The 98th Academy Awards took over the Dolby Theatre on March 15 with Conan O’Brien hosting, and inside the room it was One Battle After Another’s night – six wins, Best Picture, and Paul Thomas Anderson’s first-ever directing Oscar, with Michael B. Jordan and Jessie Buckley walking off with the acting crowns. But the real show happened on the carpet a few hours earlier, and I had thoughts the entire way down.
This was not a subtle year. The carpet split cleanly into camps: princess-core ball gowns with skirts the size of small weather systems on one side, barely-there lingerie slips on the other, and a quiet minimalist resistance holding the middle. The palette skewed pale and luminous – seafoam, cream, icy white – with stabs of inky black and deep jewel green. Feathers were EVERYWHERE, plural, in flight. And the diamonds? Someone in the styling group chats clearly decided accessories were not a suggestion. Counting down from 15.
15. Chase Infiniti in Louis Vuitton
Embed from Getty ImagesThe breakout of the year and she dressed like it. Fresh off One Battle After Another, Infiniti floated in wearing a lavender silk Louis Vuitton gown with asymmetrical, multilayered waterfall frills and a sweeping train that did half the work just by existing. Then she stacked on over 60 carats of De Beers London diamonds, because why not. A star-is-born entrance if I’ve ever clocked one.
14. Renate Reinsve in Louis Vuitton
Embed from Getty ImagesThe minimalist resistance had a leader, and it was the Sentimental Value nominee – the first Norwegian woman up for Best Actress since Liv Ullmann in 1976. Her custom red Louis Vuitton column gown was strapless and asymmetrically draped, with a high slit and a long trailing train. Karla Welch styled it sharp: slicked-back hair, a red lip, a single diamond cuff.
13. Mikey Madison in Dior
Embed from Getty ImagesLast year’s Best Actress winner came back to hand off the trophy – fittingly, to Jessie Buckley – and to remind us she’s Jonathan Anderson’s first-ever Dior ambassador for a reason. Her custom red velvet Dior gown was sultry, with a structured corset bodice, thin beaded off-the-shoulder straps, floral appliqués scattered across the drape, and a high leg slit formed by ruching at one hip. Tiffany & Co. did the jewels.
12. Demi Moore in Gucci
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Substance energy carried straight onto the carpet. Moore arrived in a custom Gucci gown drenched in black and emerald feathers that flared dramatically at both the neckline and the hem, so that every step looked like she was about to lift off. A bird of paradise, and she committed to the bit with total movie-star conviction.
11. Emma Stone in Louis Vuitton
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Bugonia nominee went genuinely out of this world. Her shimmering white beaded Louis Vuitton gown had an empire waist, cape sleeves, and a daring low back – and the beadwork alone reportedly took over 600 hours to complete. It walked the line between classic and experimental and never wobbled once. Less princess, more First Lady of fashion, and a clear top-five lock the second she stepped out.
10. Gwyneth Paltrow in Giorgio Armani Privé
Embed from Getty ImagesGwyneth reminding the room she can still flip the Movie Star switch whenever she feels like it. Her ivory silk Armani Privé gown came with dramatic cut-out sides that revealed crystal-flecked nude tulle trousers underneath – a sneaky-clever bit of engineering that read as pure clean tailoring from ten feet away. Goop-grade precision dressing.
9. Wunmi Mosaku in Louis Vuitton
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Sinners nominee turned in a masterclass in dressing a bump on a red carpet, and I will hear no debate. Her emerald green sequined Louis Vuitton gown had an exposed-shoulder detail and framed her belly instead of apologizing for it, every paillette catching the light. Paired with serious David Yurman, the whole thing felt celebratory and powerful rather than careful. She cast a spell.
8. Zoe Saldaña in Saint Laurent
Embed from Getty ImagesThis is how you do the slip dress trend without it looking borrowed from the bedroom. Saldaña’s black Saint Laurent slip – lace bodice, fitted silk-satin skirt – skimmed instead of clung, and she kept the styling almost monastic so nothing competed. The one extravagance: an art deco Cartier diamond-and-ruby necklace doing the work of an entire jewelry box.
7. Nicole Kidman in Chanel
Embed from Getty ImagesPresenter duty, screen-legend execution. Kidman’s powder pink silk crepe Chanel bustier dress had a top embroidered in white and gray crystals and black beads, topped with a peplum waist that erupted into a flurry of feathers – a dreamy, slightly feral spin on the peplum trend that ruled the night. Chanel fine jewelry and an Omega timepiece sealed the deal. Ethereal as ever.
6. Kate Hudson in Giorgio Armani Privé
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Song Sung Blue nominee hit every note. Her custom jade green Armani Privé gown had a plunging sweetheart neckline and a peplum waist crusted in stone and crystal embroidery – and then she layered on roughly 41 carats of rare green Garatti diamonds reportedly worth $35 million. Vintage siren meets high-security vault, and I mean that as the highest compliment I can give.
5. Elle Fanning in Givenchy by Sarah Burton
Embed from Getty ImagesIf anyone was bringing fairy-tale to this carpet, it was always going to be Elle. Her strapless white Givenchy gown – Sarah Burton at the helm – paired a fitted bodice with a billowing ball skirt embroidered in delicate silver wisteria, and she finished it with a Cartier necklace from 1903 because of course she did. The Disney princess she’s been dressing as her whole career, finally grown all the way up.
4. Anne Hathaway in Valentino
Embed from Getty ImagesOscar-winner-turned-presenter and certified fashion darling, here to remind everyone she basically invented the assignment. Her fitted black Valentino Haute Couture mermaid gown was scattered with a pink cherry blossom motif, cinched with a wide velvet statement belt and finished with opera-length velvet gloves and a floor-length train. Bvlgari handled the rest: an over-8-carat yellow diamond necklace and matching earrings.
3. Rose Byrne in Dior
Embed from Getty ImagesThe fashion-girl pick of the night and the most quietly devastating look on the carpet. Byrne’s black strapless mermaid gown from Jonathan Anderson’s Dior was cut clean and columnar, then covered in delicate lily-of-the-valley embroidery that read like a couture ink drawing. Styled with a polished chignon and Taffin’s Desert diamonds, it was grown-up, graphic, and completely in control. Florals on an Oscars carpet almost never land like this. This one floored me.
2. Jessie Buckley in Chanel
Embed from Getty ImagesWinner energy, and I do mean winner – Buckley took home Best Actress for Hamnet, becoming the first Irish woman ever to win the category. She did it in an off-the-shoulder Chanel gown that blocked red silk against pink chiffon, a Matthieu Blazy design that nodded straight to Grace Kelly’s 1956 Oscars moment. Pink and red is a combination that ruins most people. On Buckley, with that clean neckline and barely-there styling, it looked like a love letter.
1. Teyana Taylor in Chanel
Embed from Getty ImagesThe night’s true best dressed, and the look every list crowned for a reason. The Best Supporting Actress nominee wore custom Matthieu Blazy Chanel: a black-and-white chiffon gown embroidered entirely in glass pearls and crystals that detonated into a feathered skirt moving like smoke, over a sheer tulle bodice that flashed exactly enough. Then a Tiffany & Co. necklace with a diamond north of 18 carats sat on her collarbone like it owned the building.
Honorable Mentions
Plenty more earned a spot just outside the top 15. Michael B. Jordan collected Best Actor in a custom Louis Vuitton mandarin-collar jacket stripped of lapels and finished with a long wallet chain and David Yurman – confident, almost zen, like a man who knew the trophy was already his.
Embed from Getty ImagesEJAE went full Oscars gold in a fringe-trained Dior gown the same night she won Original Song for “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters.
Embed from Getty ImagesHudson Williams brought black-tie noir in Balenciaga with a Bulgari Serpenti brooch glinting on a wide silk lapel.
Embed from Getty ImagesFelicity Jones served buttery pastel in a yellow Prada satin gown with a pleated soleil tulle train. Chase Infiniti floated in on lavender Louis Vuitton waterfall frills and 60-plus carats of De Beers.
Embed from Getty ImagesAnd Barbie Ferreira made a Gap label feel subversive in a royal blue GapStudio gown by Zac Posen, corseted with over 70 individual bones into an hourglass that had no business being that sculptural.
Embed from Getty Images