FASHION COUNTDOWN OSCAR FINERY IN A STARRING ROLE.

Byline: Nancy Dillon

Staff Writer

The fusillade of red-carpet flashbulbs says it all. Fashion is a principal player on Oscar night, and it's been that way from the beginning.

Heart-stopping glamour, outlandish pageantry, small armies of stylists, even the mad rush for fashion freebies all date back to the early days of Oscar, according to Bronwyn Cosgrave in her new book "Made for Each Other: Fashion and the Academy Awards."

Take early Oscar sweetheart Mary Pickford. Cosgrave writes that the 1928 best actress winner believed the publicity she generated wearing French couture yielded an advertising return for the designers that entitled her to a discount.

"She stood firm in the Paris couture houses," Cosgrave writes, "confidently negotiating clothing markdowns despite her weak grasp of French, and likely bought the gown she wore competing for the Academy Awards at a hard-won reduction."

Stratospheric fees paid to stylists aren't new either. Selznick Studios paid a six-figure salary to former fashion model Anita Colby in the early 1940s and tapped her to dress best actress winner Jennifer Jones for the 1943 Oscars.

Jones beat out "For Whom the Bell Tolls" actress Ingrid Bergman, who sat in the auditorium with a $3,000 haircut supplied by the legendary MGM stylist Sydney Guilaroff, Cosgrave writes.

Fashion bloopers and wardrobe malfunctions? Those date back to a time when Joan Rivers was still in diapers.

One of the first "fashion don'ts" was the outfit Bette Davis wore to the 1936 ceremony. Designed as a costume for Davis' role in "Housewife," the frumpy navy-and-white ensemble caused a Photoplay editor to follow her into the bathroom after she won the best actress award for "Dangerous."

"How could you? You don't look like a Hollywood star! You could be dressed for a family dinner," the photographer yelled. "Don't you realize? Aren't you aware?"

Davis wore the dowdy duds out of protest, Cosgrave explains, hoping to send the suits at Warner Bros. the message that she felt like hired help cast in a string of potboilers.

Another infamous blooper was the bell-bottomed Arnold Scaasi pantsuit worn by Barbra Streisand to the 1969 ceremony. When Streisand hitched up her pants to accept the best actress award for "Funny Girl," the fabric covering her buttocks appeared totally sheer to the telecast's 30 million viewers.

Apparently Scaasi had underestimated the powerful glare of the auditorium's 153 kleig lights, Cosgrave writes.

From Cher's 1986 Bob Mackie Mohawk hairstyle to Sharon Stone's 1997 Gap T-shirt, Oscar fashion has run the gamut from gorgeous to garish to garden variety.

"A great Oscar moment is never pulled off in a heartbeat. These dresses in many ways are costumes. The actresses are playing a heightened version of themselves," Cosgrave says.

Asked to chose her top 10 most influential Oscar fashion moments, Cosgrave didn't hesitate. Some of her selections might surprise you. Here's her list and why:

COSGRAVE'S TOP 10 OSCAR FASHIONS

1. VIVIEN LEIGH (Feb. 29, 1940): Leigh won her best actress award for "Gone With the Wind" wearing a knockout chiffon gown covered in an explosion of red poppies by Irene Gibbons of Bullocks Wilshire.

2. MARLENE DIETRICH (March 29, 1951): Dietrich received a standing ovation when she presented the award for foreign language film wearing this jaw-dropping black satin cocktail dress. Designer Christian Dior left nothing to chance, waiting to hear the angle from which Dietrich would access the stage before cutting the vertical slit in the skintight skirt.

3. JULIE ANDREWS (April 18, 1966): Andrews wowed as a best actress nominee for "The Sound of Music" wearing this tomato-red wool broadcloth kimono with a plunging V-neck and shocking-pink silk lining.

4. FAYE DUNAWAY (April 10, 1968): Dunaway enchanted as a best actress nominee for "Bonnie and Clyde" in this slinky, silkwool Theodora Van Runkle dress with a neckline and train edged in black satin calla lilies, grass and frogs.

5. LIZA MINNELLI (March 27, 1973): Minnelli won the best actress award for "Cabaret" wearing yellow Halston cashmere, a decidedly elegant choice during a wild Studio 54 era.

6. DIANA ROSS (March 27, 1973): Ross, a best actress nominee for "Lady Sings the Blues," was a beacon in the red carpet gridlock, wearing a silver satin four-piece trouser suit with black ascot from Bob Mackie.

7. ANGELICA HUSTON (March 24, 1986): Huston won her best supporting actress award for "Prizzi's Honor" wearing a bias-cut, four-ply silk gown by designer Tzetzi Ganev of Western Costume. The emerald green shade was an homage to her childhood on the Galway, Ireland, estate owned by her director-father, John Huston.

8. UMA THURMAN (March 27, 1995): Thurman made Prada an overnight red-carpet sensation wearing this liquid lavender silk gown as a best supporting actress nominee for "Pulp Fiction." Reporters marveled at the flawless Italian workmanship, but the dress had a secret: L.A.-based stylist Barbara Tfank had to rework the garment on Prada's behalf when it arrived from Italy 12 inches too short. Tfank used textiles from Eastern Silk in Koreatown and applied a hemline of opalescent sequins.

9. CATE BLANCHETT (March 21, 1999): Blanchett's periwinkle Christian Dior gown with its Garden of Eden scene splashed across the translucent tulle back was dubbed the "most fantastic Oscar dress ever" by Women's Wear Daily. Blanchett, a best actress nominee for "Elizabeth," called it her "fashion orgasm."

10. RENEE ZELLWEGER (March 25, 2001): Zellweger ignited a mad rush for reconstructed vintage when she introduced a segment acknowledging the previously bestowed scientific and technical Oscars wearing a canary-yellow 1959 Jean Desses gown that took five fittings and 52 hours of restoration to hug her 110-pound frame.

CAPTION(S):

10 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Cate Blanchett wore this stunner in 1999.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer

(2 -- cover -- color) Renee Zellweger's canary-yellow 2001 gown.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer

(3 -- color) Uma Thurman

(4 -- color) Angelica Huston

Daily News file photo

(5 -- color) Julie Andrews

(6) Diana Ross

(7) Vivien Leigh

(8) Faye Dunaway

Courtesy of AMPAS 

(9) Marlene Dietrich

David Downton

(10) Liza Minnelli

Associated Press