14 DAY TRIAL // One of the most stunning presences on the red carpet at the Oscars 2015 last Sunday was last year’s big winner, Lupita Nyong’o. During her Oscar campaign and in the months following the win, Lupita established herself as a true fashionista, a risk-taker with a keen eye for fashion - and her choice for a gown at the gala this year didn’t disappoint.
She looked gorgeous in a custom-made Calvin Klein white gown made entirely out of pearls. The item has been reported stolen from the actress’ hotel room.
Expensive item goes missing
TMZ reports that Lupita’s gorgeous dress, which is valued at $150,000 (€133,664) and is made of no less than 6,000 Akoya pearls, went missing from her room at The London West Hollywood.
The actress was the one who alerted the police to the fact that it was missing, saying that it disappeared while she was out of the room between 8 AM and 9 PM on Wednesday. A publicist for the star would not respond to calls for comments on the situation.
However, police and hotel management are now looking at surveillance footage to see if they can spot and ID the alleged thief. So far, they have recorded no progress, but the aforementioned media outlet says they’ve already been through most of the footage, so an arrest is probably imminent.
The London has issued a statement stressing they’re fully cooperating with the police in the investigation.
A one-of-a-kind design
The pearl dress might not have ranked high with all fashion pundits, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t more than a dress.
It was created by Francisco Costa in collaboration with Lupita, who was back at the Oscars to present Best Supporting Actor. It’s tradition for the previous year’s winner to do the honors the following one, in the same category, so Lupita’s presence wasn’t a surprise.
Wanting to make it all the more special, she and Costa, set out to work on the perfect gown and came up with the idea for this pearl creation, which took months to complete.
“[We created] a series of textures with intricate placements of a variety of different-sized pearls,” Costa said. “We looked at a variety of different pearls - South Sea, iridescent, and natural - and decided that the natural pearls looked the most beautiful.”
This is more than just a dress, this is a piece of jewelry.
