Stylists are nothing if not inventive. Danyul Brown proved that Sunday evening, when KPop Demon Hunters star Audrey Nuna turned up at the 2026 Critics Choice Awards in perhaps the night’s most avant-garde look, a sculptural black dress from the spring 2025 collection designed by Marc Jacobs.
Brown, whose work has included editorial covers featuring Emma Chamberlain and Pom Klementieff, says he found a kindred spirit when he met Nuna last fall during a cover shoot for Vogue Singapore. “Creatively, we synchronized immediately,” the British-born stylist tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m from the London fashion school, so my approach is always very editorial, and in Hollywood not everyone has that love of art behind fashion. But Audrey very much believes in that. She is so inspired by Asian culture and truly artistic approaches to fashion, so our worlds married beautifully.”
As the Critics Choice Awards neared — and with KPop Demon Hunters nominated for (and ultimately winning) both best animated feature and best song — Brown knew that the black wool dress by Jacobs, crafted to evoke thoughts of overlapping circles, would be perfect for Nuna on the event’s black carpet. The Marc Jacobs team quickly approved the request and sent both the dress and shoes to Brown’s office. “I wanted the dress for a while, but until I met Audrey I didn’t know who could carry it off,” Brown explains. “Before the holidays she walked into my office, and I had the dress hanging on display, but I didn’t tell her it was for her; I wanted to see her reaction. She definitely was looking at it, you could tell she was fascinated by it, but she didn’t say anything to me.”
When Brown finally told Nuna that he had secured just one look for her for the Critics Choice Awards, and it was the Marc Jacobs dress, what was her reaction? “She screamed with joy,” he remembers.
But as the awards show neared, Brown discovered a key problem. The look was a sample that debuted on the Marc Jacobs runway in February 2025, and 11 months later, it wasn’t holding its original shape, especially the large circle positioned on the front of the dress. “I tried wire, but it wasn’t strong enough for the circle to retain its shape,” Brown explains.
After much contemplation, a solution presented itself. Brown sent his two assistants out to locate a hula hoop — yes, the plastic toy introduced by the Wham-O company in 1958 that remains popular to this day. And not just any hula hoop, but one that measured 34 inches in diameter so it would fit the circle on the dress perfectly. “I told them, ‘Search all of Hollywood, but don’t come back without a 34-inch hula hoop,’” Brown says. “We found them in 32 and 34 inches. The fashion gods were really on my side.”
Mission accomplished, Brown planned the rest of Nuna’s look. She wore the shoes shown with the dress on the runway, a pair of sculptural pumps that enhance the overall artful vibe, while he kept her jewelry, by Anayah and Le Vian, simple so it wouldn’t distract from the shape of the dress. “Marc’s design includes a brooch that looks like a silver disc, so I wanted jewelry that complemented that while also feeling clean and simple,” Brown notes.
Nuna’s beauty team, consisting of hairstylist Antoine Martinez and makeup artist Ashley Sable, likewise leaned into the theme of the look as part of Jacobs’s spring 2025 collection, which explored surreal elements on models styled as doll-like silhouettes. Hence the thinking behind Nuna’s pursed painted lips and wavy, feminine updo. “That polished-doll look was intentional to play into the character Marc originally created,” Brown adds.
The final result, Brown says, was everything he had hoped it would be. “Before Audrey arrived on the carpet, I thought, OK, this really is more of a fashion-insider industry look, and we’re all very proud of it,” he says. “But immediately upon exiting the carpet, her fans were going crazy, and so many of my friends started texted me. It blew up in all right ways. Sometimes it’s difficult to explain a narrative, and not everyone gets it, so it’s great to see the look is resonating with people. It really looks like it was made for Audrey.”
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