Kylie Jenner Snuck Into 2026 BAFTAs in Mugler to Back Timothée Chalamet
Kylie Jenner attended the Feb. 22 BAFTAs in an archival Thierry Mugler spring/summer 1999 velvet gown, opting to slip into the ceremony rather than take a formal photo-op and once again backing Timothée Chalamet as he vies for Best Actor. Her low-key entry and the gown’s lavish crystal work have turned the evening’s narrative toward both her supportive presence and a deliberate red-carpet strategy that has been building since 2024.
Kylie Jenner's Mugler spring/summer 1999 gown and jewel details
The vintage Mugler number Jenner chose was made in darkest velvet with a heavily embellished bodice. Stylists Mackenzie and Alexandra Grandquist finished the look with teardrop diamond danglers and large teardrop earrings, and the chest-mounted sparklers were described as collectively amounting to several hundred carats. That degree of ornamentation, combined with the gown’s archival label, framed the outfit as an explicit display of wealth and rarity on the BAFTA red carpet.
Timothée Chalamet's Best Actor nomination and Jenner's presence
Chalamet entered the evening as a nominee for Best Actor, and Jenner’s choice to attend the ceremony — sneaking in for a second consecutive year and foregoing the staged photo-op beside him — was presented as a quiet form of support. Because she did not walk the red carpet with him at the BAFTAs, their appearance on other red carpets, such as the Marty Supreme premiere where they coordinated in highlighter orange Chrome Hearts in December 2025, supplied the public-facing pair images that Jenner deliberately did not recreate at the awards themselves.
Last year's BAFTAs: sub-zero temperatures, Take That and David Tennant
Her return followed a difficult previous BAFTA night in which sub-zero temperatures pushed celebrities into red-carpet puffers, a Take That performance of "Greatest Day" punctuated the evening, and presenter David Tennant compared Jenner to a lookalike. Jenner had also attended last year's ceremony secretly, hand-in-hand with Chalamet, making this year’s low-profile entry a repeat of that approach rather than a change in tactic.
Chronicle of Jenner’s awards-season looks from 2024 through 2026
What has shaped expectations for Jenner at the BAFTAs is a consistent, high-profile awards-season record. Her inaugural awards-season appearance came at the 2024 Golden Globes, and in 2025 she stood beside Chalamet and his A Complete Unknown co-stars at the Globes in a vintage Versace chainmail dress that invited instant comparison to Elizabeth Hurley alongside Hugh Grant at the Four Weddings and a Funeral premiere in 1994. That year also saw a Balenciaga pre-fall 2024 gown at the 2025 Berlinale, a custom Miu Miu body-con encrusted with black-caviar beads at the 2025 Oscars, and a spaghetti-strapped Schiaparelli for the couple’s red-carpet debut at the 2025 David di Donatello Awards.
Late 2025 continued the sequence: the pair wore tangerine Chrome Hearts at the Los Angeles premiere of Marty Supreme in December 2025, followed soon after by Jenner in a copper-sequined Ludovic de Saint Sernin dress at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. In 2026 she appeared in autumn/winter 1996 Gianni Versace Couture gowns at the Critics’ Choice Awards and a waist-whittling custom Ashi Studio design at the 2026 Golden Globes.
Styling team and the strategic trade-off between spectacle and stealth
Jenner’s stylists, Mackenzie and Alexandra Grandquist, have leaned into an opulent, studio-campaign-level approach to dressing that has made each appearance part of a larger visual narrative. The trade-off evident on Feb. 22 — choosing to skip the theatrical red-carpet walk in favor of slipping into the event — allowed Jenner to support Chalamet while preserving a degree of privacy and control over which images circulated. What makes this notable is that she has repeatedly balanced blockbuster glamour with selective public exposure, turning both modes into part of her public identity.
Across consecutive years and multiple high-profile events, Jenner’s pattern of vintage and couture selections — and occasional decision to forgo the red carpet — has produced a consistent outcome: she remains a visible amplifier of Chalamet’s awards-season moments while cultivating her own runway of headline-making looks.
