Actress Kate Winslet celebrates her 50th birthday on October 5, and while the Oscar-winning actress is celebrated for her powerhouse performances, she’s also long been admired as a style icon. From the red carpet to film festivals, the Titanic actress has consistently dazzled with her timeless elegance, modern sophistication and effortless glamour. Whether in sleek black gowns, bold tailoring, or striking pops of color, her fashion choices always embody confidence and class. As she celebrates this milestone, HELLO! looks back at some of her most memorable red carpet looks that prove her style and attitude is every bit as legendary as her career.
Kate stunned in a glossy black strapless gown with a dramatic train, keeping the look sleek and timeless at the 88th Annual Academy Awards Oscars.
"I think women as they get older become juicier and sexier, and more embedded in their truth and who they are, and more powerful and more able to walk through the world and care less. And that is an empowering thing," she said on the How to Fail podcast.
At the Toronto International Film Festival, Kate wowed in a fitted white gown accented with black lace at the waist and neckline, adding a touch of classic glamour.
The star was refreshingly honest about awards season in an interview with Vogue. "I do want to say to any woman who is trying to emulate a Hollywood look: it’s a myth. It’s honestly a myth," she said. "Women on the red carpet have been sat in hair and make-up for four hours to look like that and probably had facials every day during the week in the run up to the event. I know because I’ve been there and had that many facials."
Kate kept things elegant at the New York Film Festival in a floor-length black gown, elevated with intricate, colorful jeweled embroidery across the bodice and shoulders.
"Even if an actress walks out on a red carpet and happens to look amazing in whatever she’s wearing, the fact people will say [she] 'cuts a fine figure' or 'honed and toned' or, a dreadful word, 'svelte'. Don’t even say it," Kate told Vogue. "We don’t say that about the men. It’s such an irresponsible thing to do, and it feeds directly into young women aspiring to ideas of perfection that don’t exist."
For a film premiere in London, the star chose a sleek black halterneck gown adorned with shimmering silver embellishments, balancing sophistication with a hint of sparkle.
"Life is too short [to worry about looks]," Kate told Laura Kuenssberg in a BBC interview. "I don’t want to look back and go: why did I worry about that thing? And so guess what? I don’t worry anymore. I’m going to live my life, I’m going to enjoy it, get on with it."
Kate looked effortlessly chic in a form-fitting black one-shoulder dress, paired with statement drop earrings for a minimalist yet refined finish.
"The discussion about how Mare [her character in Mare of Easttown, who was depicted without make-up] looked blew my mind," Kate told Ryan Gilbey in an interview. "People were asking, 'Did she gain weight? Didn’t she look frumpy? Wasn’t that brave of her?' But why should that be brave? Maybe Mare will be the tipping point, and we’re going to stop scrutinising women on-screen quite so much."
Breaking from gowns, Kate turned heads in a bold red halter-neck jumpsuit cinched with a black belt at the Zurich Film Festival.
"I don't know a single contemporary of mine who grew up seeing her mother looking in the mirror and saying, 'I look nice!'", Kate told Harper's Bazaar. She said: "My mother never did, it was always, 'Oh God, I don't think I can wear this, do I look hippy, does my bum look big?'"
Kate exuded sharp elegance in an ivory tailored pantsuit, softened with delicate black floral embroidery at the Golden Globes event. The star has often walked the red carpet in chic white pantsuits, a trademark of hers.
"I have a lot of love in my life – I’m very lucky," Kate told Vogue in 2023. "I have an incredible husband, my kids are great, I have a really good extended family – that’s always my touchstone."
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The Oscar-winning actress made her directorial debut alongside her son Joe Anders, who wrote the screenplay for Goodbye June, and premiered the film in London's Mayfair
