Cover Jessie Buckley attends the 98th Oscars dripping in Chanel diamonds (Photo: courtesy of Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)
Jessie Buckley attends the 98th Oscars dripping in Chanel diamonds (Photo: courtesy of Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)
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From Jessie Buckley’s Best Actress win at the Oscars to Pedro Pascal’s wrist, Chanel dressed the most unpredictable guest list of the night—and every single piece had a reason to be there
Dressing five people for the same night from the same house is a gamble that some maisons would think about. The mathematics alone are unforgiving—one misread personality, one piece that fights its wearer rather than complementing them, and the story writes itself in the wrong direction.
Chanel went ahead and did it anyway, fielding an Irish actress known for raw emotional intensity, a Gen-Z singer-songwriter still finding her red carpet footing, a comedian with no interest in being anyone’s jewellery mannequin, one of the most scrutinised women in Hollywood, and a man. The house’s answer to this wildly varied brief was not to find a single register and play it safe—it was to demonstrate that its codes are plural enough to hold all of them. The Camélia’s geometric femininity for Jessie Buckley and Gracie Abrams; tweed’s textural, historically loaded drama for Maya Rudolph and Nicole Kidman; the Plume’s movement and freedom for Rudolph; the nautical ease of the flying cloud for Kidman; and for universal heartthrob Pedro Pascal, the Boy-Friend watch. The bet paid off not because everything matched, but because nothing had to.
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Above Jessie Buckley at the Oscars (Photo: courtesy of Rich Polk/Penske Media via Getty Images)
Jessie Buckley at the Oscars (Photo: courtesy of Rich Polk/Penske Media via Getty Images)
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Jessie Buckley is not a woman who does anything at half measure—her performance in Hamnet was powerful and entirely committed, and it turns out she wears jewellery the same way. She wore three pieces from three different collections with zero hesitation. The N°5 drop necklace in 18-karat white gold with its 1.01 carat pear-shaped diamond is a piece built on a single inspired idea: the curved lines of the necklace trace the silhouette of the N°5 bottle, the drops of white gold evoking perfume in motion. On someone less assured it might read as a talking point. On Buckley, who went on to win Best Actress that night, it read as armour. The Bouton de Camélia earrings, geometrically disciplined in white gold and diamonds, gave the look its structure, and the jeanne ring—a marquise-cut diamond in openwork that moves between lace and architecture—gave it its edge. When she walked up to collect that Oscar, Chanel was on her wrist, her ears and her neck. The house could not have scripted it better.
Above Gracie Abrams (Photo: courtesy of Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
Gracie Abrams (Photo: courtesy of Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
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Meanwhile, Gracie Abrams is at that particular point in a public career where every appearance is still asking the question: who is she, exactly? The marthe ring from the Coco Avant Chanel collection answered with more confidence than most. A 1.55 carat round-cut diamond would have been statement enough, but it is the grey spinels that give this ring its character—stones that serious jewellery collectors have long understood to possess a depth and complexity that white diamonds, for all their brilliance, simply do not. Chanel using them here is a choice that rewards the informed eye, which feels exactly right for an artist whose own work operates the same way. The diamant essentiel earrings, 118 diamonds set into the camellia motif in 18-karat white gold, provided the luminosity the ring withheld. Abrams wore both with the self-possession of someone who had nothing to prove. The ring did the thinking; the earrings did the dazzling.
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Above Maya Rudolph (Photo: courtesy of Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)
Maya Rudolph (Photo: courtesy of Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)
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Maya Rudolph wore three pieces and, one suspects, relished the assignment. The Diamant Évanescent ring plays an optical game—an oval-cut diamond set within a camellia form, the elongated stone against the round flower creating a piece that is more interesting than straightforward maximalism. The Plume 1932 ring, traceable to one of the house’s emblematic designs dating back to 1932, is a reminder that Chanel’s high jewellery archive is not decorative history but an actively mined creative resource. The Tweed Frangé earrings, asymmetrical cascades of diamonds in 18-karat white gold designed to evoke the texture and drape of tweed fabric, are the pieces that carry the most contextual weight: Chanel invented the use of tweed in womenswear, which means wearing it translated into diamonds is not a styling gesture—it is a footnote to fashion history dangling from your ears.
Above Nicole Kidman at the Oscars (Photo: courtesy of Chanel)
Nicole Kidman at the Oscars (Photo: courtesy of Chanel)
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Nicole Kidman has spent thirty years being impossible to categorise—ice-cool and deeply vulnerable, classically beautiful and genuinely strange, a woman who makes bold choices and occasionally baffling ones and somehow always lands on the right side of interesting. Chanel, to its credit, leaned into that rather than smoothing it over. The Contraste Blanc ring from the Camélia allures collection is the most demanding piece of the evening—a 5.1 carat emerald-cut diamond, geometric and unsparing in the way only a step-cut stone of that weight can be, set directly against the soft, rounded camellia form. It should not work. The severity of the stone and the romanticism of the flower are pulling in opposite directions, which is arguably a description of Kidman herself.
The Tweed Brodé ring, its diamonds interwoven to echo the texture of the fabric, created a dialogue with Maya Rudolph’s earrings from the same collection across the carpet—same house code, entirely different energy, which is exactly how these two women occupy a room. The Endless Knot earrings in 18-karat white gold with Japanese cultured pearls and diamonds, from the flying cloud collection, were the calculated risk of the trio—pearls and diamonds together can age a look instantly, and on the wrong woman on the wrong night, they do. On Kidman, they did the opposite.
Above Pedro Pascal and his Chanel Boy-Friend (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
Pedro Pascal and his Chanel Boy-Friend (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
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Pedro Pascal wore the Chanel Boy-Friend watch in beige gold with a small seconds sundial and an alligator-pattern calfskin strap—the ideal choice, really, considering every straight woman in that room already wanted him to be exactly that. Chanel named it without irony and styled it without overthinking: a piece designed to dissolve the line between masculine and feminine dressing, on the one man at the Oscars whose appeal has always been cheerfully immune to category. The universe, on this occasion, had excellent taste in casting.
As the Regional Editor for Watches and Jewellery and Editorial Content Lead for Tatler GMT, Amrita Katara specialises in luxury watch and jewellery coverage across Asia, with expertise in editorial strategy, feature writing and interviews with industry leaders. Her past roles span luxury lifestyle media and client partnerships. Based in Mumbai, Amrita’s work bridges global trends and Asian market insights.
