Brooke Shields has revealed that the dress she wore to the 1998 Golden Globes, which her daughter later wore to prom, resulted in her being given the "riot act" by the agency she was with at the time.
In an interview with People, Shields sat down with her daughters, Rowan and Grier Henchy, as they looked at photos from some of the most iconic moments in their lives. At one point, they discussed the red gown Shields wore the year she earned her second Golden Globes nomination for her NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan.
Rowan said that in 2021, she decided to rifle through her mom's closet to find something to wear something to prom before deciding on the iconic dress. During the conversation, Shields revealed she was warned in the 90s that she wouldn't be taken seriously as an actress if she wore the bright color to an awards show.
Newsweek emailed a spokesperson for Shields for comment on Wednesday.
"I was downstairs in New York going through a bunch of her old dresses making, like, a TikTok about trying stuff on, and I tried this red dress on," Rowan said.
"And I didn't really want to go through the process of finding a prom dress. I mean, I would have, but I kind of was like, if we have something here, I might as well wear it. And I found this red dress, and it was your 1998 Golden Globes dress.
"And it fit me—except in the boobs—um it, it fit me and, and we got it tailored just a little bit, it was longer. But I was like, 'This is perfect, I'll do like a Hollywood wave, and I'll just kind of wear mother's dress'—and the people loved it."
Shields said that the idea wouldn't have gone well if she had suggested that her daughter wear one of her gowns. However, Shields loved that Rowan took it upon herself to go through her archive.
"It was such a special dress for me. It was made for me. Richard Tyler made the dress, and I felt so glamorous in it, and then I got read the riot act the next day by the agency," Shields said.
When Rowan asked if this was because the dress was red, Shields confirmed it was.
"Yeah, they said, 'You're never going to be taken seriously as an actress if you wear red and you look like a movie star,' they were like, 'No one's going to take you seriously as an actress' and I was like, 'I don't really understand how that, how that correlates,'" Shields said.
"And then next year everybody wore red to the Golden Globes, so I took the People magazine spread, and I threw it down on the woman's desk, and I was like, 'I'm ahead of my time.'"
Shields said that the dress now remains in her archive.
"I got it dry cleaned 'cause you destroyed it," Shields quipped, to which Rowan responded: "I did not destroy it."
Megan Watkins, head stylist at online fashion destination SilkFred, explained to Newsweek why Shields may have been reprimanded for wearing the dress.
"In 1998, there were certainly some unwritten rules and expectations for how actresses should present themselves at prestigious events like the Golden Globes—this was a formal occasion and a very serious date in the film industry calendar and was ought to be taken seriously by the attendants," Watkins said.
"If we look back at the 1990s, Hollywood's red carpet fashion often leaned towards more conservative and understated styles, especially for women who were looking to be seen as serious actresses rather than just glamorous celebrities. For example, Fran Drescher's white, low-cut sheer dress, paired with a floral headpiece that she wore to the 1996 ceremony, made headlines at the time.
"Black, navy and other muted tones were commonly favored as they conveyed a sense of sophistication, elegance, and gravitas. Bold colors, particularly red, were sometimes seen as too flashy or suggestive, potentially overshadowing the person's talent and making them seem more interested in attention than in their craft."
Watkins said red is often associated with power, passion, and sensuality. While she said these are not necessarily negative qualities, they were sometimes seen as conflicting with the desire to be viewed as a serious artist.
She added: "[Shields'] agency likely feared that the red dress might pigeonhole her into a certain type of image—one more focused on beauty and glamour rather than her acting abilities. Given her background as a model and her early career in roles that emphasized her appearance, her team might have been concerned that wearing such a bold color would reinforce those perceptions rather than help her transition into being seen as a serious actress."
In June 2021, Shields shared an Instagram photo of herself and Rowan on the day of her daughter's prom. In the picture, the two women are hugging while Rowan is wearing the strapless red gown.
"I thought it was a special night when I was nominated for a Golden Globe and wore this dress in 1998, but nothing could have prepared me to see my daughter wearing it to her prom. Proud mama," Shields wrote in the caption.
The actress shares her daughters with screenwriter husband Chris Henchy, whom she married in 2001.
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