Rita Moreno’s timeless Oscars style: In either 1962 or 2018 her dress is gorgeous!

Rita Moreno rocked the Oscars 2018 red carpet tonight in her refurbished 1962 Oscars dress.   Ms. Moreno had the dress restyled from the popular 1960’s style of a sleeveless top with a full embellished skirt, to a strapless top with the full skirt.

Elizabeth Taylor in her 1961 Oscars gown, a solid sleeveless top with a full skirt with embellished gold leaves.

Elizabeth Taylor wore a similar type of gown by Dior to the 1961 Oscars when she won Best Actress for Butterfield 8. Bravo to Rita Moreno for resurrecting her beautiful gown and taking it out of the closet for her 2018 Oscars appearance. Although Ms. Morreno didn’t mention the name of the original dress designer, she did say that the dress was made in the Philippines and had been hanging in her closet since the she won her Academy Award in 1962.   She had the dress updated for 2018 by making it a strapless gown and accessorizing it with a beautiful gold collar necklace that matched the gold patterned flowers on her full skirt.  The 86-year old Ms. Moreno also wore long black velvet gloves that complimented the black bodice of her dress.

Rita Moreno in her beautiful dress with long black gloves at the 1962 Oscars wearing holding her Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Why recycle her vintage gown after so many years?  The uniqueness of this gorgeous gown seems to be the answer.  And how many 89 year old women can still wear and rock a dress they wore 56 years ago?  Rita Moreno told Ryan Seacrest that the material for the skirt was typically used to make “Japanese kimonos.”   The print was beautifully preserved despite being at least 56 years old.   The gown also held happy memories of a “special night’ for the actress, the night she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a competition against seasoned Hollywood actresses like Judy Garland, Fay Bainter, Lotte Lenya and Una Merkel.

Rita Moreno on the Oscars red carpet for the 90th Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood, CA.

“This is a 56-year-old gown that I wore when I won my Oscar in 1962. This is the dress. It’s been hanging in my closet and I go and stroke it now and then. I just love — it was an amazing night,”  Rita Moreno told People TV on the red carpet. “They didn’t have a red carpet then, it was so different.” In 1962, the Academy Awards were held in Santa Monica at the Civic Auditorium, so it was very different setting from the Dolby Theater at Hollywood and Highland were the awards are held today.

Rita Moreno with George Chakiris in 1962 and in 2018 in the same dress.

Kudos to Ms. Moreno for reviving her gorgeous gown and enjoying it again. I don’t think any Oscar winner has ever returned as a presenter wearing the same outfit they wore years before–this was fashion history at the Academy Awards tonight.