Kerry Washington Wears Whitney Houston’s Dress From 1996

One of Whitney Houston’s archived fashion moments made a comeback courtesy of Kerry Washington. On March 5, the Scandal star attended the 5th American Black Film Festival Honors in Hollywood wearing the same dress Whitney Houston once wore in 1996. She celebrated the moment in an Instagram post, captioning the photo while singing along to Houston’s 1992 hit “I Have Nothing”: “No lies told. Whitney Houston’s ACTUAL [Marc Bouwer] dress she wore in 1996. Sooooooo incredibly special,” she wrote in an Instagram post modeling the dress and singing along to Houston’s “I Have Nothing.”

Houston wore the same red halter dress to the 1996 BET Walk of Fame Awards ceremony. At the ceremony, she performed a medley of her hits, including a rendition of “Happy Birthday” for her now late father John Houston. While Houston donned a semi-updo for her occasion, Washington wore her hair down in soft curls. Houston also wore a similar Black dress at a film event.

Washington’s stylist, Law Roach, shared his own post on the social media platform of a split shot of both women wearing the gown. “And then THIS happened…Thank you [Marc Bouwer] for letting me go into your archives and borrow Whitney’s dress for [Kerry Washington],” Roach wrote. 

Washington spoke exclusively to Extra about her decision to wear Houston’s dress. “When you get an award for Black excellence, you gotta go to Black excellence, you know what I mean?” she said, referring her being the recipient of the Excellence in the Arts Award. She added that she was “honored” to wear the dress, noting that she would be “thinking about [Houston] a lot, actually.”

Of Houston’s impact, Washington said: “She’s a big inspiration to everybody. I was a huge Whitney fan and she did it all… She had the burden of being one of the first, that groundbreaker’s burden… so I try to remember that with all those that have come before us… They really laid the path for so many of us that are here tonight, and it was at a cost.”