The woman who has styled Oscars red-carpet looks for Courtney Love, Madonna and Aimee Mann has a new client to prep for the Academy Awards next month: herself.

Arianne Phillips, stylist to some of the worlds most trendsetting singers and actresses, was the wardrobe wizard on “Walk the Line,” nominated for Best Costume Design. Whats interesting about this accolade is that it brings a thread of costume-designer history full circle. In the old days before stars had stylists, they would lean on costume designers for a little extra help at Oscar-time, sometimes ending up in frocks dusted off from studio wardrobe closets. Nowadays costume designers rarely do personal styling for stars, but Phillips is an exception: in between designing costumes for Madonnas tours, shell do a movie here, a music video there, a magazine editorial here, a book there. Not only is Phillips an energetic maverick, shes also a rare bird in that she is already talking about whom shell wear to the Academy Awards. I will probably wear a dress that my assistant costume designer on Walk the Line will design,? she tells ClothesHoarse. His name is Carlos Rosario.? We hope Rosario is ready for the aftermath: when Phillips dressed Madonna for the ’97 Oscars (above) in Olivier Theyskens, the unknown Belgian designer pole-vaulted to almost unmanageable stardom. Now he’s designing the venerable French line Rochas.