Why Rose McGowan Wore Her Infamous VMAs Dress 25 Years Ago
It's been 25 years since Rose McGowan made headlines at the MTV Video Music Awards for walking the red carpet in a daring, see-through dress.
“They slut-shamed me like crazy," she told Yahoo! Entertainment of the backlash she received at the time. "It was kind of hard. I hadn’t really ever dealt with global media shaming. But it prepared me for later on it happening to me a whole bunch. It was also like, ‘Sorry you’re square and I’m not. Bummer.'"
Let's take a closer look at this iconic moment—and the new meaning it takes on today.
Related: What to Expect From the 2023 VMAs
What did Rose McGowan wear to the 1998 VMAs?
The Charmed actress hit the red carpet at the 1998 awards show wearing a barely-there dress from Maja, a label from designer Maja Hanson.
In a 2020 interview with Page Six, Hanson recalled McGowan hand-picking the dress while at a fitting with then-boyfriend (and VMAs date) Marilyn Manson, who was putting together his own look for the event, a custom fur-trimmed leopard ensemble.
“While we were fitting him, she was having a look at the clothes,” Hanson said. “We had this storage closet in the back of the studio where we archived pieces from past collections, and remember her going in, trying it on, coming back out and asking if she could borrow it. We were like, ‘Yes, of course!'”
What was Rose McGowan's 1998 VMAs dress made of?
Hanson explained to Page Six that the dress was hand-made from one rectangular swatch of iridescent beaded mesh in front and hand-strung glass beads in back. “We called it the ‘Chain Dress,’ but it wasn’t actually made from chains,” Hanson told the outlet.
Fun fact: The dress was originally modeled by Jaime King, who then went by "James," on Maja’s Spring 1997 runway.
Why did Rose McGowan wear a see-through dress to the 1998 VMAs?
It's easy to assume McGowan chose her 1998 VMAs look for the shock value alone, but she's since shared a deeper explanation for her look.
“It was my first big public appearance after being sexually assaulted," she explained to Yahoo! Entertainment in 2020. (In 2017, McGowan publicly accused disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein of raping her in 1997; Weinstein denied the claims but has since been convicted of other sex crimes and will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.)
Related: Harvey Weinstein Sentenced to 23 Years in Prison—Rose McGowan, Kate Beckinsale and More React
"So it was like at the end of Gladiator when he comes out and he's like, ‘Are you not entertained?’ And if you look at me, I did it with power. I didn't do it with my hand on my hip to be sexy," McGowan continued.
"Most of the women that have done, you know, homages or dressed kind of like that on the red carpet, it's a calculated, sexy move to turn people on. Mine was like, ‘I’m gonna f--k with your brain.'"
Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
Looking back, McGowan doesn't regret her bold fashion choice, but she has taken a beat to consider why she made it. “I'm like, ‘Why did I do that?’" she told Yahoo! Entertainment. "I've had to look at that. You know, when you do stuff sometimes on instinct and in a mood, like when a mood overtakes you, you analyze what it was that brought you to that mood or that choice. So, I've certainly had a lot of time to analyze and I'm looking at the timeline. But I completely understand why I did what I did.”
IMAGO / ZUMA Wire
The 2023 VMAs will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 12 at 8 p.m. ET.
