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Omar Apollo arrived at the 2025 Oscars last night in Los Angeles wearing a custom suit by Alessandro Michele for Valentino. He wore a scarf tied around his neck in lieu of a traditional tie, and his look was topped off by a short black netted veil, its flamboyance contrasting the deliberate masculine ruggedness of his braided hair and goatee. The musician, who was in attendance following his breakout film role in Queer last year, was one of the evening’s best dressed stars.
He wasn’t the only one. Timothée Chalamet offered a fashion two-puncher by previewing not one, but two upcoming debut collections in Paris by major designers. At the awards ceremony, he wore a butter yellow leather suit by Givenchy, whose new creative director, Sarah Burton, will show her first-ever collection for the French house later this week. Later, for the Vanity Fair Oscar party, Chalamet changed into a Tom Ford by Haider Ackermann suit; Ackermann will also debut his vision for the American label in Paris in a few days. Jeremy Strong delivered a subtle but impactful sartorial statement in a bespoke Loro Piana suit with a funky flattened and untied bow tie, and Andrew Garfield turned up some serious heat in a sexy, silky Gucci ensemble. Colman Domingo was another standout in custom Valentino, his scarlet red double-breasted jacket cinching his waist slightly with an elongated fabric belt. Sebastian Stan’s Prada look offered a slight variation on the traditional awards-season tux with a pale yellow shirt, as did Jeff Goldblum’s colorful jacquard button-down, also by Prada, worn under an otherwise standard white tuxedo jacket.
Are men having the most fun with fashion these days? It should not go without saying that much of this has to do with the fact that men have it easy when it comes to earning a spot on best dressed lists. For one, all it takes is an interesting—meaning out-of-the-ordinary—look to stand out. Break the mold of the black tux and you’ll make a headline. There’s also the fact that there are little to no expectations for men on the red carpet; other than making sure things fit and are tailored correctly, it’s hard to make too big of a faux pas. While Apollo, Domingo, and Chalamet certainly went the extra mile with their terrific looks, it helps that we are culturally primed to just appreciate a well-groomed man.
Women, however, don’t have it that easy: They should show they’re “serious actors” while looking like they “care.” There’s corsets and stilettos and bustiers and outlandish couture shapes or deceivingly simple column gowns. There’s Old Hollywood glamour and avant-garde style, and they should somehow all be fashion darlings and “keep it interesting” while still looking Oscar-worthy, whatever that means these days. And even then, after checking every box, they may still not get on that best dressed list. Why are men having the most fun with fashion? Because they can, and because we let them.
Scroll through to see the best dressed men at the 2025 Oscars.
