It was, according to British Vogue’s film and culture editor Radhika Seth, the wildest Oscars race in years. A string of curveball wins throughout awards season had blown the competition for the major gongs wide open, and the one person who once looked like a dead cert – Jessie Buckley, nominated for best actress for Hamnet – may even have torpedoed her chances after revealing she’s less than thrilled when her cats defecate on her pillow. (Seriously.)
The fashion, meanwhile, was easier to forecast. Partly because of brand relationships – Buckley in Chanel, Kate Hudson in Giorgio Armani, Emma Stone in Louis Vuitton – but also because the red carpet comes with traditions as timeworn as the Dolby Theatre itself: a return to Old Hollywood glamour, someone reinventing the naked dress at an after-party, and men bravely pushing the boundaries of masculinity with brooches. It is, in theory, where actors go to be taken seriously as artists, which tends to mean tuxedos and ball gowns – clothes that cling to the sort of high culture Timothée Chalamet recently suggested might be on the wane.
Elegance alone, however, is rarely memorable. Which is why the person I was most curious to see was Teyana Taylor. The best supporting actress nominee may not be quite as anarchic as Björk arriving in her stuffed swan dress, but she operates with the same mercury: ass-baring Schiaparelli, trompe-l’œil Thom Browne, a Burberry trench dress. When most celebrities looked good – hair immaculate, skin unblemished, gowns beautiful – it was people like Taylor (in custom Chanel, no less) who pushed red-carpet culture somewhere else.
Scroll through the gallery below to see every red-carpet look from the 2026 Oscars.