Michelle Yeoh is an undeniable force in fashion. Whether it’s the watches she accessorizes with to complete every look, the blonde wig she wore to the ‘Wicked’ premiere that shocked Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, or the Dior tuxedo cape her mom didn’t quite approve of—but we are obsessed with—this Oscar-winning actress takes us on a journey through her most memorable outfits, which only get better over time. From her history-making win at the 2023 Oscars to her commitment to the ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ theme at the premiere, Michelle shares some of her favorite memories, including her main focus—just trying not to get too drunk with the cast.
Watch ‘Star Trek: Section 31’ exclusively on Paramount+.
#MichelleYeoh #StarTrek #Section31 #FashionFlashback #BAZAAR
Watch ‘Star Trek: Section 31’ exclusively on Paramount+.
#MichelleYeoh #StarTrek #Section31 #FashionFlashback #BAZAAR
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00:00Suddenly, I remembered, oh my goodness, my mom is in Malaysia, sitting there with 200 people?
00:06What if I lose?
00:09I think I'm never going back to Malaysia again.
00:11Hi Harper's Bazaar, I'm Michelle Yeoh, and today we're gonna look back at some of my fashion moments.
00:18This is Fashion Flashback.
00:22My goodness, wow.
00:23Yeah, I remember this.
00:25This is the Supercop 3 premiere in 1996.
00:29I believe this is a Moschino dress, and I still have it.
00:33I have it back home in Malaysia, actually, because I love to keep memories.
00:38And sometimes, whether it's a dress, a gadget, or something that I've used in a movie,
00:43and when I see it, I remember that day when I walked down the red carpet with Jackie Chan
00:47and my sparkly dress, I thought that would make me look very fun and cute.
00:52I wanted the Americans to meet Michelle Yeoh, a fun kid on the block.
00:58Next.
00:58Aha, the Oscars, 2001.
01:02This is a dress that Barney Chang, an amazing Hong Kong designer, inspired by Crouching Tiger,
01:08Hidden Dragon.
01:09So you can see the motives of the tiger.
01:13All of me.
01:14I remember when I first put it on, I thought, oh my god, this is heavy,
01:18because it was completely beaded and hand-sewn, all of those crystals.
01:24But, you know, you're like walking on air, because you're at the Oscars.
01:29We both wanted it to be inspired by something that is very Asian, very oriental,
01:35because that's where I'm from.
01:36And we're very proud of our silhouette.
01:40I think he did an amazing job of it being very elegant,
01:43sophisticated, and at the same time, highlighted our culture.
01:48All right, this is the Crazy Rich Asians premiere in 2018.
01:53This is a beautiful, stunning dress from Armani Preview.
01:56I remember holding up the dress and going like,
01:59nobody can fit into that, because it's just so tiny.
02:02And lo and behold, I did.
02:04I just love the way they have the colors.
02:07And it was for Crazy Rich Asians.
02:09It needed something very glamorous, so we decked out.
02:12The hair, now when I look back at it, I'm going,
02:14maybe that's not one of my favorite looks.
02:16But, you know, at that time, it did say crazy, right?
02:19So I thought, okay, fine, let's do something a little bit crazy.
02:22And it happened to the hair.
02:23What's your favorite memory with the cast from this night?
02:28Trying not to get too drunk.
02:31It was already wonderful working with this cast,
02:33because they are all young and energetic and funny and fun.
02:37And I was so thrilled to be part of it.
02:40This is me at the Oscars in 2019.
02:44Oh, Elisa.
02:46Actually, I had a little mishap,
02:48because I had chosen a dress that had a slit right in front of the leg.
02:53But 10 days before the Oscars, I had a bad accident,
02:57and I had cut my leg very badly.
03:00So that dress, sorry.
03:03Next.
03:03And thank God Elisa was quick to find me a dress that covered a horrible scar.
03:09I love his creations.
03:11They're always so glamorous and so feminine at the same time.
03:15He's very into very intricate embroidery embellishments.
03:18And I think it went really perfectly with my Roger Vivier clutch bag
03:23and also my Richard Mille watch.
03:25Watches are one of my favorite things.
03:27I've been a collector of watches for a very long time.
03:30I think it started because my grandfather left a watch to my dad,
03:36and somehow it got into my custody.
03:40And it sort of always started from there.
03:42Whereby now, often, I would have a watch that reminds me,
03:47oh, I did Memoirs of a Geisha watch or a piece of jewelry.
03:51Watches are a big thing of mine.
03:53And thank God I'm a Richard Mille ambassador.
03:55That helps.
03:56Wait till you see the Oscar watch.
03:58Okay, so this is 2022 at the Met Gala in New York.
04:04An anthology of fashion designed by the amazing Prabal.
04:09I wanted green.
04:10I don't know why.
04:10I told him I wanted a green dress, and I left him to be creative.
04:16I said, I have pretty broad shoulders, so you could highlight on that.
04:20And this was what he came up with.
04:21The long train is something that's very striking.
04:25I thought it was pretty spectacular.
04:27And also that necklace that went with it is all, you know,
04:30put together by Prabal and his friends.
04:33I don't wear red lips very often,
04:35but then it was the whole look where it was a very straight hair,
04:39center parting, clean makeup.
04:42And because the color was green, we didn't want it to be washed out.
04:47If you had like a pale lipstick on, you could get lost behind that.
04:51So that red lipstick was a rare occasion then, but I did it.
04:56Okay, this is me at the BAFTA Awards in 2023.
05:00And I'm wearing a Dior tuxedo cape.
05:03At that time, I had a lot of fun working together with Dior.
05:08I love this look.
05:09I thought it was so cool, so chic, and it was just perfect for the BAFTAs.
05:12Sometimes when you wear a tuxedo and all that, it's smart and cool.
05:16I love the earrings that went with it.
05:18Mosaic, they have the most amazing, very striking gems.
05:23It's the length of it.
05:24Because my hair was straight, this one needed something that had that sway to it.
05:29This outfit actually caused quite a stir because my mom saw it.
05:33She left me a message.
05:35She said, when you go to the Oscars, don't wear trousers.
05:39She said, it makes you look short.
05:42Make sure you wear a long dress.
05:44Thank you, mom.
05:47And this is the 2023 SAG Awards.
05:50Oh my god, I am in the most amazing Schiaparelli dress.
05:56It's beautiful.
05:57I mean, it's all that sequence, little thousands of sequence running up and down.
06:01And it was so funny because afterwards, I think there was a meme of someone
06:05making that dress out of French fry.
06:09I love it.
06:10You see, dresses, fashion, it inspires people to think very creatively.
06:14And I love that look.
06:16It was a whole string of sequence and all sewn together, all bunched up together,
06:21which created this wavy effect.
06:23It was beautiful.
06:24And it was light.
06:25It was so easy to wear.
06:27What inspired this look?
06:28It's always the dress.
06:30Because the dress is the thing that propels everything forward.
06:33It's like, for this dress, no necklace, right?
06:36Striking earrings.
06:37Amazing watch.
06:40And simple hair.
06:42SAG, where I won.
06:44The SAG, yay!
06:45I had no clue what was going on.
06:46I was like, first of all, to even win was already such an incredible moment, you know?
06:53Because it's your peers.
06:54It's your people telling you, well done, girl.
06:57I was so shocked.
06:58I didn't even know how to go on stage.
07:00Well, this is the 2023 Oscars where I made history.
07:09The journey of choosing the dress.
07:13Oh my god.
07:15That was tough.
07:16That was tough than making the movie, okay?
07:19You're blessed because you have so many great, amazing choices, Ben.
07:23It came to a point where, how do you choose the right dress?
07:26At the end of the day, I said to my people, back off, guys.
07:29Just back off.
07:31Just give me a moment because I will know the dress when I see it.
07:35It's like, suddenly you have a treasure trove of gems, you know?
07:39Like diamonds, sapphires, and emeralds, and rubies, and dah, dah, dah.
07:43Which is the best?
07:44And I remember the first time when I saw this dress and I felt, this is what I want to feel like.
07:50Because I am walking on cloud nine and that dress looks like a cloud.
07:55And so when I put it on, I went, I think I found you.
07:59I was terrified, to be honest, that night.
08:03It was an amazing night, you know?
08:05Fortunately, my husband, at that time, he wasn't my husband yet.
08:09John was with me.
08:10He was making me more nervous than I actually was.
08:13He kept saying to me, so who can tell me who won?
08:16And I was like, nobody knows.
08:18The envelope is, no, he said, no, no, no, no, no.
08:20Somebody knows.
08:21I'm like, oh god.
08:22And then, of course, as the night went on, it was just such a momentum.
08:26Everyone was going up on stage and obviously, best actress is second to last.
08:31So you're sitting there going like, I don't know what's going to happen.
08:34And suddenly, I remembered, oh my goodness, my mom is in Malaysia,
08:38sitting there with 200 people?
08:41What if I lose?
08:43I think I'm never going back to Malaysia again.
08:47I still am trying to remember that moment.
08:50It's just like, because it's so overwhelming at that point.
08:53I don't know what I was thinking.
08:54And next thing I knew was, we were hugging, we were hugging,
08:57and Jamie was like, go on stage, go on stage, go get your Oscar.
09:01It was a very special night.
09:05I think it's still hitting me all the time.
09:07I think it hits me every single time when someone says, you made history.
09:11The look of joy and pride people have for me.
09:17The wicked premiere in Los Angeles, thanks to Balenciaga.
09:22I had my niece, Vicky, who was my dress lifter.
09:27She had to follow behind me.
09:29Every time I had to walk forward, she would have to lift this train up
09:34because it's all heavily beaded with the Swarovski crystals.
09:38So it was really, really heavy.
09:40She had a great workout, so what can I say?
09:42But the most amazing thing was the blonde wig.
09:44I thought it was just so striking because this dress was like the Wicked Witch dress.
09:49The shimmer and the holes.
09:51But the hair was something that I had not done before on a red carpet.
09:56And I think the best expressions that evening was Cynthia and Ariana.
10:00They went like, it's Michelle.
10:02Oh my god, she's blonde.
10:05And that's fun, you know?
10:07This is the 2025 Golden Globes where I was presenting with Jeff Goldblum.
10:12And this dress I chose because I loved that neckline.
10:19It's a Balenciaga look.
10:21My favorite part about this dress truly is the collar
10:25because I've never worn a collar that goes all the way up to the face.
10:28And then climbing the right earrings for that was a challenge
10:32because it couldn't get entangled with the collar.
10:35Having that hair just made it very easy because, you know,
10:38there was already so much drama going on.
10:40And, you know, I am the Wicked Witch.
10:43And this had a spell, had a certain allure about it.
10:46We have a beautiful film.
10:48So when we won, it was hell yes.
10:51So much love and energy has been poured into it.
10:54And the talent that you can see, thank you.
10:58Thank you for recognizing that.
11:00Well, thank you for watching.
11:01I had so much fun doing this.
11:03And don't forget to watch Star Trek Section 31 on Paramount+.