Mikey Madison's 'Anora' Red Carpet Outfits Aren't About Playing Dress Up

Mikey Madison's performance in the working-girl tragicomedy Anora, as the titular 23-year-old sex worker out of Brooklyn's Brighton Beach neighborhood, is the kind that can define a career. Back in May, Anora's Cannes Film Festival premiere earned the coveted Palme d'Or award for the best feature. All along the fall festival circuit—from New York City to Toronto, Zurich to London—Madison's gum-smacking, pole-dancing, big-hearted performance has been hailed as a revelation. The BBC's review headline says the actress already "leads the Oscar race." The Times put it more bluntly: "Mikey Madison deserves an Oscar."

There are still weeks until nominations are announced and months until the 2025 awards season gets underway. But in the meantime, Madison is hitting red carpet after red carpet to promote the film—a marathon press cycle requiring a wardrobe that meets the moment. It's a schedule that begs the question: If you're campaigning for what could be the award of a lifetime, what do you wear?

Madison has thus been photographed in a lineup of Louis Vuitton, Fendi, and Proenza Schouler looks—impressive credits for a relatively new talent—pulled by the stylist Jamie Mizrahi, whose clientele includes Adele and Jennifer Lawrence. She hadn't seen Anora when her agent first connected her with Madison to style her star-making turn—but once she did, she was as blown away as reviewers. Though even more impressive, she notes, is Madison's down-to-earth nature through it all.

"I think what's really cool about Mikey is she's really kind of stays true to who she is," Mizrahi tells me via FaceTime from a hotel lobby the morning after yet another of Madison's red carpets. She had stopped by the SCAD Film Festival and picked up the "Breakthrough Award," dressed in a Celine mini-dress with a ruffled, off-the-shoulder neckline. "I don't think she looks at or hears the noise."

While Anora is who Madison became to land on so many red carpets, it's not who she and Mizrahi have in mind when they look at a rack of gowns. The pair knew this would never be a press tour where Madison method-dressed like "Ani," her onscreen character, in Hervé Leger bandage dresses and pleaser pumps. "It feels like from day one, she's been pretty consistent with her point of view and not being swayed by anything," Mizrahi says. "She's not necessarily trying to dress like her character."

Instead, Mizrahi has taken the same approach she says she uses with all her clients. "I think it's about feeling really authentic and dressing in line with what makes you feel good and comfortable and shows the best version of you. And not trying to play a role in real life, right? [It's] just making sure that the client, and especially Mikey at this moment in time, is showing up as herself."

Mizrahi thinks of Madison's Anora press tour outfits like a story; every outfit is a chapter. They each have individual details and come from different designers, but when the duo steps back, they can see a cohesive through-line.

This red-carpet story is defined by elegant shapes and classic colors, pieces that cast Madison less as an of-the-moment ingenue and more of a timeless talent. And while some journalists have called Madison's rise a Cinderella story, she's not wearing princess gowns on the carpet. "I find Mikey's kind of gravitated towards more of a neutral, timeless palette—blacks, whites, creams, reds—really kind of sticking in that Old Hollywood [vein]," Mizrahi says. "Simple silhouettes, nothing too elaborate."

The stylist has to make some practical considerations from appearance to appearance. "She has a really beautiful figure and, and wears clothes really well, but also, she's petite," Mizrahi explains. "So I'm making sure that things don't wear her and that instead she's wearing the clothes, right?

Their months-long journey together has yielded back-to-back-to-back moments that set fashion group chats on fire. Madison floated in a strapless Rodarte gown in Zurich with a voluminous tiered skirt. At the Toronto International Film Festival and Anora's Los Angeles premiere, she tried variations on red-carpet white: one a draped, high-neck Fendi gown, the other a drop-waist Proenza Schouler moment. She shined the brightest at the fourth annual Academy Museum Gala in a Louis Vuitton dress coated in yards of silver sequins.

There's a little playfulness in something like an acrylic-nail Schiaparelli gown or a neon-green Chanel floral number—but mostly, the Old Hollywood energy aligns Madison with stars who've walked into festival season tied to a similarly buzzy movie and walked out with all the trophies. It's all the result of weeks of careful fashion coordination on Mizrahi's part: After each carpet, the pair debriefs about what they liked, didn't like, and who they'll try to wear next.

"As opposed to having a rack of clothes with tons of options, it's been really more edited and specific," Mizrahi says. "I think this lead-up to awards season has been great because we've been able to learn and experiment and kind of try things out."

Whether or not Mikey Madison and Anora sweep every category next spring, Mizrahi says her approach to the awards circuit carpet will stay the same. "I think she's just being true to who she is, which I think is really exemplary and cool to be able to do when you're starting a press tour—to just really know who you are and what you feel good in."