I have always been low maintenance and would usually leave things until the last minute. When Jude [Law, whom Frost was married to at the time] was nominated for an Oscar in 2000, it was the same. I went to the vintage shop One of a Kind in Notting Hill and found this amazing dress that really does feel like a second skin. It’s this lovely cream colour, with a beautiful jewelled high halterneck and a really low back. I think it would have cost a couple of hundred pounds, which I don’t think is too bad for an Oscars dress.
I have friends who are in fashion and they laugh at me because I have always been kind of anti-fashion. I grew up working on the market at Camden Lock and my mum ran an old clothing store. It was always about just throwing clothes on; sometimes they looked good and sometimes they didn’t.
The evening of the Oscars was one of those moments when I felt happy and beautiful. It was an exciting event, something that I thought I might never go to again, and it was a special moment. It’s not often you feel that confident in yourself, inside and out.
I have worn the dress quite a few times over the years, on evenings out or when friends have come round for dinner and I have wanted to dress up. It’s incredibly see-through, but I didn’t realise quite how see-through until I saw pictures with my nipples showing. In those days, you didn’t do things like that and I definitely didn’t do it for attention – it was just a lovely dress. Now, I wear it with a layer underneath. There is something really luscious about it, but I also like wearing it over a striped T-shirt, really clashing two styles. Or with wellies, for a walk.
When I moved to the countryside, I brought all the things that I really cared about and I had to really think about what mattered. I want to give this dress to my daughter, Iris; I think she will look beautiful in it. There are a couple of stains and little holes, but it’s so delicate, beautiful and simple. It’s nice to have a dress that is very dear to me.
New clothes are often characterless, but when you buy something from a vintage store there is a character to it. I love wearing these faded dresses that have a few holes and the odd tea stain. They are still really beautiful and there is something interesting about the stories that they tell and where they have been. I think this dress was handmade, maybe in the 40s – it’s gone to the Oscars and now it’s hanging out in a field in Wiltshire.
