Julia Roberts Breaks Down 17 Memorable Looks From 1978 To Now

What's my style? In a word, Edward.

[Edward] Chic and effortless.

Chic and effortless.

You know, my style is chic effortless.

I was told that once by a friend,

and so I'm gonna just go with that.

[bright music]

Hi, British Vogue. My name is Julia Roberts.

And this is my Life in Looks.

What will it be? This is me before I met Serge Normant.

As is very clear by this haircut.

I had no future at that point

and I had no tweezers either, apparently.

Look at my eyebrows.

Well, I wore this outfit a lot.

The jacket, I thought I had a big butt

and that's why I wore that jacket like that in the movie.

And why I have a plastic chicken foot as my accessory.

I don't know.

The funny thing about this dress

is I think it was about $20.

It was, I think black and white

and the costume designer changed it up

to make it a little bit different

and the boots were really uncomfortable.

Marilyn Vance was so great.

She made the red dress that I wore.

She made the polka dot dress that I wear to the polo match.

I remember her to be very caring

about how I felt in the clothes

because I'm not really comfortable wearing such bare things.

And she was very mindful and respectful of that

and I appreciated that.

This was one of my all-time favorite outfits

for the Golden Globes.

I went for Steel Magnolias.

I did my hair, my girlfriend did my makeup,

and I got this suit at Armani in Beverly Hills.

I went into the men's department

and they had an in-store tailor

and they tailored it to fit me.

I don't even know that people wore really fancy gowns

to the Golden Globes then the way they do now.

But I thought that I was very extra in this outfit.

I could not have known that it was gonna become

this like statement outfit.

I just thought I looked fabulous and I still have that suit.

I can't believe how tan I am in this photo. I'm adorable.

I made all the necklaces that I'm wearing in this picture.

This looks like I'm at the airport

and it's a paparazzi picture,

so I'm smiling through terror, no doubt.

Back in these days, there were no fashion rules.

You just wore whatever you wanted to wear.

And I wore jeans and a white T-shirt all the time.

And I think obviously wearing this black blazer,

I thought I was very dressed up.

I'm a little ashamed of these sneakers, I have to say.

All these pictures, when my 19-year-old daughter sees them,

she's like, Mom, where are those pants?

Where's that jacket?

Because now what's old is new and cool again.

This was Richard Tyler.

Obviously the suit is a theme in my life.

And short hair, cute. Stockings, maybe a swing and a miss.

Another little statue of gold in my hand. Always fun.

Oh, now I do not know who this woman is.

She's got quite a look here. I'm kind of staring at her.

This was at an event in Las Vegas and one of the few times

I ever have shown my belly button in public.

I feel really good about that right now

because my belly button doesn't look like that anymore.

This was Ralph Lauren. How do I remember that?

High boobs, low waist. It's fabulous.

Oh, Vivienne Tam skirt. I loved this skirt.

I had it in two colors.

I have a picture of myself and Muhammad Ali from this night

that is on my shelf at home.

This might have been the sweater that I wore

in that scene in Notting Hill with Hugh at the end,

because it looks the same.

I mean, this is pre stylist.

This is just when you put on what you think looks nice.

This is a Cynthia Rowley dress

that I bought in her store in downtown Manhattan

for the Stepmom premiere.

I loved it so much. I just thought it was so beautiful.

It fit perfectly.

I don't do a lot of strapless, historically speaking,

and I thought it was fantastic.

When did I get a stylist?

Let's hurry up and get a stylist, shall we?

Vivienne Tam, this was the premiere of Notting Hill

in London.

I waved and people saw I had armpit hair. It was a scandal.

I could scandalize you people right now

if I took my jacket off.

Oh, Erin Brockovich, fabulous. So fabulous.

The engineering that went into creating this bust line

we had, you know, NASA send a couple people in to help.

We accomplished our goals. Was very impressed.

Disappointing at the end of the day

when I took it all off.

I mean, look at the little side skin. Sexy.

Our costume designer on this, Jeffrey Kurland,

who I had worked with on My Best Friend's Wedding,

and then he did Ocean's 11 and Ocean's 12.

A brilliant costume designer.

And he really just found all the right pieces

to create the sense of her style and her vibe

and the way that she portrayed herself.

Sometimes costumes, when they're so unlike

what you would wear normally, make it that much easier

to get into character.

It was a good, extra boost into character study.

And then I won the Oscar.

Oh, the next page. What did I just say?

This dress, Oscars are on a Sunday,

and I tried this dress on on Saturday.

Fabulous stylist, Deborah Mason.

Amazing, beautiful woman, just incredible.

And she went to Valentino

and went into their basement archive and rooted around

and found this dress, brought it to my hotel the Saturday

before the Oscars, I tried it on, it fit perfectly.

We did no alterations to it. And they let me keep it.

People say, How do I know when a script is right for me?

You just read it and you just feel it

and you go, Yep, this is something

that I wanna be a part of.

And it's the same thing I think with any outfit,

whether it be super dressed up or casual.

You know, you put on a pair of jeans

and you go, Oh yeah, these are the jeans for me.

You just know.

The bracelet, I didn't get to keep. But you know what?

Mariah Carey bought it.

That's who has that bracelet right there.

Ah, all right. Ricardo Tisci.

I love Ricardo Tisci inside and out.

This day was fun to spend an entire day

doing a photo shoot where never once did he say Smile.

I think I smiled once and he said, Can you not do that?

And I thought, Hmm, we're best friends. I looked so rad.

This is the coolest moment of my life

and thank God someone took a picture of it.

I like my hair like that too.

Here I am at the Cannes Film Festival

and I'm wearing Armani.

I am terrified here.

Very scary, all these people taking your picture

all at once.

We were there for Money Monster,

a movie I did with this up-and-comer, George Clooney.

Keep your ears out for that name because he's going places.

And I'd never been before 'cause it looks so scary on TV.

So there is this huge flight of stairs to walk up

and I just thought, Wow, that seems kinda dodgy

in these heels.

And I just stepped out of them very quietly

and as I was walking up these stairs, I did think to myself,

Hmm, how will I get my shoes back? It was a statement.

I didn't wanna fall down the fucking stairs.

That was a statement.

Oh, look at this.

Now this is one of my favorite outfits I've ever worn

in my whole life, this Armani jumpsuit.

And look at him, he's such a nice man.

I really adore Giorgio Armani.

He has been a friend and he's a legend

and he's a really beautiful person.

Giorgio Armani is the kind of person

that you can tell he's living his dreams.

He's living his best life. What he does is what he loves.

And this jumpsuit fit me like a glove.

I felt like a million bucks in it. My boobs look good too.

Adidas and Gucci. Do you have to say anything else?

Cute guy in the picture. What was his name again?

George and I met for Oceans 11,

and within about five minutes we were just like,

Oh, we're gonna be best friends forever.

And that's pretty much what happened.

This was going into a talk show

to promote, Ticket to Paradise.

It's such a good outfit. It's really good.

All right, Thom Browne. I love me some Thom Browne

I love a tie, I love a stripe, a coat over the shoulders.

I think an impeccable look.

Just finished shooting the cover of British Vogue.

Richard Curtis, he agreed to do the interview

for the British Vogue piece.

He and his wife have been friends for a really long time.

He is such a great writer and there's just no telling

what he's gonna write down,

but I'm sure it will be witty and clever

and very Richard Curtis.

After very long days of travel

and very long days of promotion,

I worked until about 12:45 last night,

and got up today like it was Christmas morning

to do the cover of British Vogue.

And we had such a good time.

I'm sure if nothing else, that the photos will reflect

the incredible amount of joy that we all felt today.

Thank you. This was super fun.

I'm gonna close our little story time book here.

And thank you very much.