Sharon Stone recalls her ‘awful’ self-styled look for first Oscars in 1992

Sharon Stone recalls her ‘awful’ self-styled look for first Oscars in 1992

Sharon Stone didn’t always have designers clamoring to dress her for red carpets.

The 64-year-old actress recalled styling herself for her first-ever Oscars in 1992 on Tuesday’s “Table for Two with Bruce Bozzi” podcast.

Since “Basic Instinct” — the movie that would make her a Hollywood superstar — “hadn’t come out” yet when she was invited to present during the awards show, Stone said, “No one would lend me a dress.”

“Basic Instinct” was released in theaters on March 20, 1992, mere days before the Academy Awards aired.

“All these people in their $40,000 or $50,000 dresses and I went and bought a Betsey Johnson polyester jumpsuit, because that was the best I could do,” she continued.

sharon stone at academy awardsThe “Basic Instinct” star did her own glam for the 64th Annual Academy Awards.Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

“I’m doing my own hair and makeup and I was just like, ‘Wow, this is awful. Like, how am I going to do this, right?'”

Once Stone arrived, she was seated close to the stage and received rave reviews from her fellow actors, including Anthony Hopkins.

“When I walked by, he put his hands together and put them over his head like a champion and held them up to me when I passed him. I was like, ‘Oh my God, he saw my movie,” the screen siren said.

sharon stone in black dressStone’s style has certainly improved since her early days. Getty Images sharon stone in gap shirtStone layered a Gap shirt beneath an Armani tuxedo dress at the 1996 Oscars.Corbis via Getty Images

Stone might have had styling issues in 1992, but she’d go on to make Oscars fashion history in the years to come.

In 1996, she attended the ceremony in a black Gap shirt layered beneath her own Armani tuxedo dress after the custom pink Vera Wang gown she was meant to wear wound up ruined.

For more Page Six Style you love…



“It came and the FedEx guy dropped it out of the back of his truck and backed up over it. The box broke open, and the dress had a black tire track down the whole front. The day before the Oscars,” Stone said on on Naomi Campbell‘s “No Filter With Naomi” YouTube series in 2020.

sharon stone at the oscarsStone made fashion history when she wore a white button-up on the carpet. WireImage

And in 1998, Stone paired an unbuttoned white shirt, also from Gap, with a lavender Vera Wang skirt.

The elegant menswear-inspired moment has influenced generations of actresses since — including Zendaya, who wore a similar look by Valentino Haute Couture at the 2022 Oscars.