Catherine Zeta-Jones Talks 30 Years of Gowns, Galas, and All That Jazz

Hi Vogue.

This is Catherine Zeta-Jones,

and I'm so excited to be here today

to share my life and looks with you.

I've got so many cool photographs

that I haven't seen in years.

So I'm really looking forward

to looking into them with you.

1987, playing the role of Peggy Sawyer

in my gorgeous tap shoes.

This was the very end of the show.

The dress was actually a very light blue

with little sequins running down it

with a bright red lining.

And my tap shoes were gold with a little touch of blue.

I was the second understudy,

never thinking I would ever get on to play.

But from a chorus girl, I became the lead actress

in a musical, which was my dream

since the day I can remember.

1992 from Jeff Wayne's musical version of Spartacus.

Me looking gorgeously bronzed

and very kind of Cleopatra-esque,

in the desert in L.A.

This was like a beautiful kind of desert scape.

We'd be dancing and singing in it.

It was great.

And then ironically, years down the line,

I marry a man whose father is Spartacus, Kirk Douglas.

So it's kind of weird and spooky and wonderful

all at the same time.

1998 was one of those changes in my life.

I left London.

If I was ever going to give myself a chance

to go to America, now was the time.

Steven Spielberg calls me in for a casting

of The Mask of Zorro.

I got the role and my life changed again.

So I got to wear the most beautiful costumes.

Wonderful costume designer, Graciela Mazon.

And she created the most beautiful attention to detail,

fabulous costumes for me.

This particular dress that I'm wearing here,

the lace was antique and all the embroidery

was done by hand.

It was my favorite deep red, you know,

and gold embroidery.

It's the very first time that

the two characters come together.

It's tough to be in a corset.

I never took it off because you work hard.

You're dancing and you're sword fighting

and it's 100 degrees in the shade in Mexico.

And I always keep thinking, it's on film forever.

Because I know I'd be so pissed if I was in the cinema

and I'd see that, hm, that was the day that

I had a really big taco lunch and I released my corset.

Yeah, I can see.

My waist isn't as cinched as it could have been

in that scene.

And it would have ruined the whole movie for me.

I suffered for my art

and I would gladly, gladly do it again.

I saw this Thierry Mugler dress

and it was in my favorite pink.

It was such defined, sharp lines.

So as feminine as this dress is,

there's something very strong and acutely cut.

You know, it's just everything in a dress

that I love for this event, at that time,

in France, it was pretty amazing.

Unfortunately, I don't have this dress.

I remember this dress had to go back to Paris

because I think it was a sample dress for a show.

And so it was kind of premiered on the red carpet.

This dress I have.

I loved everything about this dress.

This color, those Chopard diamonds.

I love the way the tiny, tiny beads

were all guided towards the split at the side.

This is a prime example.

Lovely, killer shoes, but literally killer

in the way that I could barely walk for two days.

And that's why I've made my own flats

for Casa Zeta-Jones.

I want my daughter to wear this dress again.

I just don't want to have the fear

of me not being able to get into this dress again.

So as a mother, I gladly contribute

to my daughter's wardrobe by giving her

beautiful pieces of art, vintage Versace no less.

Oh my gosh.

It's going to be 20 years in November

that I've been married.

This particular dress was the beginning

of a great, great, great memorable weekend.

I wanted something that was fun.

I wanted something that was black

and then Badgley Mischka were like,

You can't wear black to your rehearsal dinner

for your wedding, you can't.

And then I saw this at the showroom and I went, aha.

It covers everything.

It's floral, it's feminine, it's airy,

it's super comfortable and I've got some black in it.

And so it was one of those dresses that was more elegant

than some rehearsal dinners maybe,

but it was such a kicking off, you know,

the beginning of such a special weekend for us.

It was just perfect for that night.

We do hold the world record for

the longest wedding at the Plaza.

When musicals are good on film, they're good.

When they're bad, they're horrid.

I was really lucky to be in the piece de resistance

of the musical movie-making form.

But this was really one of those moments

where everything came together.

The cast, the crew, the talent of Colleen Atwood.

She'd come and watch me in rehearsals.

And she'd see how I moved and she'd know

what she wanted to put on my hips

so that when I moved, it would have movement.

All That Jazz is definitely my favorite.

It's my favorite costume, it's my favorite song,

it's my favorite dance.

It's the song I get played to when I walk on a stage.

I'm so happy that it's never going to leave me.

I remember shooting this cover with my

partner in crime, Renee,

and we were both very excited to be working

with Annie again, who's always so great.

I love the cream and the black.

I love our skin coloring next to each other.

I just think it's a beautiful, beautiful cover.

I love the fact that we're both wearing

our fishnets with our little homage to Chicago.

I think I'd just found out I was pregnant

in the shoot actually.

This was the end of that time.

That capsule of madness and craziness,

but magic, you know.

And the joy of me being with child

and being nominated for an Oscar that year.

And Donatella had made me this beautiful

silk empire-style dress, which was perfect.

It hit me right under the bust

and it was flowy and comfortable.

Easy to sit in for a very long Oscar ceremony.

It is beautiful in nature, tent-like in shape.

And then I took home my golden boy,

I remember Queen Latifah and I came up

out of a trap door, and as the crane

was taking us up, I remember thinking

I've got 10 days to go before I give birth.

And I'm standing on a crane being hoisted up

with Queen Latifah to sing live at the Oscars.

It's like, shouldn't you be at home eating chocolate

with your feet up, with your husband massaging your feet?

Va va voom, man.

It was pink to make the boys wink, Versace.

This was a big premiere because we had everybody there.

Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, you know, everybody.

The dress was a very old Hollywood glamor design.

It's Jean Harlow, or Hedy Lamarr.

It was all finely beaded, which hit the light.

It was very delicate, but again, structured.

When I'm in a dress, I like to feel

like I'm in a dress.

Maybe it's all the years of wearing corsets,

but I like to know I'm in it.

I'm zipped up, I'm cinched in the right places.

Then I feel very confident.

This is a love letter to Versace, isn't it?

And quite rightly so, because they've been with me

through thick and thin throughout the years.

Again, this is another iconic dress.

And there was a lot of fabric in that skirt.

But it was so beautiful and such a beautiful pastel shade.

It was like a Princess dress.

And for me, this was one hell of a special night.

To be nominated for a Tony and then to win the Tony

for best actress in a musical

was an extraordinary thing for me.

You forget how clothes are important parts

in iconic moments in your life.

A great moment for me personally was when

the Queen honored me with a CBE,

which is a Commander of the British Empire.

To have my husband with me and my kids,

going to Buckingham Palace.

It was an extraordinary day.

We all wear hats in Britain for these occasions.

You just do.

Not that I frequent the palace very often,

but when one does, one would wear a hat.

I had Philip Treacy do my hat.

Michael Kors was a dear friend of the families

and part of mine for years, pretty much said,

Look, what about this with a great hat?

I wanted something very simple.

And it was a beautiful kind of putty silver.

Kind of very, very classic.

Coming from watching movies, especially in my favorite,

like the '50s and the '60s, movie stars

went to the airport, they went to the airport.

It was an event.

It was just so chic and Jackie Onassis.

And anyway, this particular look,

this is my classic Chanel jacket.

And that's my collection of my Hermes bags,

which I love.

I was flying to L.A.

My husband's behind me if you look.

He's the one giving the tip for the bags.

Meanwhile, I'm strutting through the airport,

front and center.

Those boots, they were killer boots.

Let me tell you something.

I regretted wearing those boots that day

because I had an almighty blister

from another fabulous pair of shoes

that will remain nameless.

So I zip into one of the airport's stores

and I found myself a pair of flats

made by Butterfly Twists, which is a British company.

And that's how I'm now collaborating with them

making my own flats.

Oh no, my husband's not paying the bell guy.

My husband's signing an autograph.

Sorry. [laughing]

This is my golden moment with my father-in-law

at the Golden Globes,

This dress is up there with my all-time favorites.

It was sexy.

I wore like a 1950s bathing suit pant

that cut me at the hip bone.

And the whole of it.

The bottom was sheer except for the applique.

And it was sliced right down to my breastbone.

Well, further down than that.

It was the ultimate dress for me.

It is something very special.

And when my father-in-law saw me, his eyes went googly.

He always flirted with me,

but he said, That dress is magnificent.

He kept saying to me backstage, Who made the dress?

And I'd say, Zuhair Murad.

Who made the dress?

[laughing] It's not a name he was familiar with

I don't think, but it was a great evening.

And we went on stage and he had, quite rightly so,

a beautiful standing ovation

that seemed to go on forever.

I think that night was such a special night for him

being back on stage, being around his peers,

and being with me that night.

It was, it was wonderful.

Thank you all so much for watching.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

And so we'll start again from this day on.

I'll see you in about 30 years.