Depending on who you ask, it was the standout show of the season, so it was no surprise Sarah Burton’s Givenchy was big news on the 2026 Oscars night. “I loved that,” “so beautiful,” “exactly how I want to look now,” recalled Vogue’s Nicole Phelps of the chorus of women’s voices walking out of the presentation focusing heavily on individualism. “Each woman is her own person, each silhouette is her own character,” said Burton. This rang true on the new silver carpet at the Vanity Fair Oscars party, where Elle Fanning and Kaia Gerber led the night’s best dressed following the 98th Academy Awards.
Burton’s ladylike minimalism (Fanning wore a bustier draped bow dress in black satin duchesse, while Gerber modeled a red velvet draped and slashed dress that was similarly bare shouldered) played out elsewhere at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) event, where the onus was not on naked dresses—which has been the unofficial dresscode of years prior—but exquisite custom looks focusing on cut, fit, fabrication, and detail.
Take Hailey Bieber, who put Anthony Vaccarello at Saint Laurent on hold, in favour of the Giorgio Armani atelier, who fashioned her a leopard-print gown with a simple hourglass silhouette, but underscored by hours of painstaking embellishment to achieve those splashy spots; Kim Kardashian, the poster girl for Gucci’s new smooth-brain era in a form-fitting gold confection; and Kendall Jenner, in a baby-blue Chanel gown that saw Matthieu Blazy flexing his muscle in an Old Hollywood way.
In fact, seeing models, from Adwoa Aboah and Paloma Elsesser in slinky black (yet covered up) confections, and Sarah Pidgeon—the official ambassador for CBK spring—in a metallic Calvin Klein slip made the sheer looks of previous years look a touch crass on a night that isn’t about the fashion set RSVP-ing yes to a party, but those who took home a statuette. (Even Jessie Buckley changed out of her pretty pink Chanel ceremony gown, inspired by Grace Kelly, into her version of an LBD, designed to be the last word in effortless best actress style.)
After a fashion month that doubled down on “real” dressing, it must have been gratifying to see the season’s new mood on the biggest stage in the world. It’s not often we can advise taking style tips from the Oscars after-party, but a shift away from superfluous looks towards quietly considered detail that really represents an individual is one we can always get behind.
See the best stripped-back Vanity Fair Oscars after-party looks below.
