Oscar 2026

Cinema

Oscars, red carpet dresses between nostalgia and the future

The Oscar awards evening was a tribute to the Hollywood cinema of yesterday and tomorrow between commitment and dreams.

by Veronica Constance Ward

16 March 2026

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

If in the race for the statuettes the head-to-head was between two extremely modern and political films, The Sinners and One Battle After Another, the red carpet at the Oscars 2026 was divided between retro looks, tributes to 1950s Hollywood and explicit statements of what the new, modern elegance is.

Indeed, the Oscars red carpet continues to be the living archive of cinema: each dress can become a visual quotation, a tribute or a reinterpretation of epochs, icons and styles that have built the Hollywood imagination. It is not just a show, but a true symbolic marketplace where fashion, cinema and communication coexist in one evening. An ecosystem where every detail - from the choice of fabric to the signature on the label - contributes to building style narratives destined to influence trends, consumption and the collective imagination well beyond the night of the statuettes.

Renate Reinsve. (Flores/Getty Images)

It takes us immediately to an animation classic Renate Reinsve, star of the film Sentimental Value that won Best Foreign Language Film, a modern Jessica Rabbit, understated and elegant. The Norwegian star wore a red Louis Vuitton sleeveless dress with a long slit, matching neckline and lipstick.

Tayana Taylor. (Mike Coppola/Getty Image)

Always modern but this time Cruella De Mon (from The Charge of the 101), Teyana Taylor, this year's Oscar revelation and nominee for Best Supporting Actress, is a star of many vocations, actress, singer, dancer and fashion and fitness icon. She, like Demi Moore, knows that feathers always make a diva. So Chanel for the star of One Battle After Another and Gucci for the veteran who fights hard with age, here to the tune of peacock (or similar) feathers.

Demi Moore. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)

Chanel again for Jessie Buckley who won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role forHamnet, attempting a tribute to the Grace Kelly of '56 who won the Oscar forThe Country Girl but the comparison is difficult, with a modest but appreciable result.

Jessie Buckley. (Coppola/Getty Image)

The person who made us relive Grace Kelly, in the 2014 filmGrace of Monaco, is instead Nicole Kidman who this year, in her Chanel look, chooses modernity for the Oscars in a look that describes a strong and fearless woman. She too, feathers (see above).

Nicole Kidman. (Frazer Harrison/Wireimage)

In Giorgio Armani Privé, Gwyneth Paltrow, essential in a white dress with side slits revealing a nude look that is now out of its prime despite a strict wellness regime (and especially wellness business). At a time when fashion is rediscovering 90s atmospheres and looks, we cannot forget her in the iconic 90s film Seven and then in Sliding Doors and inveterate smoker in Wes Anderson's 2001 The Tenenbaums.

Gwyneth Paltrow. (Credit Arturo Holmes)

Confident and amused Emma Stone who mixed rigour and sensuality in an ethereal, shimmering Luis Vuitton dress open at the back.

Emma Stone. (Credit Mike Coppola)

Not to make a mistake and not to risk being humiliated as in the iconic scene in The Devil Wears Prada, by the real (without sunglasses and that's the real news) Anna Wintour, Anne Hathaway maintains her signature romantic rigour with a Valentino Haute Couture from the Specula Mundi collection.

Anne Hathaway. (Getty Images)

Bride, Cinderella, snow queen, debutante, in short, a fairy tale and a dream for every girl, Elle Fanning, co-starring in Sentimental Value, in a white tulle bustier dress Givenchy and Cartier jewellery.

Elle Fanning. (Credit Arturo Holmes)

Kate Hudson, modern Little Mermaid in Armani Privé, simple but unexciting, parades along with her mother Goldie Hawn in a decidedly confused look in which it is unclear whether the destination is a gala, circus or ice skating.

Goldie Hawn and Kate Hudson. (David Fisher/Shutterstock)

The most chic, timeless look, season or era, Ryan Destiny young actress from Detroit wins our elegance award. The black velvet shirt and maxi skirt by Ami Paris. Perfect.

Ryan Destiny. (Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)

Timothée Chalamet for the boys' team, is present in an angelic dress, a total-white look by Givenchy by Sarah Burton.

Timothée Chalamet. (Holmes/Getty Images)

Instead, he took home the Best Actor statuette for Sinners, Michale B. Jordan, in which he plays the dual role of two brothers. With his look Jordan gives a lesson in how to modernise men's fashion on the red carpet, wearing an impeccable Louis Vuitton suit embellished with a double chain detail on the pocket. The mandarin collar jacket, featuring vintage-inspired onyx buttons, was an original take on the classic black dinner jacket: a real lesson in how to modernise men's fashion on the red carpet.

Michael B. Jordan. (Credit Mike Coppola)

Leonardo DiCaprio takes us back, with his moustache and classic dinner jacket, to a retro Hollywood but also to his partnership with Scorsese with whom he is currently shooting the new film What Happens at Night. But how can we not think of the films in which they are director and star such as Gangs of New York, The Departed and The Wolf of Wall Street.

Leonardo Di Caprio. (Credit Kevin Mazur)

Every red carpet dress, every stage costume and every actor have been reminding us for a century now that cinema is a wonderful magic and that Mario Monicelli was right when he said that 'Cinema will never die, it was born now and cannot die: the cinema will die, perhaps, but I don't give a damn about that' And indeed it does not matter where, the important thing is to keep on imagining.