The dresses the Oscars would NEVER allow: How Margot Robbie and Florence Pugh swapped elegant gowns for more daring ones as they let their hair down at the after-party… but it’s the dry cleaners who are the real winners!

After months of facials, touch-ups, juice cleanses, makeup mishaps, hair prep, intensive Ozempic jabs and heated debates with stressed-out stylists, you might imagine that when the curtain fell on Sunday night, guests at the 96th Academy Awards ceremony would have their goody bags packed and left, glad they had fallen in a heap on their bed.

However, that would have been a missed opportunity.

Because it’s at the after-parties that the stars get the chance to shine with a different kind of shine than required on the Oscars red carpet. And this year it was clearer than ever.

To be successful, Oscar appearances require a very specific dress code – one that respects Hollywood traditions. Dresses are often long, elegant and classic, decorated with embroidery, beads and sequins. Rarely are the fabrics simple prints: that would be considered too ‘daytime’.

For men, the classic black tuxedo is the go-to look.

That’s why the afterparties are so much fun for many guests – and not just because of the free bar. Just as a bride might swap her wedding dress for an outfit better suited for dancing at the reception, Hollywood’s A-list sheds its glamorous skin and dons something more comfortable. Or, if not more comfortable, then certainly something more experimental and striking.

Of all the post-show events, the Vanity Fair Oscar Party is by far the hottest ticket, and never more so than this year, when it celebrated its 30th year.

Billed by the magazine as “the city’s most lavish, decadent, impossible-to-crash soiree – a fantasy canteen of Hollywood’s megawatt stars getting smashed together in a bar,” it offered guests the perfect chance to flex their fashion muscles .

No matter how exhausted they were, as long as there was still breath in their bodies, they continued to party – always in dresses that the Oscars would not tolerate.

Leading the charge was Margot Robbie, wearing a beaded gold Thierry Mugler corset that would have been displayed on the red carpet, with inevitable cries of “Where’s your skirt?”

Worn with a brown satin scarf, the look, from Mugler’s Spring/Summer 1996 collection, was perfect for Vanity Fair.

In contrast, Robbie’s Oscar look was a long, black column dress with sequins from Versace – a more sober choice than expected, as she has spent the duration of her promotional activities for Barbie wearing pink variations, all created by various top designers in tribute to her character.

Sheer is a divisive trend that can be missed on the red carpet: it usually comes into its own after dark, when any revelations are made less revealing.

After Charlize Theron chose an elegant silver dress from Christian Dior haute couture for the Oscars, she donned a sheer black dress, also from Dior, with a more casual halter neck bodice and a sheer skirt.

Florence Pugh has long been a fan of plain mash, but wisely avoided it at the Oscars. She also opted not to wear her usual Valentino – despite being the face of the brand – and instead opted for a silver dress with a satin skirt and crystal-embellished bodice from lesser-known label Del Core.

A daring dresser, she still couldn’t resist incorporating a ‘talking point’ – this time in the form of straps that seemed to float above her shoulders.

By evening, Florence was back on her nipple-freeing mission, wearing a sheer cream dress with strategically placed embroidery across the bust, designed by Simone Rocha x Jean Paul Gaultier.

Emma Stone is another fan of sheer. As a brand ambassador for the house, it was a given that the Oscar-winning actress would be dressed in Louis Vuitton for the ceremony and, apart from a zipper malfunction on stage, her light mint green dress with an exaggerated peplum waist was perfect. .

For the Vanity Fair party, she wore a less streamlined Vuitton dress with silver embellishments, which subtly exposed her bra. While the asymmetrical hem might have caused a shock at the Oscars, it worked well for a post-awards celebration.

But there were countless ways to stand out other than wearing sheer. After opting for an understated powder blue, feather-trimmed dress from Armani Prive at the Oscars, actress Lupita Nyong’o looked ready to party in a halterneck sequin column dress, also from Armani Prive.

Even her hair looked cheerful, done up in halo-like sculptural swirls. Anya Taylor-Joy was another participant whose hair was a topic of conversation. At the Oscars, her Christian Dior corset dress was styled with a simple center parting that didn’t compete with the dress’s complex fishscale embroidery.

At the Vanity Fair afterparty, her hair took center stage, thanks to a jewel-encrusted headpiece, worn with a black round-front minidress from South Korean couture brand Miss Sohee.

For some, however, the afterparty seemed more of an opportunity to sober up than to dress up.

Emily Blunt’s soft peach Dolce & Gabbana dress was a much more traditional choice than the Schiaparelli dress she wore to the Oscars. Beaded at the cross in the unmistakable shape of a pair of Y-fronts, the dress may have embodied Schiaparelli’s long affinity with surrealism, but some fashion enthusiasts thought it was a joke that went too far for the Academy Awards.

Jennifer Lawrence was another guest who many thought mixed up her dress code, with her polka dot Christian Dior dress being too casual for the red carpet.

Her white flower-embroidered Givenchy dress, on the other hand, was a subtle, delicate choice for an after-party, whose train was surely destined to leave revelers down three champagnes. Maybe Lawrence, like everyone else, was too cheerful to care.

One thing’s for sure: the real winners in Hollywood today will be the dry cleaners.