Emma Stone Revives the Peplum Trend With Her 2024 Oscars Red Carpet Dress

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 10 March 2024

When you hear the word "peplum," what comes to mind? A neoprene fit-and-flare top? A nipped-in blazer with a waistline frill? Perhaps, after the 96th Academy Awards, you'll think of awards show glamour, too: Emma Stone wore a peplum dress on the 2024 Oscars red carpet that gave the pannier silhouette a very memorable, high-end twist and some kooky Bella Baxter flair.

Stone, nominated for Best Actress for her role in Poor Things, wore a custom Louis Vuitton gown in an oceanic seafoam green. The voluminous gown was crafted from a silk cloqué jacquard fabric and embossed with a moiré-like shell pattern.

Dressed by her longtime stylist, Petra Flannery, Stone's peplum dress was accented with a sparkling 30.47-carat octagonal step-cut Sri Lankan sapphire set on a diamond choker necklace. She added even more shine with white diamond studs and high-shine rings.

Emma Stone 2024 Oscars red carpet — Stone in her light mint Louis Vuitton peplum dress.

As for the beauty components of Stone's red carpet look, her makeup was natural and rosy, while her auburn hair was subtly wavy.

Stone appeared to have been rendered speechless by the magnificence of her peplum gown while on the red carpet. The Oscar-winning actress told Laverne Cox, "I, uh...I...uh... don't even know how to explain it! I was told the fabric is shells," shouting out the mermaid vibes of her playful dress. The mermaid flared hemline of Stone's dress accentuated the under-the-sea feel, turning her into an on-land mermaid.

In addition to an aquatic spirit, Stone's peplum dress called on the quirky costuming she wore as Bella Baxter in Yorgos Lanthimos' Poor Things. In the film, Stone's character, a dead woman brought back to life through a Frankenstein-esque procedure using the mind of a child, wore eccentric puff sleeves, a slew of ruffles, and lots of pastel sherbert hues. Stone's peplum Oscars dress would have blended perfectly with Bella Baxter's fantastical, maximalist fashion.

Poor Things is nominated 11 times tonight, including Best Picture, which puts it just behind the 13-nominated Oppenheimer.

In the Best Actress category, Stone is up against Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon), Carey Mulligan in Maestro, and Sandra Huller in Anatomy of a Fall.

TOPICS

Emma is the fashion features editor at Marie Claire, where she explores the intersection of style and human interest storytelling. She covers viral styling hacks and zeitgeist-y trends—like TikTok's "Olsen Tuck" and Substack's "Shirt Sandwiches"—and has written hundreds of runway-researched trend reports about the ready-to-wear silhouettes, shoes, bags, colors, and coats to shop for each season. Above all, Emma enjoys connecting with real people to yap about fashion, from picking an indie designer's brain to speaking with athlete stylists, entertainers, artists, politicians, chefs, and C-suite executives about finding a personal style as you age or reconnecting with your clothes postpartum.

Emma previously wrote for The Zoe Report, Editorialist, Elite Daily, Bustle, and Mission Magazine. She studied Fashion Studies and New Media at Fordham University Lincoln Center and launched her own magazine, Childs Play Magazine, in 2015 as a creative pastime. When Emma isn't waxing poetic about niche fashion discourse on the internet, you'll find her stalking eBay for designer vintage, reading literary fiction on her Kindle, doing hot yoga, and "psspsspssp-ing" at bodega cats.

Stay In The Know