Great Outfits in Fashion History: Lucy Liu's Funky Oscars After Party Gown

She knew all about camp before it became a Met Gala theme.

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.

Nothing says the 2000s like cultural icon Lucy Liu, whose prolific career spans “Ally McBeal,” “Charlie’s Angels,” “Sex and the City,” “Kill Bill” and many memorable on-screen looks. Most of us remember her as O-Ren Ishii, a.k.a. Cottonmouth, in “Kill Bill,” where she wore a snow white kimono in a duel to the death, but we also can’t forget her as Alex Munday, rocking everything from skin-tight leather suits to glittering red evening gowns. She’s been just as much of a style icon off camera, especially throughout the late ’90s/early ’00s.

Take her ensemble for the Vanity Fair Oscars after-party in 2001: Already a household name by this point, the actor wore a pink and black paneled dress with a corsage-like wrist band, reminding us of prom. The mermaid silhouette gave Liu a feminine look that was tight around the waist, then flared out towards the bottom. The striped pattern, meanwhile, is reminiscent of a circus tent — campy, in the best way possible.

She completed the look with a pair of subtle dangling silver earrings that matched the silver brooch on her dress strap and corsage, plus a small black clutch. Her makeup was kept to a minimum with pretty blush and glossy lips.

Shop evening gowns inspired by Liu in the gallery below: