Red dress designed by Diane von Furstenberg and worn by Whitney Houston: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A red dress designed by Diane von Furstenberg and worn by the singer Whitney Houston for her performance of the song “I Have Nothing” at the 1993 Billboard Awards. The dress is a very slim fitting full-length dress made from a red synthetic fabric, with full-length sleeves and a turtleneck collar. The bodice and sleeves of the dress are completely unadorned. Starting below the waist, the skirt is formed by tiers of fabric stitched on a bias. The tiers are of the same fabric as the bodice, and are trimmed all along each hem with beaded tassels of strung red bugle beads, reinforced with red twill tape on the interior. Five (5) tiers on the proper left descend in a criss-cross with the five (5) tiers on the proper right, with each subsequent tier stitched underneath the tier above. The proper right tiers wrap all the way around to the back of the dress, giving the appearance of five (5) tiers on the verso. The dress fastens with an inset red metal zipper that runs from the top of the turtleneck to just above the first tier. The dress is not lined.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1993
• Designed by: Diane von Furstenberg, Belgian, born 1946
• Worn by: Whitney Houston, American, 1963 - 2012
• Type: dresses
• Medium: synthetic fiber, glass beads, metal, and cotton tape
• Dimensions: H x W x D (On form): 67 × 17 × 10 in. (170.2 × 43.2 × 25.4 cm)
• Place used: Universal Amphitheater, Los Angeles, California, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Actors
• Topic: Clothing and dress
• Topic: Costume
• Topic: Costume design
• Topic: Design
• Topic: Fashion
• Topic: Popular music
• Object number: 2014.161.3
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of the Estate of Whitney Houston
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: No Known Copyright Restrictions Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.