2002 in Jean Paul Gaultier
Nicole was nominated for Moulin Rouge, but only as part of the ensemble. (The acting nods were to Halle Berry for Monster's Ball, Judi Dench for Iris, Renee for Bridget Jones, Sissy Spacek for In The Bedroom, and Jennifer Connelly for A Beautiful Mind. I feel like... that's crowded and Halle deserved that win, but I'm still surprised Kidman didn't knock one of the others out?) This feels like an intentionally all-business outfit: "My movie is big and loud and colorful and willfully silly at times, but I am a serious actress who seriously acted in it."
2003 in Gucci
And indeed, the next year she got a solo nod and a group nod for The Hours, an extremely serious movie in which she acted extremely seriously through a prosthetic nose. She won the Oscar -- it is her only Oscar, in fact -- but lost the SAG to Renee in "Chicago." I do not like this dress or hair. I do not like it anywhere.
2011 in Nina Ricci
This year, she lost for Rabbit Hole. (The only SAG she has won was for Big Little Lies.) I don't love this dress from the front -- it looks like she's at a formal funeral where everyone was handed tiny flower necklaces as a way of acknowledging the deceased's new life as part of the soil -- but once you get the side view...
Surprise, I still don't like it.
2013 in Vivienne Westwood
Nic was a double nominee this year, for Hemingway & Gellhorn and The Paperboy. This dress looks sort of... crunchy and unfinished.
2016 in Gucci
She went flowy for Grace of Monaco, in a Gucci that I always think of as part of its circus collection. It's a lot less twee than some of them, and her hair looks amazing. It's a freaking Pantene ad.
"Hello my sweet cheeky treasure nugget, I'm so pleased you borrowed my texture spray."
2017 in Gucci
This one was for "Lion," in which she was very good (as was Dev Patel, but everyone was hell-bent on giving a trophy to freaking Casey Affleck for Manchester By The Sea). This dress was divisive enough to make both our best AND worst polls, though she got more votes in Best. Personally, I enjoy it. As far as her truly Out There fashion choices go, it's a great color and it fits really well, which is not always the case.
2018 in Armani
She probably wishes she'd won in that one, but instead she got the trophy in this brown number. Well, in fairness, it's a shimmery bronze, and I actually like it (that lipstick was a perfect pairing). But between this and DUELING PARROTS, which do you want in YOUR career photo album?!?
2020 in Michael Kors
This nom was for Bombshell, and she looks the part. This to me feels like the better version of the blue one she wore back in 2013 - as if they studied that, and figured out their errors, and solved them.