The Tamesis
For someone who has a song called “Golden,” Audrey Nuna has been avoiding the color throughout awards season until the 2026 Oscars get closer.
The singer voices Mira in “Mira” Korean Demon HunterShe’s been dominating the red carpet lately, wearing everything from a bow-tie Thom Browne gown with a dramatic mesh veil to a doll-like Marc Jacobs dress. Despite being shy as a child, fashion has always been a “vessel of total freedom” for Nuna.
“Maybe I don’t feel comfortable interacting with the people next to me in school, or I don’t feel comfortable in my own skin,” she said. “But when it comes to clothes, I’ve always had the gift of having the freedom to do what I want.”
The Academy Awards provide the ultimate opportunity to achieve this goal. “It’s an incredible platform to be able to fully express yourself and say, ‘This is who I am and this is what I want to do,'” Nooner said. Eager to end the season with the perfect outfit, she and stylist Danyul Brown returned to Thom Browne, which has created a number of custom looks for her over the past few months.
For Nuna, who comes from a family of working-class garment workers, wearing Browne’s custom pieces feels almost cosmic. “Thom Browne was one of the first orders my grandfather fulfilled when he was making a living,” she said. “[It’s] This is one of the most memorable things for me growing up. “
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Brown himself couldn’t help but be drawn to Nooner’s obituary. “Audrey was such a special person, such a special talent, with such special moments,” Brown said Fashion. “I focused on her true personality and how she connected with being true to herself in everything she did.”
In a “frictionless experience,” as Nooner describes it, they donned a fitted black turtleneck jacket embellished with gold beads, paired with a voluminous black low-rise skirt with moiré overlays. Noona favored the duality of this look—the push and pull of austere, structured jackets and free, feminine skirts. “I feel [it],” she said.
But this is the gold medal Nooner has been waiting for all season. “There was some discussion about doing it earlier, but it just made the most sense to do it at such a high rate,” says Brown, her stylist. Nuna and her bandmates Rei Ami and Ejae agreed to save it for the Oscars, where they will perform “Golden,” which is nominated for Best Original Song. As Noona said: “Doing gold felt like a sacred thing that we wanted to do at our peak, so we really put it off.”
