“There is sort of this watercolor feel, and I love watercolor painting,” she said. “But then also there’s a creepy, sort of ominous undertone to the gown, like the way that it moves. And that is very much my taste in art.”
To begin the custom design process, Chamberlain and Ellner sent art references (including works by Van Gogh and Munch) to Castro Freitas and the Mugler team, then had a three-hour conversation to talk through ideas. Ellner also selected archival Mugler looks as influences, including a butterfly dress from 1997. (When Castro Freitas sent them the initial sketch, Chamberlain and Ellner had virtually no notes.)
The “Butterfly” Mugler dress from 1997
Photo: Getty Images
The result is a stunning gown, designed by Castro Freitas and hand-painted by artist Anna Deller-Yee, that literally turned Chamberlain’s body into a canvas. It’s a feeling she loves. “I really am someone who enjoys fashion the most when I get to be a complete blank canvas,” she said. The dress took Deller-Yee 40 hours to paint, working with 30 base colors, and four days to dry.
To walk the carpet, she opted for Stuart Weitzman platform heels in custom-dyed navy satin. When it came to her glam for the evening, “we had some big, brave ideas of what I’d do,” she said, including dyeing her hair brown. Ultimately, the team went for a subtler effect that let her Mugler dress shine.
Makeup artist Lilly Keys was inspired by the gown, echoing its mauve, purple, and soft yellow iridescent colors around Chamberlain’s eyes. Keys wanted the look to reflect the “slightly otherworldly” tone of the dress by making Chamberlain’s skin a “reflective surface, so when she moves, it catches light,” Keys said, adding that a key tool in creating this effect was the Shark Beauty FacialPro Glow. Keys opted to keep Chamberlain’s lips “velvet and neutral” to keep the focus on her skin and eyes.
