Elizabeth Taylor’s Style Evolution Through the Years, in All Her Classic Hollywood Glory
Though actor Elizabeth Taylor started out as a child star in films like Lassie Comes Home, National Velvet, and Little Women throughout the 1940s, it wasn’t until the 1950s that she ascended to true Hollywood royalty. Her purportedly violet eyes and porcelain features transfixed audiences in films like A Place in the Sun, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Butterfield 8. She was married eight times, to seven men (she married Richard Burton twice). She won two Oscars and was nominated for three more, eventually nabbing the Academy Awards’s humanitarian prize as well. As her on-screen career waned, she had a second act as an AIDS activist, befriending Elton John and Michael Jackson in the process.
And throughout it all, she showed off her decadent, globe-trotting style—she became perhaps just as well known for her extravagant jewelry box as the film roles that brought her acclaim. (Many of her biggest statements, of course, being gifts exchanged with ex-husband Burton, who once said, “I introduced her to beer and she introduced me to Bulgari”). She paired high-wattage jewels with brightly colored chiffon and an array of fur coats, swaddling herself in white fur any chance she got. See a few of Taylor’s best archival style moments, here.
1947
Taylor was the original horse girl.
1949
Getting her angles during girls time in 1949.
1948
The actor wore a quilted velveteen skirt and a rhinestone-buttoned blouse by Hi-Dee for a 1948 photo shoot.
1950
Taylor with fiancé Conrad Hilton at the Auteuil Racecourse steeplechase in 1950.
1950
Taylor looked straight out of a movie as she emerged from a limousine on her wedding day to Conrad ‘Nicky’ Hilton in 1950.
1955
A bombshell moment poolside in 1955.
1956
Taylor personified Old Hollywood at the Moby Dick premiere in 1956.
1961
Taylor, in a wide-brimmed had and silk, A-line dress, headed back to Hollywood from Moscow with then-husband Eddie Fisher in 1961.
1961
Taylor showed off her Oscar for Best Actress in Butterfield 8, with her husband, American singer and actor Eddie Fisher, at the 33rd Academy Awards in 1961.
1961
Cigarette in hand, Taylor looked satisfied at a Hollywood party after winning an Oscar.
1968
Taylor looked positively regal in a yellow coat with marabou feather trim and a matching head piece for the Maxim’s 75th anniversary party in 1968.
1968
Taylor was the ultimate showgirl at the A Flea in Her Ear Paris premiere in 1968.
1969
At The Plaza Hotel, she matched her pooch to her look in 1969.
1970
With then-husband Richard Burton, the actor wore a blue sundress with a yellow embroidered sash to the annual Publicists Guild Awards in 1970.
1970
Taylor and Maria Bruton at a formal event in New York circa 1970.
1975
Taylor and her fifth (and sixth) husband, Richard Burton, arrived at Heathrow Airport in London in 1975. A month earlier, they had married each other for the second time in Botswana.
1976
Taylor, wearing a strapless red dress, led stars like Gene Kelly, Jack Nicholson, and Audrey Hepburn in America the Beautiful at the 48th annual Academy Awards in 1976.
1980
Taylor departed the Carlyle Hotel in 1980 in peak movie star style.
1982
The star, in a very mod crocheted look with a wicker bag and head scarf, on holiday with Richard Burton.
1982
Another fur-trimmed coat, but of course.
1982
Taylor, ever the fan of a white fur coat, paired it with black heeled booties and a black beret in 1982.
1985
Taylor, in a majestic sea blue dress, with Roddy McDowall in 1985.
1985
Taylor wore a black long-sleeved gown with a daring front cutout for the 42nd annual Golden Globes in 1985, where she won the Cecil B. DeMille award.
1985
Taylor, who never met a white coat she couldn’t match to an occasion, celebrated her 53rd birthday in London in 1985.
1986
Taylor stunned in a black, white, and grey gown at the Film Society of Lincoln Center Tribute to her career in 1986.
1991
You know you’re iconic when you can wear a sweater with images of your various acting roles.
1992
Diamonds and pearls were Taylor’s best friends.
1993
Butter yellow never looked this good.
1997
Taylor concocted a birthday look for the ages—teal velvet with a beaded chiffon jacket—at the ABC special celebrating her 65th birthday with Michael Jackson.
1998
Taylor wore a futuristic silver cloak (and a brief sighting of her silver hair) when she attended a CFDA honors in her name in 1998.
2002
Even in her older years, Taylor still favored fur trim.
2005
The star attained Peak Muu Muu status in a mint green ensemble with silver trim embellishments, accompanied by Elton John in Chopard jewelry, at the singer’s 13th annual Oscars party in West Hollywood.
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