Karolina Kurkova’s Marchesa Met Gala gown lit up in response to Tweets: still fug?

MET Costume Institute Gala 2016
Karolina Kurkova was one of the ladies in Marchesa last night at the Met Gala. She was in this dusty blue tulle and white floral applique gown with little twinkle lights sewn into it which changed color based on the emotions of people responding on her social media accounts. It was unclear how this worked exactly. They were vague about it on E! when they covered her getting ready and when she tried to explain it in a video it made no sense. She couldn’t sit down because of the lights, and IBM worked on the technology. CNET has a description of how the dress works and it sounds like the plot to Inside Out. “There are five key emotions it will search for on social media: joy, passion, excitement, encouragement and curiosity. When it detects these emotions, the dress glows in real-time.” It’s a very twee gown, regardless. At least it was in keeping with the theme. I would have liked to see more gowns last night with actual technology features. Why did no one have some kind of led display built into their gown? At least hire some tech people to rig something up with raspberry pi.

Poppy DeLevigne was also in Marchesa, in a kind of 1920s showgirl elaborately tiered gunmetal gown. I don’t get a retro futurist vibe from this, it’s just retro. At least this looks like a costume. These are the kind of crazy intricate gowns we want to see at the Met Gala. Also, her styling is perfect. I wouldn’t think that long straight hair would go with that dress but it does.

Nina Dobrev was in a gold cap sleeve tulle and sequin Marchesa that would have looked more at home on Kate Beckinsale. This is just a fussy dress that has little to do with the theme. At least it fits her like a glove and you can see the incredible detail that went into it, but I would have liked to see her in something more daring.

MET Costume Institute Gala 2016

MET Costume Institute Gala 2016

Lorde’s tiered tulle and v-neck spaghetti strap Marchesa is sagging on her. It looks like a fun gown, but more along the lines of something a kid would wear to dress up. I think that’s because the top is hanging so loose and the skirt is huge. Plus she has that cutesy hunched stance. No one seems to know how Lorde broke her arm.

Met Gala 2016 'Manus x Machina: Fashion In An Age Of Technology'

Met Gala 2016 'Manus x Machina: Fashion In An Age Of Technology'

Photos credit: WENN and FameFlynet

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43 Responses to “Karolina Kurkova’s Marchesa Met Gala gown lit up in response to Tweets: still fug?”

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  1. als says:

    What’s up with those faces Lourdes makes at the camera?

  2. AnotherDirtyMartini says:

    Lorde looks strung out 🙁

    What is wrong with me? I like the first three gowns and they’re Marchesa 😳

    • sills says:

      Hahaha, my exact reaction! Do they have a new designer on board, cuz usually it’s one out of a hundred Marchesa dresses I don’t hate…and here it’s three in a row? Something’s fishy.

    • Ann says:

      I’m starting to like Marchesa more and more. It’s finally finding it’s way to actual design rather than just looking like a craft store exploded on to whoever is wearing it. Nina looks gorgeous and that dress is very pretty!

  3. Sixer says:

    I didn’t watch the video to see the explanation, but there is a thing called sentiment analysis. It analyses language in interwebz postings with the keywords/accounts of your choice, and grades along the lines of positive, negative, neutral. Businesses use it to judge the success of ad campaigns or product launches. There are plenty of Twitter apps that will do this for you. So presumably that?

  4. paolanqar says:

    If all these people put all these energies in something productive they would change the world.
    A dress that changes color on tweets. How dumb is that.

  5. mme says:

    oh Lorde, we know you’re too good for these events. Why do you bother showing up (I’m totally being sarcastic)

  6. HollyG says:

    I am SO excited about Karolina’s dress–IBM took the lead on it, and reached out to Marchesa to create it. The IBM team used analytics to design the dress itself based on previous Marchesa designs, then outfitted it with LCD lights that change color according to real-time feedback on social media. The colors were assigned “emotions” that were being expressed in the social media posts.

    The problem is…a dress that lights up based on social media needs to be seen in real time, and Anna Wintour banned it from the Met Gala. So I can’t find a video of the dress actually changing color.

    • The Eternal Side-Eye says:

      Argh that freaking sucks. It was the other big amazing dress of the night for me! Better than Claire Danes dress actually.

      If the idea is technology then I want to see dresses that play along that theme of how people would respond to social media in an advanced technological setting. As web obsessed as we are now you mean to tell me people wouldn’t have their dresses and outfits directly respond to people’s tweets, likes, and commenrs????

      This was brilliant.

    • Vizia says:

      Philips Design has been making wearable tech like this for over a decade. And cutecircuit.com has been around for awhile as well–I was surprised that so few people explored those options!

  7. Lou says:

    Claire Danes’s dres lit up! Was that LED? Because that was rad. This one just seems tacky.

    Looooove Nina and Poppy’s gowns, though. Can’t believe I just complimented Marchesa!

    Lorde, I love you girl, but what are you slouching like that for. The Met Gala is for modelling. E tu, please.

    • Vizia says:

      The fabric of Claire’s dress has led light filaments as part of the weave. Expensive stuff, and tough to get . That was almost certainly the most expensive dress of the night.

  8. vauvert says:

    I love Nina’s dress. Just love it. And Karolina’s dress looks fabulous and ethereal and I wish we could see more pics of it changing colour. Now that’s on theme!

    Poppy looks like she is wearing the love child a Michael’s rhinestone bag had with the chain link department at Home Depot. Yikes.

    Lorde, why don’t you stay home? The dress is horrible, the posture is worse, the scowl suggests that you;d rather have a tooth extraction without anesthetic than be there. (the bracelet was glorious though – a lot of pretty jewels out last night).

  9. mellie says:

    Nina and Poppy looked really amazing…Karolina’s gown was pretty enough, it didn’t need the lighting affects.

  10. JudyK says:

    Love Karolina’s dress AND the shoes…wow! (But no need for the lights IMO.)

  11. Polly says:

    I like Karolina’s dress lights and all. Lorde looks miserable but her shorter hair and tamer curls look great.

    As an aside, the recent addition of pop up ads on every photo are really annoying.

  12. Rae says:

    Smile Lorde.

    • Annaloo. says:

      She looked like a ghoul. Bad posture, sour face, everything. No she doesn’t have to smile, but she looks like she’s supposed to be haunting some abandoned school gym somewhere.

  13. Size Does Matter says:

    How do you wear a dress you cannot sit down in? She has to stand in the corner when everyone else sits down?

  14. Diana B says:

    Funny how last night as soon as I saw that dress I said ‘that must be Marchesa’ fugly as usual. The only dress that trully nailed the theme, lights and all, was Claire Danes’.

  15. Murphy says:

    Yeah Poppy looks more vintage but I still love it.

    WTF is up with Lorde’s posing, was she on something?

    • Sea Dragon says:

      My mind screamed WTF when I saw Lorde because seriously…what. the. f-ck. LOL She’s so ridiculous here. Unless she’s trolling or is under the influence of something powerful, there’s no explanation for that face.

  16. Pitag says:

    May Lorde got her arm broken trying to escape certain squad, and since the attempt was unsuccessful she got punishment in the form of a bad, terrible dress, and she is very sad and doesn’t know how or who to ask for help. Maybe?

  17. The Eternal Side-Eye says:

    LOVE this dress.

    Now this is staying in theme with the idea of technology and actually trying to be daring for the met gala.

    She’s one of only three people who actually tried and nailed it.

  18. MAC says:

    I loved Poppy’s dress on her body, excellent styling. The rest of the night was crap, other than the light up dress that actually fits her body correctly

  19. tacos and tv says:

    Nina’s dress is gorg. Would have loved her hair down and to side, like a princess. I am into Karolina’s dress, only because it lights up. If it didn’t, I’d say no.

  20. Lucy says:

    Poppy’s look is my favorite. Also, Lorde’s gown is Valentino, not Marchesa.

  21. Jade says:

    I think Poppy’s is the best. Sorry Claire Danes…I don’t want to have to switch off the lights.

  22. OTHER RENEE says:

    Poppy’s dress was one of my favorites for being beautiful and for being on theme.