Remember when Julia Roberts upended tradition by wearing a suit to the Golden Globes?
By Marianna Cerini, CNN
(CNN) — Can a single red carpet look turn you into a style icon? If it’s a Giorgio Armani suit and you’re Julia Roberts, yes, it can.
In 1990 Roberts, then just 22, wore a charcoal gray Armani suit from the designer’s menswear collection to attend the 47th Golden Globes, where she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in 1989’s “Steel Magnolias,” a category she went on to win. The Georgia-born actor had just begun to break through in Hollywood. “Mystic Pizza,” released two years earlier, had introduced her to audiences, but she wasn’t yet super famous, or especially known for her fashion.
The suit – sharp, oversized, unapologetically masculine – changed all that. More than three decades on, it still stands as one of the most quietly radical red carpet moments in Hollywood history.
Roberts had the suit tailored at the Beverly Hills store where she bought it, refining the cut without blunting its menswear edge. She paired it with a crisp white shirt, a purple floral tie and flat brown brogues, delivering what could easily be described as a masterclass in androgynous dressing. To soften the ensemble, she wore her signature curls loose and natural, offset by fresh, understated makeup and a soft red lip. The result was an effortless mix of glamour and ease, and, as Roberts later told British Vogue in a video interview, one of her “all-time favorite” looks.
“I did my hair, my girlfriend did my makeup,” she said. “I don’t even know that people wore really fancy gowns to the Golden Globes then the way they do now, but I thought that I was very extra in this outfit. I could not have known that it was going to become this, like, statement outfit. I just thought I looked fabulous, and I still have that suit.”
Yet a statement it became. While the Golden Globes of that era, as Roberts herself has noted, were not yet the high-octane, couture-heavy spectacle they are today – before brand partnerships and carefully orchestrated styling came to dominate the red carpet – her bold sartorial choice still cut against the grain. In a sea of dresses and conventional silhouettes, the Armani suit read as deliberate and modern, strikingly different from the rest.
In the years that followed, women in tailoring would become a recurring, and increasingly powerful, presence on major awards stages. Think of Gwyneth Paltrow in a ruby red velvet Gucci suit at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards; Rihanna in a Dolce & Gabbana tuxedo at the 2009 Met Gala; Angelina Jolie in impeccable Saint Laurent tailoring at the 2014 BAFTAs; Ayo Edebiri in a slouchy Loewe suit at the 2025 Golden Globes (a very overt tribute to Roberts) or, even more recently, Keri Russell and Sarah Snook at the 2026 Critics Choice Awards, in a Tom Ford tux and Akris suit respectively. If Roberts’ choice didn’t single-handedly rewrite the rules, it undeniably helped open a door that others later walked through.
It also set the tone for her own personal approach to public dressing. Over the decades, the actor has repeatedly turned to suits and suit-inspired tailoring for her biggest appearances, from tuxedo-inspired jumpsuits at the 21st annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2015 and the 2022 Cannes Film Festival to sharp shorts and blazers at film premieres like “Mother’s Day” in 2016 and “Gaslit” in 2022.
Even off the red carpet, her affinity for tailored suiting endures. In March 2025, Roberts wore a gray tailored suit to receive the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres at the French Ministry of Culture in Paris, a look that felt like the closest homage yet to her 1990 Golden Globes suit.
She revisited the reference again last October, when she appeared on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” to promote her new film “After the Hunt,” for which she is once again nominated at the Golden Globes (this time for Best Female Actor – Motion Picture Drama). For the occasion, Roberts chose a fitted cobalt-gray suit with a blue tie that echoed the original – updated this time with slimmer proportions and contemporary tailoring. The jacket was shorter and more precise, the trousers high-waisted and clean-lined. She finished the look with a light gray shirt and a tie accented with a cluster of brooches, playful details that underscored how her relationship with suiting has evolved from quiet disruption to a confident style signature.
Where she takes it next remains to be seen, but the suit, clearly, isn’t going anywhere.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
