Doja Cat brought plenty of sparkle to the 2025 Oscars, wearing millions of microbeads, Swarovski crystals, and sequins.
For the Oscars red carpet, Olivier Rousteing fashioned the singer a leopard print dress inspired by a vintage Pierre Balmain look from 1953. (And who better to bring the leopard print revival to the Oscars than Doja Cat?) The body-hugging strapless dress was outfitted with a deep sweetheart neckline and a flared mermaid train. It was entirely hand-embroidered over the course of 5,600 hours by a team of 46 artisans, who sewed each microbead into an ornate leopard pattern. Beyond the meticulous beading effort, the Balmain atelier worked over two days to ensure that the seams aligned perfectly and no leopard spots were cut off.
Doja added yellow pear-shaped drop earrings from Messika and a matching necklace with a pendant that emerged from beneath her backward scarf.
A dedicated fan of leopard print, Rousteing has used the motif throughout his tenure at Balmain, from pre-fall 2014 through his most recent pre-fall 2025. This also isn’t the French designer’s first collaboration with Doja Cat. In 2022, the singer performed at Balmain’s music festival, which celebrated Rousteing’s 10th anniversary as creative director, and last night the two reunited for this purr-fect red carpet look.
That wasn’t the end of the road for Doja Cat, who hit the stage in an ode to James Bond, where she performed alongside Lisa and Raye. She wore a custom Swarovski dress designed in collaboration with her stylist Brett Alan Nelson. Dripping in diamonds, the dress was covered in over one million crystals.
For the Vanity Fair after-party Doja changed for the third time into another custom gold Balmain dress with nine different shades of gold beads to achieve a degrade effect. Looking like an Oscar, the dress replicated a trompe l’oeil technique that the label used in their resort 2025 collection. Thirty-nine artisans worked over 3,450 hours to hand-embroider, bead, and tailor the dress.
See every look from the 2025 Oscars Red Carpet:
