Before Salma Hayek had brands like Gucci, Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta at her fingertips, she had a problem: designers simply weren’t dressing her.
The actor had arrived in Hollywood from Mexico in the early 90s, and has recalled struggling to borrow clothes from major fashion Houses, forcing her to style herself through those formative red-carpet years. For her first major carpet in 1996, she famously resorted to a charcoal men’s Hugo Boss suit because, as she later put it, “no one” would dress her. In hindsight, fashion’s loss was our gain.
Hayek’s 90s wardrobe is was a cocktail of sexy, instinctive, occasionally chaotic, and almost completely devoid of the sort of studied minimalism we now associate with red carpet styling at the time. There were spaghetti-strapped slip dresses, tiny baguette bags, crop tops, chokers, pashminas, velvet platforms, wine-coloured lipstick and face-framing tendrils. And when fashion finally caught up to her prowess, she went hard. Giorgio Armani dressed her for her first Oscars in 1997 in a crystal-covered white gown, which Hayek accessorised with a tiara – subtlety be damned. That same year, she arrived at her first Met Gala in slashed, asymmetric Atelier Versace, before turning to a lilac, body-skimming Hervé Léger bandage dress for the Lethal Weapon 4 premiere in 1998 and CHANEL couture for Dogma at Cannes in 1999.
But Hayek was a fashion muse on screen too. Hayek’s Carolina in Desperado (1995) gave us a masterclass in sultry 90s simplicity; and a year later, From Dusk Till Dawn transformed her into Santanico Pandemonium, the snake-draped vampiric dancer who remains embedded in pop-culture memory.
The irony is delicious. The woman fashion once wouldn’t dress would eventually become a Pomellato campaign face, co-found Gucci’s CHIME initiative, and become a devoted wearer of the Kering universe – Gucci, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta and Alexander McQueen included. But it's her 90s style that remains more interesting – precisely because access was playing with restraint.
See some of our favourite 90s Salma Hayek looks below...
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With Penélope Cruz at the Dogma premiere in New York, 1999.
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At the premiere of Wild Wild West, 1999 in a striking pink Bradley Bayou couture gown of our dreams.
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Attending the 1999 MTV Movie Awards in Santa Monica.
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At the 1998 premiere of Great Expectation with Nastassja Kinski and Alfonso Cuarón.
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On the arm of Antonio Banderas at the Desperado premiere at Cannes.
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It's the matching hair clips for me!
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Wispy hair tendrils of our dreams. Hayek attending the 3rd Annual GQ Men of the Year Awards in 1998.
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Hayek at the Eyes Wide Shut premiere in 1999.
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On screen as Rita Escobar in Wild Wild West, 1999.
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Ignoring the presence of Johnny Depp, perfection in an image.
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Would resurrect the tube top in a heartbeat after seeing this image.
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The sheer lace tank top with invisible straps of our dreams.
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Looking like the absolute royalty she is.
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Nothing compares!!
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Cue me tying a scarf around my non-existent chest to emulate this look.
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The enduring ensemble of a lifetime.
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The only bedazzling we'll celebrate from here on out.
