Let's face it, girls! One of the reasons we watch the Oscars is to criticize the stars' choice of gowns. Sometimes, they get it right! But when they don't it is usually a disaster! Take a look at some fashion divas on Oscar Night in years' past.



A historic look at our favorite women's Oscar fashion moments ... from disastrous to divine!

By Kathleen Murphy
Special to MSN Movies

REGAL GRACE: Grace Kelly, 27th Annual Academy Awards, 1955; and 28th Annual Academy Awards, 1956

In 1954, Vogue magazine trumpeted that Grace Kelly, fresh from Philadelphia high society, possessed "the quality that may be a new standard for queens of the silver screen -- quality.

" Kelly's ice-blond beauty so tickled Alfred Hitchcock's perverse fancy ("To Catch a Thief," "Rear Window"), the portly Master of Suspense instructed uber-designer Edith Head to "make her look like a princess, a piece of Dresden china."

The night Oscar went home with Kelly (snubbing Judy Garland in "A Star Is Born"), Head dressed her Dresden doll in a sheath of ice-blue French satin, with matching full-length coat and yellow rosebuds nestled in her elegant chignon.

The following year, Kelly bid farewell to Hollywood, looking every inch the impeccable American princess who would, just a month later, wed Monaco's Prince Rainier. (Bettman/Corbis



A PAIR OF FAIR LADIES: Audrey Hepburn and Julie Andrews, 37th Annual Academy Awards, 1965

At elegant ease in her perfectly understated sheath, long gloves and minimal jewelry, Hepburn is at once adorable gamine and haute couture mannequin.

Arm-in-arm with Broadway queen Andrews, Hepburn smiles graciously, showing no strain or pain despite being snubbed big-time by the Academy Awards. Though Andrews originated the role of Eliza in "My Fair Lady" on stage, she was passed over in favor of Hepburn -- whose singing was dubbed by Marni Nixon -- for the movie.

"My Fair Lady" garnered 12 nominations and eight wins, with nary a nom for Hepburn, while the luminous lady she replaced took home the Best Actress award for "Mary Poppins." (Bettmann / Corbis)



FUNNY GIRL: Barbra Streisand, followed, not too closely, by Ingrid Bergman, 41st Annual Academy Awards, 1969

Streisand's taste during the '60s ran to creative combos cobbled together from vintage gear, earning her a place on the list of the 10 Most Imaginative Women in Current Fashion.

For the Oscars, she conspired with Scaasi, a designer not known for restraint, to dream up a déclassé cross between stripper and schoolgirl couture. Something like breast- and bum-bands, along with a lining of nude silk, made Scaasi's "mod" confection of sheer black tulle palatable for national TV.

When regal Ingrid Bergman, attired in flowing white chiffon and shimmering silver bugle beads, announced the historic tie for Best Actress -- Katharine Hepburn for "The Lion in Winter" and Streisand for "Funny Girl" -- Barbra swallowed the gum she'd been nervously chewing, yanked up her bell-ottoms and headed for the stage.

Unfortunately, the glare of a hundred klieg lights illuminated her "naked" derriere, providing TV viewers a startlingly intimate glimpse of Funny Girl going away. "Haut tackiness!" blared next day's headlines (Bettmann / Corbis)



EMERALD ISLE ARISTOCRAT: Anjelica Huston, 58th Annual Academy Awards, 1986

"Prizzi's Honor" had earned nominations for her father John Huston (Best Director) and her boyfriend Jack Nicholson (Best Actor), and the lady herself would take home an Oscar for her classy performance as Mafia princess Maerose Prizzi.
Anjelica Huston grew up on dad's 110-acre Galway estate and called Ireland home, so she chose to wear emerald-green to the Oscars, for good luck and to honor Eire.

Designer Tzetzi Ganev conjured up this gorgeous bias-cut, single-sleeved gown out of $100-a-yard, four-ply silk so slinky he described it as hanging "like a dead body," taking the shape of whatever the supple weave adorned.

Of the former Vogue model and daughter of a Balanchine ballerina, Ganev gushed, "When she walks into a room ... everybody turns to look at her.

And she looked like royalty in her Oscar dress. She was like the Queen of England." Unfortunate choice of queens aside, Ganev spoke true: The first third-generation Oscar winner (following granddad Walter and dad John) was simply ravishing. (Bettmann / Corbis)



MOHAWK GLAM: Cher, 58th Annual Academy Awards, 1986

The flamboyant Native-American/Armenian was royally miffed by the academy's slighting of her arguably outstanding performances in "Silkwood" (she was nominated, but lost) and "Mask" (not even nominated) -- attributing Hollywood's snobbery to her penchant for young lovers (Tom Cruise was current) and extravagant Bob Mackie creations that only a Vegas showgirl would wear.

If the academy demanded conservative glamour, Cher decided to deliver a shock to the system : "I want to look like a Mohawk," she told Mackie, and he obliged his "big Barbie doll" with the most notorious costume in Academy Award history, essentially a bikini top and loincloth with elaborate embellishments.

Channeling Indian warrior, spider woman and Queen of Outer Space, Cher towered seven feet, topped by her rooster-feathered headdress. Black satin knee-high boots and one blue and one brown contact lens provided final fashion fillips.

When Cher took the stage as a presenter, the first words out of her mouth were as dry as a martini: "As you can see, I did receive my Academy Award booklet on how to dress like a serious actress."

Oscar went home with the bad girl two years later, for "Moonstruck." (Gary Lewis/Camera Press/Retna Ltd.)

We shall find out tonight what this year brings in fairly equal doses of the disatrous and the divine.