14 DAY TRIAL // Late last week, the dress that actress Lupita Nyong’o wore at the Oscars 2015 the weekend before, a Calvin Klein creation made of no less than 6,000 Akoya pearls and estimated at upwards of $150,000 (€134,066), went missing from her hotel room.
As police were looking over surveillance video to try and ID the thieves, reports claimed that the dress was actually more expensive: some media outlets claimed it cost around $10 million (€8.93 million) because it was one of a kind.
As it turns out, the pearl dress is almost worthless, as the thieves must have been disappointed to find out.
Dress is returned in a garbage bag
TMZ reports that the dress was returned at the hotel it was stolen from, The London West Hollywood, in a garbage bag dumped in one of the bathrooms.
The thieves then called the celebrity publication to explain their surprise decision: why would they take back such a valuable item, especially since police had no suspects because the surveillance footage revealed nothing?
Apparently, the “valuable” item had very little value. The thieves took 2 pearls from the dress and had them evaluated at the Garment District in LA, learning that they were fakes. So they had no use for the dress.
By the way, they also tell TMZ that they managed to get the gown out of Lupita’s room without being caught on camera by throwing it off the balcony. All they had to do was wait for the actress to leave the room and then wait for the moment when someone, perhaps a hotel staffer, left the door ajar.
One threw the dress down the balcony and the other picked it up. It was the perfect plan - except for the fact that neither would have even dreamed that the dress was a fake.
The thieves must be kicking themselves right now, because they were so convinced the dress was worth a fortune they completely ignored Lupita’s Oscar gift bag, which is believed to be worth $125,000 (€111,685).
Calvin Klein never said the dress was priceless
With this robbery making Lupita’s Calvin Klein gown the biggest Oscars story, the fashion house is trying to save face, with an insider telling TMZ that they never claimed the pearls were real: that was all on Lupita’s publicist.
It was the publicist who claimed the pearls were real and who came up with the story of how Lupita had taken part in the creation of the design, which had taken months to complete because it all had been done manually. It was the same publicist who offered all the clues to media to come up with an estimate of the price tag.
“Did anyone ever say they were real from Calvin Klein? I always assumed everyone knew they were fake, but I guess not. Do they really make dresses out of real jewels since Cleopatra died?” the spy, dubbed “a source directly connected with the Women’s Creative Director of Calvin Klein, Francisco Costa,” says.
Then again, Calvin Klein didn’t deny reports that the dress was made of real pearls either. Do we count an omission a lie?
