Best ever Oscars dresses: red carpet fashion highlights from Angelina Jolie and Alicia Vikander to Gwyneth Paltrow and Karlie Kloss

The Oscar nominations are in and the countdown to this year's Academy Awards Ceremony on March 4 is officially underway.

The Shape of Water is this year's most-nominated film with 13 nods, surpassing Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri which cleaned up at the recent Golden Globes.

Lady Bird's Greta Gerwig has become the fifth woman ever to be nominated for direction, eight years after Kathryn Bigelow (Hurt Locker).

Nominated for the Best Actress Award are Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water), Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Margot Robbie (I, Tonya), Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird) and Meryl Streep (The Post).

But which fashion brands will be worn on this year's red carpet?

Margot Robbie looked fabulous in a black satin Louis Vuitton gown at this year's 29th Annual Producers Guild Awards, while Saoirse Ronan also opted to wear the brand at the recent Screen Actors Guild Awards. Perhaps they'll both opt for Louis Vuitton once again.

Mary J. Blige, who's nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Mudbound, dazzled in a custom-made, crystal-embellished Alberta Feretti gown at the Golden Globes, and once again at the recent Screen Actors Guild Awards in a Jean-Louis Sabaj gown adorned with silk feathers. We're counting on her to up the red carpet ante once again in March.

With designers all over the world vying annually to dress the biggest names on the guest list, it should come as no surprise that a number of past Oscars gowns have earned a special place in fashion history.

Perhaps predictably, one of the more popular choices over the years has been Christian Dior, who dressed Nicole Kidman in 1997, Charlize Theron in 2005, Reese Witherspoon in 2006 and Jennifer Lawrence in 2013 and 2016.

Another red carpet favourite is Elie Saab, whose red carpet creations have been worn to the ceremony by stars such as Emma Stone (2015) and Diane Kruger (2006).

Last year Karlie Kloss looked super sleek in a white Stella McCartney column gown.

Which was reminiscent of an equally dazzling Tom Ford look Gwytheth Paltrow wore to the Oscars back in 2012.

The revelations of who will wear what this year shall remain a mystery until the stars hit the red carpet on March 4.

But based on the stellar sartorial power plays of previous years, we imagine it will be worth the wait.