Elle Fanning drew inspiration from the wisteria trellis at her childhood home for her gown and jewelry at the 2026 Oscars. The actress, nominated for best supporting actress in Sentimental Value, collaborated with designer Sarah Burton at Givenchy and jeweler Cartier. She described the look as timeless and feminine.
Elle Fanning, earning her first Academy Awards nomination for best supporting actress in Sentimental Value, reflected on her younger self ahead of the 2026 Oscars. “I think she would feel overwhelmed and overjoyed,” she told Vogue. “She had hoped for this, but only in her wildest dreams.” The film's motif of a family home resonated with her choice to honor her own childhood home through fashion. There, a wisteria trellis bloomed each spring, with falling petals forming “a lilac cloud on the ground,” Fanning recalled. This memory shaped her red carpet appearance, tying into the movie's themes. Fanning worked with longtime stylist Samantha McMillen and close friend Sarah Burton, creative director at Givenchy. Burton had dressed her for her Oscars debut the previous year, marking the first Givenchy look at the event. For 2026, Fanning sought a timeless, feminine gown avoiding trends, inspired by past iconic dresses. Burton's team appliquéd and hand-embroidered wisteria petals onto the gown using silk threads in blues, pinks, silvers, and lilacs. “Sarah and her team proceeded to hand embroider each wisteria petal with silk threads of varying colors,” Fanning said. “It is the prettiest dress I have ever seen. Sarah and her team made my dreams come true on a day of dreams realized.” Complementing the gown, Cartier provided a 1903 necklace featuring wisteria motifs with round old-cut diamonds in a millegrain setting. Originally two brooches wearable as a tiara, it was later reset as a necklace or corsage. Fanning selected it before Burton proposed the wisteria theme. “The magical thing about it all was that I had picked out that necklace before Sarah had come up with the wisteria idea on her own,” she noted. “If that’s not meant to be, I don’t know what is.”
