For someone with a song called “Golden,” Audrey Nuna has avoided the color all awards season long—that is until the 2026 Oscars rolled around.
The singer, who lends her voice to Mira in KPop Demon Hunters, has dominated the red carpet recently, wearing everything from a bow-laden Thom Browne gown with a dramatic netted veil to a doll-like Marc Jacobs dress. Though shy as a child, fashion has always served as “a vessel of complete freedom” for Nuna.
“Maybe I don’t feel comfortable socializing with the person next to me in school, or I don’t feel the most comfortable in my skin,” she says. “But when it came to clothes, I always had this gift of feeling so free to do whatever I wanted.”
The Academy Awards presented the ultimate opportunity to do just that. “It’s such an incredible platform to be able to fully express yourself and be like, ‘This is me, and this is what I want to do,’” Nuna says. Eager to end the season on a sartorial high, she and her stylist, Danyul Brown, returned to Thom Browne, who has fashioned her many a custom look over the past few months.
Coming as she does from a family of garment-industry workers, for Nuna, wearing a custom piece by Browne feels practically cosmic. “Thom Browne was one of the first orders that my grandpa fulfilled when he was making his living,” she says. “It’s one of the ones that I remember most vividly growing up.”
Browne couldn’t help but be drawn into Nuna’s orbit. “Audrey is such a special person, such a special talent, having such a special moment,” Browne tells Vogue. “I have focused on her true individuality and her connection with being true to herself through everything she does.”
Through a “frictionless experience,” as Nuna describes it, they landed on a fitted black high-neck jacket dripping in gold beads, paired with a voluminous black drop-waist skirt with a moiré overlay. Nuna was partial to the look’s duality—the push and pull of the austere structured jacket and the free feminine skirt. “I feel so seen by [it],” she says.
But it’s the gold that Nuna has been waiting for all season. “There were conversations about doing it sooner, but it just made most sense to finish on this high,” Brown, her stylist, says. Nuna and her bandmates, Rei Ami and Ejae, agreed to save it for the Oscars, where they’ll perform “Golden,” a nominee for best original song. As Nuna puts it: “To do gold felt like the sacred thing that we wanted to do at the culmination, so we really held off on that.”
When it came to the performance of “Golden,” Nuna abandoned the overt gold, changing into a bespoke white Maison Margiela suit, designed by Glenn Martens and inspired by Look 53 from his spring 2026 collectsion. “We went and fitted with Glenn in Paris,” Brown recalls. “It was just such a beautiful moment, because he’s another designer that Audrey looks up to.”
Nuna appreciates that the more masculine look plays against type. “I think it’s going to be very counterintuitive to what people might expect from ‘Golden,’” she says. “I think there’s just something very timeless, very classic about it. But with Glenn, there’s this pristine attention to detail that’s always subversive.”
Fear not—Nuna returned to gold at the Vanity Fair Oscars Party, where she donned a molten Maison Margiela gown from the fall 2025 couture collectsion.
From the moment the dress walked down the runway, Brown knew it would be perfect for Nuna. “I harassed Margiela so much for a dress,” he recalls. “I was like, ‘I will not take no for an answer. I have to get it.’” Nuna, always game to take a fashion risk, decided to keep the mask on for her arrival. “We’re going to fully send that shit,” she says.
For Nuna, it was the perfect way to cap the night—and the season. “We were joking that it looks like a torched Oscar,” she says.
Below, Audrey Nuna takes Vogue along throughout her 2026 Oscars night.
See Every Look From the 2026 Oscars Red Carpet:
Courtesy of Audrey Nuna1/16Saw this photo backstage. My mom named me after Audrey Hepburn because of her philanthropy efforts. I'm proud to be named after a woman who embodied so much grace and style, but also utmost kindness :-]
Courtesy of Audrey Nuna2/16Pregame meal. The animated kimbap [김밥] in KPDH is what made me start bawling within the first 10 minutes of the film.
Courtesy of Audrey Nuna3/16My long-ass hair. In ancient Korea, hair was a symbol of personal strength. I'm taking good care until it's time to dye it pink or chop it all off.
Courtesy of Audrey Nuna4/16Period.
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Courtesy of Audrey Nuna5/16My gorgeous team. Thank you Mars, Paula, Antoine & Ashley
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Courtesy of Audrey Nuna6/16Jewelry is always the last step. It feels like a symbolic send-off from my team.
Courtesy of Audrey Nuna7/16It takes a village to create these looks fr.
Courtesy of Audrey Nuna8/16The hand-stitched sequins on this look leave me speechless goddammit!!! Thank you Thom and the entire Thom Browne team forever. The amount of hours and love this piece took gets me emotional. I grew up seeing my dad and grandpa fulfill production orders for Thom Browne so extraaaaaaa emotional ab this one.
Courtesy of Audrey Nuna9/16.jpg)
Courtesy of Audrey Nuna10/16"Biggest balls on the carpet."
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Courtesy of Audrey Nuna13/16omw to vanity fair. I can't remember what face I was making here. Probably duck lips or deadpan.
Nik van Dalen14/16So thankful to Glenn Martens & Vim, Natasha, and the entire Margiela team for their kindness and flyness. Wearing this iconic gold dress is an actual honor and my thighs got swole and muscular from wearing it out. I love that its a blend of both metal threads and also printed with patterns inspired by 16th century floral wallpaper. Feels like a collision of timeless, classic, the old and the new.
Courtesy of Audrey Nuna15/16Me and my manager Paula. Nick, Ejae's manager took this high quality photo of us. Jk we love him.
