Even when the whole lot goes precisely to plan, the Oscars are inclined to discover a technique to shock us. This yr’s 98th annual Academy Awards had been no exception; whereas the telecast was protected, bordering on boring, and the large awards had been kind of dished out to the anticipated victors (minus a possible Timmy snub, depending on how you feel about ballet), there have been nonetheless revelations to be skilled: a history-making win for the cinematographer of Sinners, a shock tie and a “Best Dressed” win for Paul Anthony Kelly.
Kelly’s win won’t be so shocking — he’s, in spite of everything, the person who was hand-selected to painting the alarmingly good-looking JFK Jr. — if not for the truth that he wasn’t even on the Oscars. Unlike his fellow well-dressed celebs, Kelly materialized nicely after the final award was handed out, making a (literal) fashionably late look on the annual Vanity Fair Oscars after-party.
Paul Anthony Kelly doing his greatest JFK Jr. impression on the 2026 Vanity Fair Oscar Party. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Variety through Getty Images)
Variety through Getty Images
Regardless of his technical eligibility, Kelly’s A-lister look was simple. The actor popped up on VF‘s cream carpet decked out in a sumptuous, velvet brown Brunello Cucinelli one-and-a-half breasted dinner jacket and matching silk-wool trousers. Impossibly louche and fitted to be relaxed but not oversized, the jacket — a custom job, put together by legendary stylist Warren Alfie Baker — instantly evoked images of old Hollywood, especially when paired with Kelly’s Ivy League eyewear, a traditional bowtie and a few very Cary Grant-coded grooming.
Accompanying the peerlessly draped dinner jacket was a good larger flex — a really Americana, $45,000 Vacheron Constantin. Part of Vacheron’s Historiques collection, a handful of coveted reissues from the model’s century-spanning archive, the Historiques American 1921 is a classy imaginative and prescient of American excellence, with an idiosyncratic, diagonally offset face, railway dial-train, sq. design and unique detailing — for example, small seconds between 3 and 4 o’clock — instantly impressed by the Roaring Twenties. It’s the right look ahead to a blue-blooded socialite…or a rising star with one thing to show.
Not pictured — an era-appropriate Vacheron Constantin Historiques American 1921. (Photo by Daniele Venturelli/WireImage)
WireImage
If there’s one factor that Kelly has confirmed in his temporary time within the limelight, it’s that he’s prepared to decorate the half; it’s a expertise that’s been flexed advert nauseam for his current portrayal of the mythical style icon. Kelly has donned all method of nostalgic ’90s menswear in what’s being touted as one of the vital trendy exhibits of the yr, if not the last decade. (Costuming to this point has included backwards Kangol hats, three-button waistcoats and one of the vital coveted watch collections identified to man.)
It’s unimaginable to say what the long run holds for Kelly, however, primarily based solely on the power of yesterday’s pink carpet efficiency, it’s protected to say it’ll in all probability contain some main awards. Some main menswear, too.
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