Before the 95th annual Oscars kicked off at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, the fun began on the red carpet. 

OK, so actually there was no red carpet this year — it's been described as a "champagne" carpet instead. According to Lisa Love, who was part of the Academy Awards'creative team alongside Met Gala creative director Raúl Àvila, the color was specifically chosen to "evoke the sunset, because this is the sunset before the golden hour." 

As one might expect, the carpet got dirty pretty quickly and had to be first recut and then replaced so none of the muddied patches would be visible. Of course that didn't stop the nominees from striking a pose while showing off their Oscar outfits, which ranged from elegant and classy to bold and extravagant.

Although the Academy has never had a strict dress code, it pushed for one in 2021, telling attendees in an email that "Formal is totally cool if you want to go there, but casual is really not." That meant ballroom gowns, tuxedos and suits were cool. Jeans, a leopard-printed bikini and, yes, even a swan dress were not cool. Despite the wardrobe limitations, this year's nominees managed to steal the show by adding pops of color, plenty of sequins and so much tulle (literally, so much tulle!) into their formal wear.  

Specifically, there were four major trends we saw on the carpet. The first was the effortlessly romantic look, which featured a beautiful color palette of white, neutral, champagne, blush and pink. The second was the brave look, which featured bold jewel tones and color-blocking (think clashing colors all included in one uniform outfit). Then there's the SunnyD look, which featured nothing but yellows and oranges — all summery tones. And lastly, there's the playful and unconventional look, which basically means men who strayed away from the usual black tuxedo. This look also featured high-collars, fun brooches and elongated, colorful lapels.

There were more than 180 outfits from this year's champagne carpet, so we narrowed it down to the most notable ones. Even so, that came to 46, along with more information on who wore them.

Joy Saha is a staff writer at Salon, covering Culture and Food. She holds a BA in journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park.

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