Cover Zendaya in Cindy Chao the Art Jewel at the Oscars 2026 (Photo: courtesy of Cindy Chao the Art Jewel)
Zendaya in Cindy Chao the Art Jewel at the Oscars 2026 (Photo: courtesy of Cindy Chao the Art Jewel)
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From Zendaya’s architectural Cindy Chao the Art Jewel diamond branches to Tiffany & Co’s geological statements, the best jewellery at the Oscars 2026 delivered some genuinely covetable high jewellery moments
The Oscars red carpet is, at its core, an exercise in controlled extravagance. Everyone is trying—the question is always who has tried intelligently. Strip away the couture and the choreographed arrivals and what remains is one of the finest annual showcases for high jewellery anywhere in the world: a room full of extraordinary stones under extraordinary lighting, worn by people who have been advised by some of the sharpest jewellery editors and stylists in the business.
The 98th Academy Awards did not disappoint. This year’s carpet moved between architectural naturalism and outright geological ambition, with a pleasing number of moments where the jewellery did rather more work than the dress. Here is what actually mattered.
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Zendaya in Cindy Chao the Art Jewel
Above Zendaya in Cindy Chao the Art Jewel (Photo: courtesy of Cindy Chao the Art Jewel)
Zendaya in Cindy Chao the Art Jewel (Photo: courtesy of Cindy Chao the Art Jewel)
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If there was a single jewellery story of the evening, it was this. Zendaya presented Best Director wearing pieces from Cindy Chao The Art Jewel’s White Label Collection, and nothing else on the carpet came close for sheer technical bravura.
The Diamond Branch earrings are the kind of work that makes you put down your glass. Eighty-four pear-shaped diamonds—totalling 30.22 carats—arranged in a composition that mimics the organic, irregular spread of actual branches. The pear cut is notoriously difficult to work with en masse; each stone’s orientation must be considered individually to maintain optical flow and the fact that Cindy Chao has marshalled 84 of them into something that reads as utterly natural is a genuine feat of lapidary choreography. Paired with the Diamond Branch ring, set with white diamonds and a yellow diamond whose warmth anchors the whole composition, this was jewellery that understood its own architecture. For Tatler, this was the best jewellery moment of the Oscars 2026, full stop.
Nicole Kidman in Chanel
Above Nicole Kidman attends the 98th Oscars wearing Chanel jewellery (Photo: courtesy of Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)
Nicole Kidman attends the 98th Oscars wearing Chanel jewellery (Photo: courtesy of Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)
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Kidman wore the most technically impressive Chanel arrangement of the evening. The centrepiece—a Contraste Blanc ring from the Camélia Allures collection—is built around a 5.1-carat emerald-cut diamond, and the contrast Chanel sets up between the rigid, rectangular step-cut stone and the soft rotundity of the camellia motif is genuinely clever design thinking. An emerald cut demands clarity grades that can withstand scrutiny from every angle; at 5.1 carats in a ring setting, there is nowhere to hide.
Paired with the Endless Knot earrings from the Flying Cloud collection—Japanese cultured pearls and diamonds in white gold, inspired by Gabrielle Chanel’s love of sailing—Kidman moved between the nautical and the botanical without any sense of discord. The Tweed Brodé ring, with its interwoven diamond pavé referencing Chanel’s adaptation of suiting cloth from the Duke of Westminster, was the kind of historical footnote that rewards knowing it.
Teyana Taylor in Tiffany & Co
Above Teyana Taylor at the 98th Oscars decked up in Tiffany & Co high jewellery (Photo: courtesy of Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
Teyana Taylor at the 98th Oscars decked up in Tiffany & Co high jewellery (Photo: courtesy of Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
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A necklace featuring a single diamond of over 18 carats warrants a moment’s pause. Taylor wore exactly that, in platinum, alongside earrings of over 12 total carats, a ring set with a stone exceeding 11 carats and a second ring totalling over 9 carats. The cumulative diamond weight she carried across her look was frankly staggering. At this level, one is not merely wearing jewellery—one is wearing a geological statement.
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Robert Downey Jr in Tiffany & Co
Above Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans speak onstage (Photo: courtesy of Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans speak onstage (Photo: courtesy of Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
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The Bird on a Rock brooch is one of Tiffany & Co’s most storied designs, and Downey wore the version set with a green tourmaline exceeding 39 carats in gold and platinum, with diamonds and a pink sapphire. He completed the look with an Elsa Peretti Cabochon ring in yellow gold with green nephrite jade—two very different design languages that coexisted with considerable aplomb.
Chase Infiniti in De Beers
Above Chase Infiniti in De Beers (Photo: courtesy of Julian Hamilton/Getty Images)
Chase Infiniti in De Beers (Photo: courtesy of Julian Hamilton/Getty Images)
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De Beers took a notably yellow-gold-forward approach for Oscars 2026, and Chase Infiniti wore the full weight of that decision—quite literally. The Metamorphosis Summer choker alone runs to 57.15 carats of diamonds set in 18-karat yellow and white gold, its inspiration drawn from the mesmerising spirals of ammonite fossils, lending it an organic irregularity that stops it reading as mere accumulation.
The supporting cast was no less serious: Classic Round Brilliant Diamond stud earrings in platinum at 6.44 carats; Drops of Light Fancy Vivid Yellow pear-shaped diamond jacket earrings in 18-karat yellow gold and platinum at 4.22 carats; the Aura bracelet with 20.44 carats of Fancy Yellow cushion cuts; the Old Bond Street pavé ring at 11.30 carats; and the Aella ring at 7.81 carats. Assembling this quantity of matched fancy yellow stones requires the kind of direct-to-source access that De Beers, uniquely, can provide.
See also: Golden Globes 2026: the best jewellery moments on the red carpet
Jessie Buckley in Chanel
Above Jessie Buckley wears Chanel high jewellery (Photo: courtesy of Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)
Jessie Buckley wears Chanel high jewellery (Photo: courtesy of Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)
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Jessie Buckley who won Best Actress for her role in Hamnet, wore three Chanel pieces and wore them well. The N°5 Drop necklace—a 1.01-carat pear-shaped diamond suspended on curved white gold, its form evoking both the bottle and the fall of the perfume itself—is the sort of referential jewellery that rewards a light touch, and Chanel has applied exactly that to celebrate the Oscars 2026. One stone, one idea, no excess. Buckley paired the necklace with the Jeanne ring from the Coco Avant Chanel collection, which brought a different sensibility: a marquise-cut diamond in openwork white gold balancing the carefree lightness of lacework against something altogether bolder. The Bouton de Camélia earrings in white gold and diamonds provided the punctuation it deserves to make heads turn.
Renate Reinsve in Louis Vuitton
Above Renate Reinsve at the 98th Annual Oscars held at Dolby Theatre on March 15, 2026 in Hollywood, California. (Photo: courtesy of Gilbert Flores/Penske Media via Getty Images)
Renate Reinsve at the 98th Annual Oscars held at Dolby Theatre on March 15, 2026 in Hollywood, California. (Photo: courtesy of Gilbert Flores/Penske Media via Getty Images)
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Among an evening of diamonds piled upon diamonds, Reinsve’s white gold, onyx and diamond ring from the Louis Vuitton High Jewelry collection was one of the more quietly subversive choices on the carpet. Paired with a white gold and diamond bracelet, the onyx did what a single dark note always does in a well-composed arrangement—it made everything around it look more brilliant.
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.
