Remember Angelina Jolie's bombshell leather Versace dress?
Remember when Angelina Jolie wore a plunging black gown to the red carpet of 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith,' redefining the leather look?
Twenty years ago, the action-romance blockbuster premiered in June in Los Angeles as rumors of Jolie's real on-set affair with co-star Brad Pitt reached a fever pitch, ushering in a decade of 'Brangelina' as a tabloid fixture.
Jolie arrived at the film premiere in a Versace gown with a sheer black neckline trim and lining that billowed from a thigh-high slit as she exited a limo and walked into the Mann Village Theatre in Westwood. With her hair styled in a voluminous blow-out and her jewelry kept simple, the star was continuing a recent streak of polished and glamorous red-carpet appearances — including the prior year's Marilyn Monroe-like white silk Oscars gown — a departure from her earlier dress codes of low-slung pants, muscle tees and gothic gowns. (Pitt, conversely, dressed down for the premiere in jeans, a brown bomber jacket and bleached hair).
But the leather Versace gown — a tailored silhouette featuring long vertical seams down the front and an open back with two crisscrossed straps — is now widely considered one of Jolie's best looks. It proved that Jolie could still maintain her edgy, bombshell aura as she elevated her style into the more effortless, minimal aesthetic she's known for today.
Her long relationship with Versace has included the green, glittering long-sleeve gown she wore to the 2011 Golden Globes; the statuesque metal mesh dress she arrived in for the Rome premiere of 'The Eternals' in 2021; and the velvet, high-slit silhouette at the 2012 Oscars that immediately became Internet-famous for the way she posed her right leg.
By 2005, leather had become a hallmark for Jolie, who often drew attention both for her sex appeal and unpredictable nature. The leather wide-belted low-riders she wore to the 'Tomb Raider' premiere in 2001 set pulses racing, as well as the pair she wore in 2000 for 'Gone in Sixty Seconds,' when she arrived to the premiere with then-husband Billy Bob Thornton, who explicitly spelled out their limo dalliance to reporters in a now-infamous clip.
As with her look for the 'Tomb Raider' premiere, Jolie's style choices for 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith' also seemed to be in character long before 'method dressing' became obligatory on the red carpet (or perhaps it is merely a reflection of Jolie's predilection for choosing roles with a similar sense of style).
In the latter film, Jane Smith is a dangerous assassin with a closet full of slinky black dresses, including the dominatrix mini she sports while taking out a mark. Jolie's Versace gown was only missing a concealed garter weapon — that we know of — to fit right in.
Jolie has returned to leather dresses periodically, including a midi tube dress by Michael Kors for the premiere of 'Inglourious Basterds' in 2009 and a strapless design embellished with micro sequins by Versace for 'Maleficent' in 2014. Though Jolie wasn't the only star to embrace leather on the red carpet in '90s and '00s (see Victoria Beckham and Lenny Kravitz), the ingredients of her style can be seen everywhere today, from Louis Vuitton's structured take on the leather gown, worn by Ayo Edebiri to the 75th Emmy Awards, to Dua Lipa's own knockout Versace moment at the 2024 Brit Awards.
Earlier this year, Miley Cyrus wore a crisscross cutout leather dress to the Grammy Awards with a front slit akin to Jolie's 2005 gown, while Florence Pugh seemed to take style notes from Jolie's form-fitting midi looks while promoting 'Thunderbolts' in May. Some stars have taken the BDSM-coded influences even further, with Olivia Rodrigo and Kim Kardashian, among others, opting for eyelet-studded leather gowns and mini dresses by the designer Ludovic de Saint Sernin. But 20 years on, Jolie's dress remains the blueprint.
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