Call it a jewelry mullet: The 2025 Oscars brought business in the front, diamonds in the back.
Margaret Qualley and Michelle Yoeh took on the backward necklace trend with aplomb. After all, what better place than the Academy Awards to add some extra bling to a look? Qualley, who starred in the best picture-nominated film The Substance, hit the red carpet in a black velvet cap-sleeve Chanel dress with a dramatic low back. While the necklace looked like a choker with a diamond center stone from the front, it also filled the negative space created by her low back dress.
Yeoh also tried out the look. Amping up her already electric cobalt Balenciaga couture dress, she draped a Boucheron necklace down her back. Along with an eccentric ear cuff, she wore the brand’s white gold Quatre Radiant Edition High Jewelry tie necklace, which was paved with round, baguette, and princess-cut diamonds.
The 2025 Oscars wasn’t the only recent occasion to break out the backward necklace. Anya Taylor-Joy attended the premiere of her film The Gorge in a strapless white Dior minidress with a pleated capelet that fanned out like wings. She accessorized her avian dress with a platinum and diamond Tiffany Co. Archives necklace, which she wore backward so that it sat atop her collarbone.
Sabrina Carpenter has also road-tested the look, walking the red carpet at the 2025 Grammys in a baby blue JW Anderson dress festooned with ostrich feathers. Instead of a traditional halter, a 50-carat brilliant-cut diamond necklace from Chopard stood in for the neckline, seemingly connected to the dress itself. Ever the fan of an Old Hollywood reference, Carpenter’s look nodded to Shirley MacLaine’s character Louisa May Foster in the 1964 film What a Way to Go!
The backward trend picked up some steam at the 2024 Venice Film Festival when Taylor Russell gave the look a try. Whereas Taylor-Joy and Carpenter both opted for jewelry that draped down their back, Russell wore a shorter Tiffany Co. necklace (with an 11-carat pear-cut diamond pendant), which sat just below the base of her neck, serving as the perfect complement to her white dress, accessorized with a gauzy scarf.
So, next time you wear a top or dress with a low back, consider turning your jewelry around to add a sparkly surprise.
