'And the Award Goes To …'

The Lord of the Rings was the film of the year when it came to those little golden statues, but drop earrings ruled the red carpet.

Hollywood—from the Hills to the hotels—glittered with jewels not only on Oscar night but also the entire week before, as jewelers hoped the stars' stylists would choose their pieces for a moment in the spotlight.

When the big night arrived, the big trend was one that had been building over the past season—the long and lean drop earring. Few starlets chose the chandelier, instead pairing the season's sleek gowns with a sleek ear shape. The drop—dubbed the "stiletto" ear by Hollywood's favorite jewel box, Harry Winston—encouraged another season of bare necklines.

Bracelets shone as the accompaniment of choice for stiletto-bedecked ears. Two distinct looks—wide cuffs with openwork and stacked bracelets—were the favorites to complete the popular earring-bracelet combination.

Buoyed by the rising tide of color in fashion, a raft of precious and semiprecious stones were paraded on the red carpet. Countless designers hawked the trend to stylists the week before the Academy Awards, but it was Winston—using stones like morganite, a first for the diamond house—that gave color its biggest endorsement.

A few celebrities stood out from the crowd. With fashion cycles moving so quickly, though, it's not clear whether they were ahead of the pack or several seasons behind. Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger, and fashion's latest bad-girl-turned-style-icon Angelina Jolie, for example, bucked the earring/bracelet trend. Considering Kidman's history of fashion clairvoyance, however, one can't help but see her choice of a choker-style necklace as a sign of things to come.