Suited and muted at Oscars

After a po-faced 2003, glamour made a triumphant return to the red carpet at this year's Oscar ceremony — but just as with any year, there was a glorious selection of fashion disasters too.

The prevalent themes borrowed heavily from old-school Hollywood glamour, with figure-hugging gowns, diamonds and sequins a go-go, but colours were muted. Nude, white, cream and beige showed a taste for sophistication from Tinseltown's A-list stars.

Top of the list was Charlize Theron. It was certainly the South-African actress's night, as she took home the Best Actress award dressed in a stunning silver beaded gown by Tom Ford for Gucci. With her peroxide blonde hair in a 1930's Jean Harlow style, Charlize proved that some looks never die.

Of the other nominees, Naomi Watts shone in a strapless oyster-coloured dress by Versace, and previous winner Catherine Zeta Jones bucked the muted trend by dazzling in scarlet. No doubt happy to show off her 'not-pregnant' look on the red carpet, Catherine requested the scoop-necked vintage design specially from an archive book by her friend Donatella Versace.

Julianne Moore yet again looked effortlessly elegant — does the woman ever make a bad fashion choice? — and Julia Roberts perfectly complemented her new blonde locks with a sexy gold Giorgio Armani gown. Scarlett Johansson proved that despite her youth, she has an eye for classic design, with a turquoise Alberta Ferretti dress and Renee Zellweger pushed the boat out with a white strapless Caroline Herrera gown with a bow and train, which emphasised her lovely 'Bridget Jones' curves.

But it wouldn't be the Oscars without some staggeringly bad outfit choices — remember Bjork's swan nightmare and Gwyneth Paltrow's see-through Alexander McQueen? This year, the surprise winner of The Worst Outfit Ever was Uma Thurman. Trussed up in what looked like her mum's old net curtains, tied together with a Christmas-decoration sash and funny gold bits on the shoulders, she wisely changed before attending the post-show parties. After a fantastic year career-wise for Uma, it was a shame she took her eye off the style ball.

Joining Uma in the Fashion Accident stakes was Nicole Kidman. Some may have praised her choice of skin-tight Chanel, but we think it just over-accentuated her screaming skinniness and lack of curves. Putting fussy bits around the bust and bottom half of the dress doesn't convince us you don't need a good square meal, Nic.

Elsewhere, Diane Keaton unwisely decided to update the men's suit look she so perfectly made fashionable in 1977's Annie Hall. This time round, however, she opted for the Laurel-and-Hardy-meet-the-circus-clown look, and it was a bit of a clunker, to say the least. Samantha Morton boasted a pair of curtains masquerading as a 1950's vintage Givenchy dress and Sandra Bullock went far too girly with a white gown trimmed with maribou feathers.

Looking dodgy wasn't just confined to the women — Johnny Depp sported a definite hair-don't. Pulling out wispy strands of his hair to lay carefully across the forehead and parting his style in the middle, meant the usually devastatingly-handsome actor looked like one of the lads hanging round the shopping precinct supping a bottle of White Lightning. So not a good look, Johnny.