As this year’s Oscar nominations were just announced this week, all of the best fashion designers, hair and make-up extraordinairres and  jewelry designers and experts are ready to descend upon nominees in a PR frenzy.  The Oscars are a chance for designers to catch the eye of nominees in order to gain free publicity as actors and actresses wear their items on the red carpet.

The phrase “Who are you wearing?” has taken hold over the years as actors, actresses and their PR teams carefully select exactly what will be worn on the red carpet.  Often the jewelry worn by nominees is on loan and  carefully guarded.   All jewelry comes with a free personal security guard, sometimes two.  When the lights accidentally went out one year at a post-Oscar party, comedian Joan Rivers joked that she never felt safer as her security guard briskly ushered her out a back door.

Some of the best Oscar jewelry of the decade includes Nicole Kidman’s rope-like sautoir necklace, worn in 2008.  The necklace was made from 1400 carats of rough, polished and faceted diamonds.  Diamonds are, of course, a premier choice for many Oscar nominees and presenters.  Anne Hathaway sported diamond bracelets from Van Cleef and Arpels in 2007, and also Naomi Watts donned a Chopard 85-carat triple strand diamond necklace, as well 12-carat diamond earrings.

Who knows what will be worn by nominees and presenters this year, but there will be sure to be more diamonds on the red carpet in the coming decade.