How Liz Hurley’s dress was a last-minute miracle

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Transcript

00:00Imagine wearing a dress so iconic that it upstages not just one but four weddings and a funeral.

00:06When Liz Hurley attended a film premiere with Hugh Grant, her boyfriend at the time,

00:10her dress was all anyone could talk about and she wasn't even a member of the cast.

00:14At this point she was a little-known actress.

00:16Famous actresses normally get lent free clothes before a red carpet event,

00:19but poor Liz called up designer after designer and no one would lend her a dress.

00:23Luckily one fashion house, Gianni Versace, agreed to send her something.

00:27Apparently this was the only dress still left in their press office.

00:30When Hurley stepped onto the Leicester Square red carpet, the paps lurched into a frenzy.

00:33Who is she, everyone thought, and where did she get that dress?

00:36Dave Bennett was one of the photographers there. He told The Face,

00:39Liz Hurley's incredibly clever here.

00:41She knew that because it was four weddings and a funeral,

00:43everyone would come in white, summery wedding outfits.

00:46They all did except for Liz, who gets this dress practically as a cast off.

00:49And oh my god, could she wear that dress?

00:51I've seen many other models try to wear it and it really doesn't work.

00:54It's not clear how much she intended to make this statement.

00:57She did her own hair and makeup casually,

00:59and describes how she didn't even have a full-length mirror,

01:01so got dressed without fully knowing how she looked.

01:03Hurley didn't keep the dress.

01:05Instead, Lady Gaga wore it years later in Milan with a completely different vibe,

01:08hair extensions and professionally applied makeup.

01:11But for Gaga, it would have been hard to shock anyone

01:13when you've already attended a host of events,

01:15once in a raw meat dress and another time in a giant latex egg.

01:19Hurley's dress went down in history.

01:20Some called her look controversial and revealing,

01:22but most just called it that dress.

01:25That dress, that Versace dress.

01:27Was a significant part of my adolescence.