A work of living art! Karolina Kurkova took the Manus x Machina theme to heart at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala 2016. For the annual ball, held on May 2, Marchesa and IBM Watson teamed up to create Kurkova’s one-of-a-kind gown.
“Our intention was to use technology in a way that felt quintessentially Marchesa,” Keren Craig, co-founder of Marchesa, exclusively told Us Weekly. “Technology is about fantasy as well, so it was a perfect fit.”
Please comment on all of my social accounts b/c my dress will react to your emotions! #MetGala @IBM @MarchesaFashion pic.twitter.com/CXUKcVd8Hm
— Karolina Kurkova (@karolinakurkova) May 2, 2016
Throughout the night, when tweeters wrote about the respective brands, the dress’ LED lights changed colors to reflect the different emotions like excitement and happiness. A series of bulbs and wires powered the pastel-colored creation. Fellow co-founder Georgina Chapman revealed that the wires didn’t act as the dress’ boning — instead they took a more creative approach. “We incorporated them into the stems of the flowers,” she exclusively told Us. “It’s been a really interesting learning curve for us because we use a lot of metal beading and had to be very careful with that near the sensors because it can short them!”
Although the dress seems complicated, Kurkova was comfortable the entire night. “It’s light, it’s airy, you can’t tell that it has wires and LED lights in it,” Kurkova, 32, told Us. “There’s a lot that’s going on underneath with all the wiring, but you wouldn’t know that this dress is actually a piece of technology unless I told you! I like that it’s a little secret I have!”
The tech-meets-fashion theme even made its way into the model’s makeup. “I wanted to play with light,” celebrity makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury told Us. “It was all about highlighting over the cheekbones, contouring using a brush that has a little bit of gold flecks throughout it.”
Tilbury, who’s also worked with Jennifer Aniston and Miranda Kerr, used “intelligent” products from her eponymous line. Among her tricks of the trade, Tilbury applied her Magic Foundation that “morphs to your skin, tightens your pores and fills in your lines” in a six-hour duration; the Mini Miracle Eye Wand, which she describes as “eight hours sleep in two clicks” as well as Color Chameleon in Dark Pearl and Champagne Diamonds on the lashes, which brought out the sparkle in her eyes.
