Oscar Dresses: Julia Roberts' Oscar dress 2001

Oscar Dresses: Julia Roberts' Oscar dress 2001.

Julia Roberts in Oscar dress by Valentino at 2001 Academy Awards

The Oscar Winner:

And the winner of the best Oscar Dressis Roman couturier Valentino, with a startling vintage black and white number which Julia Roberts - or her stylist - found in one of LA's many pricey second-hand clothes shops. Best Actress Julia Roberts looked stunning in a vintage black and white Valentino Oscar Dress recalling the golden age of Hollywood.

Celebrity in Oscar dresses:

Julia Roberts is one of only a handful of actresses who can command $20million a film - but , Hollywood's most coveted prize has eluded Julia Roberts. Now, with her first Oscar under her belt, the Erin Brockovich star's career is set to scale even greater heights. And as a gushing Julia picked up her Best Actress gong at yesterday's 73rd Oscars ceremony, she knew it. She couldn't contain that famous grin as she beamed: "I love the world. I'm so happy."

Julia, who had failed to win an Oscar after two previous nominations for Steel Magnolias and Pretty Woman, ignored organisers' pleas to keep speeches under 45 seconds.

And she wasn't even in the running to win the TV which hosts had put up as a tongue-in-cheek prize for the winner with the shortest speech.

She joked: "I already have a television so I'm just going to keep on going. I may never be here again." Amid her excitement, Julia forgot to mention the real-life legal assistant on which her film was based, but she later apologised for the gaffe.

Designer of Oscar dresses:

In a year when movie stars were kissing their stylists goodbye, it could have been an anything-goes Oscars. But it wasn't - and Julia Roberts said it all. With Oscar Dressss by Calvin Klein, Vera Wang, Michael Kors, Ralph Lauren and Giorgio Armani at the ready, Roberts went for vintage Valentino couture Oscar Dress from the fall '82 collection, an old-style Hollywood glamour Oscar Dress if ever there was one. ("It was a hard choice," she admitted.)

Make no mistake, it was all about couture, especially French. Just ask Jennifer Lopez, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Hilary Swank: Ready-to-wear just won't cut it, even if it's for next fall. There was skin this year, but none of those cutouts and plunging necklines (except on Olatz Schnabel, whose Valentino was as wrong as Julia's was right). Swank, last year's fairy princess letdown, replaced J. Lo as the most bodacious babe in the house. "Touch it, feel it," Swank invited onlookers as she caressed her molded Versace beaded column.

Oscar dresses by popular designers at the annual Academy Awards ceremony.