Is the “Lucky Oscars Dress” just a myth?

Everyone’s got a lucky charm or a special piece of clothing that they believe brings them good fortune. The same may be true for the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winners.

According to Dalston Mills Fabrics, a London-based fabric store, there is a predictable relationship between the color of an actress’ dress for the Oscars and if they will take home a win that night.

After analyzing 40 years of data on past actresses’ wins and their dresses, a black dress is the most likely to take home the Academy Award. The fabric store claims that 33% of winners for the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress over the years were wearing black dresses.

Little black dresses

They also point out that a Black Valentino or Giorgio Armani dress appears to have some prevalence among the wins. In 2009, Kate Winslet won The Best Actress Oscars award in an asymmetrical one-shoulder black YSL gown.

Earlier in 2003, Nicole Kidman took home the win for Best Actress in a similar asymmetrical one-shoulder style black gown. The gown was designed by Jean Paul Gaultier.

Just a year earlier, Julia Roberts was awarded The Best Actress Oscars win for her role in ‘Erin Brockovich.’ She too was wearing a black gown with white accents, designed by Valentino.

The gold gown

Close behind the black dress is a gold gown with 14% of the Academy Award wins. In 2017 Emma Stone wore a Givenchy gold gown when she won The Best Actress Oscars for her role in ‘La La Land.’

Similarly, Cate Blanchett won Best Actress for her role in ‘Blue Jasmine’ at the 2014 Oscars in a stunning gold Armani gown that was worth $18.1 million.

Meryl Streep seems to already understand the certain luck of a gold dress. She wore a gorgeous gold gown for her 2012 Best Actress win for her role in ‘The Iron Lady’ and even earlier wore a similar gold gown for her 1983 Best Actress win for her role in ‘Sophie’s Choice.’

The white gown

The third most likely to be the lucky dress color is white, coming in at around 14% of previous Academy Award winners as well. Examples of the lucky white dress include Audrey Hepburn’s white Givenchy gown for her best actress win for her role in the 1954 film ‘Roman Holiday.’

The unluckiest color

While black, gold and white remain the luckiest Oscars dress colors, there is one specific color that is considered the most unlucky of them all. According to the data, purple is the worst dress color to wear to the Oscars if you are hoping for a big win.

A mere 1.5% of winners Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress winners in the last 40 years have worn the color purple. Most significantly, Natalie Portman won Best Actress in a silky purple Rodarte gown for her role in ‘Black Swan.’

Similar to the rare purple dress win, ‘Black Swan’ is also one of the very few, only six in total horror movies to ever be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars.