, but I liked going to vintage shops and throwing things together. I probably got some things right and some things wrong.’
While a misfire then might have made the papers the next day, it didn’t hang around online in the way that it does now – and it wasn’t considered such a key part of an actor’s job. ‘Back then, your agent wouldn’t even ask you what you were
planning to wear,’ she recalls. ‘No one really talked about it. It was just a great thing you were going.’
A high point for her was the 2000 Oscars, which she attended with her then-husband Jude Law, who was nominated for The Talented Mr Ripley. ‘It just felt like we were a couple of Brits out of place, and we were like, “What are we doing here?” There were loads of laughs back then, and we were all growing up and very naive. We just turned up and let things happen.’
The Oscars is a different animal now. ‘People have their managers prepping them, they have mood boards, they are media-trained and advised on every single move they make. There’s lots more politics involved now, and you’re power dressing. Everything’s about selling and marketing, and fashion is a hugely serious business,’ she says. ‘But the anxiety that comes with it must be huge. Sometimes I do miss the naivety of those days where people could just be themselves, and it felt more real.’
Although Sadie continues to act – we’ll see her this year alongside Anjelica Huston in Waiting For Anya – when she walks red carpets now, it’s often in a business capacity for her film company, Blonde to Black, and she wears a trouser suit. Most recently, she produced the well-received drama Two For Joy, starring Samantha Morton and Billie Piper. ‘I’m quite happy to be under the radar,’ she says. ‘I’m really glad, in a way, that I’m not doing it now. I find it difficult enough just getting ready to go out for dinner.’ ‘ Two For Joy’ is available on digital download from 25 February