Catherine Zeta-Jones’s secret to looking like a Hollywood siren at 57
Catherine Zeta-Jones’s secret to looking like a Hollywood siren at 57
Rebecca CopeFri, September 25, 2026 at 11:24 AM UTC
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This week Zeta-Jones wore a sheer silver-beaded Zuhair Murad dress and matching cape at the Kill Jackie premiere in London - Getty/Joe Maher
The sheer trend is everywhere in Hollywood, with barely a week going by without an actress showing off her nipples or her knickers underneath a see-through dress. Indeed, just yesterday, 36-year-old Dakota Johnson appeared on the red carpet for her new thriller Verity, wearing a Colleen Allen sheer lace dress with visible black lingerie underneath.
Yet, as Catherine Zeta-Jones has proved, the sheer dress trend is not merely a young woman’s game. On the same night that Johnson was wearing her sheer number, the actress, who is celebrating her 57th birthday on Friday, also opted for a dress which showed off a glimpse of skin.
Attending the premiere of her new TV series Kill Jackie (in which she plays a former international drug smuggler turned art dealer) at the Curzon Bloomsbury in London, the Welsh-born actress opted for a silver-beaded dress and matching cape by designer Zuhair Murad, which she accessorised with towering heels by Sole Bliss, one of Dame Helen Mirren’s go-to brands.
Epitomising Old Hollywood glamour, Zeta-Jones’s dress featured a corset as well as a sheer skirt, which showed off just the subtlest hint of leg beneath the strategic beading, with a delicate train trailing behind her. The addition of a matching cape draped over her arms only added to the screen-siren appeal, as did her signature long brown hair, styled in waves, and smoky-eye make-up.
Zeta-Jones wore her long brown hair in waves with smoky-eye make-up - Getty /Joe Maher
Other midlife women to embrace sheer fashion in recent years include 62-year-old Demi Moore, who wore a custom sheer Gucci gown covered with crystal and beaded floral detailing for the 2025 Lacma Art + Film Gala, and Halle Berry, 58, who wore a very sheer black lace ensemble for The Union premiere in 2024. Others to have dabbled in flashing some flesh include Jennifer Lawrence, Gwyneth Paltrow and Nicole Kidman. Of course, it helps that they all have figures which they’re proud to showcase.
It’s far from the first time that Zeta-Jones has opted for a sheer skirt, either. In fact, it’s become one of her signature moves on the red carpet. In 2024, she wore a sheer black floral lace Marchesa gown with cape detail for an appearance at the Red Sea International Film Festival alongside her husband, Michael Douglas, channelling her on-screen character, Morticia Addams, from Netflix’s series Wednesday.
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Wearing a sheer black floral lace Marchesa gown at the Red Sea International Film Festival in 2024 - Getty /Daniele Venturelli
Other standout sheer moments for the actress include the mahogany-sequinned, semi-sheer Elie Saab jumpsuit featuring a plunging bodice, which she wore for the premiere of National Treasure: Edge of History in 2022, as well as a sheer black gown, again with a low neckline, for the 2018 Golden Globes. The latter was also designed by Zuhair Murad, whose pieces she clearly feels confident wearing.
Wearing a mahogany-sequinned, semi-sheer Elie Saab jumpsuit at the premiere of National Treasure: Edge of History in 2022 - WireImage/Araya Doheny
Wearing a sheer black Zuhair Murad gown at the 2018 Golden Globes - Axelle/Bauer-Griffin
A cape, too, has become part of her styling arsenal in recent years. Something many older women can relate to is wanting to cover their upper arms, and this is an excellent trick for doing so glamorously. Another striking look she wore for the Red Sea International Film Festival was a custom-made cobalt-blue strapless gown, which came with a bespoke capelet, both designed by Marmar Halim.
It’s not just since entering her 50s that the Welsh icon has embraced a love of sheer dressing – or gothic-inspired looks, specifically. In 1999, when she was a mere 29, she made headlines in a black slip dress with a sheer lace overlay for a red-carpet appearance. And the little black dress has been a mainstay of her red-carpet wardrobe for decades, too. It’s unsurprising that she’s sat in the front row for Dolce & Gabbana.
In fact, in an interview with British Vogue in 2025, she quipped about her role in Wednesday: “The goth has been laying dormant within me for many years”. Elsewhere, she explained her style: “I was born this way, dark, and I’ve always loved a smoky eye. The majority of my closet has been dominantly black all my life.”
Not that she hasn’t also embraced more girlish looks. One of the most famous is the Emanuel Ungaro floral slip-style dress which she wore for the 1999 MTV Movie Awards, which caused quite the sensation at the time. Happily for her 23-year-old daughter, Carys Zeta Douglas, she kept it, loaning the dress to her for her 21st birthday in 2024. More recently, the aspiring actress rewore her mother’s black lace slip dress with bows while out at the Icons of Culture gala in New York last year with her father. Her mother had originally worn it at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in 2005.
Zeta-Jones in the Emanuel Ungaro dress at the 1999 MTV Movie Awards and her daughter Carys wearing it for her 21st birthday in 2024
Her Hollywood-siren style is certainly a long way from the fresh-faced Swansea girl who starred, aged 21, in The Darling Buds of May in 1991. As Mariette Larkin, she was wholesomeness personified and quickly became the nation’s sweetheart, before being catapulted to worldwide stardom some years later when she was cast opposite Antonio Banderas in The Mask of Zorro.
After her 2000 marriage to Douglas, she became a firm fixture of the Hollywood elite and has never looked back, making the US East Coast her home. Her transformation into a red-carpet goddess was complete and, since then, she’s become synonymous with creating her own distinctive brand of Hollywood glamour. As she turns 57, that nous is clearly more potent than ever.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
