Great Outfits in Fashion History (Beauty Edition): Michelle Williams's 2006 Oscars Look

The actor paired a candy-apple-red lip with a canary-yellow gown with now-iconic results.

There are perfectly good celebrity style moments, and then there are the looks that really stick with you, the ones you try desperately to recreate at home. In ‘Great Outfits in Fashion History,’ Fashionista editors are revisiting their all-time favorite lewks.

I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in having reached the “re-watching ‘Dawson’s Creek'” stage of quarantine life. (It’s problematic! It’s nostalgic! It’s full of before-they-were-super-famous cameos!) But I’m here to talk about an entirely different era in Michelle Williams history: the 2006 Oscars.

When Williams was nominated in — and won — the category of Best Supporting Actress for her role in “Brokeback Mountain,” she walked the red carpet on the arm of Heath Ledger (sob, I truly can’t even go there) and she wore a canary-yellow Vera Wang gown that became instantly iconic. (Fashionista’s Fawnia Soo Hoo has cited it as her favorite Oscars look of all time.) But for all the attention that sunny, deep-V, pleated dress gets, it’s the beauty look that Williams paired it with that I’m here to celebrate.

The actor’s candy-apple-red lipstick had that perfect movie-star shine to it, and it served as the perfect foil to her vibrant, yellow ensemble. The low side bun and romantic, vintage-y face-framing curls were truly the chef’s (uh, hairstylist’s) kiss of the whole thing.

When I think about truly memorable Oscars beauty moments in recent history, this seems to always be the first to come to mind.

If this look has you suddenly overcome with the urge to find something yellow in your wardrobe and then buy a candy-apple-red lipstick to pair it with, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite product picks in the gallery below.