Money can’t buy you love – but it sure can buy you a statement wedding gown that stops hearts. The fact that four of the five most expensive dresses ever made (on record, anyway) were created with brides in mind speaks volumes about the lengths some women will go to just to make a big entrance.
In our opinion though, it’s the Calvin Klein dress worn by Lupita Nyong’o on the 2015 Oscars red carpet that leaves us breathless. Which of these would you buy if you had a spare seventeen million in a Swiss bank account?
1. RENÉE STRAUSS X MARTIN KATZ: $16.2 MILLION
When the famed couturier and celebrity jeweller came together to design the most expensive dress in the world, it was a match made in fashion heaven. In 2006, the duo threaded a gown with an impressive 150 carats worth of diamonds scattered across the bodice, with the gown retailing for a cool $16.2 million. The dress was presented to no doubt astounded onlookers at the Ritz-Carlton in California.
2. YUMI KATSURA: $8.3 MILLION
Undoubtedly one of the most ostentatious of the Japanese designer’s gowns, Katsura didn’t hold back on luxe finishes and fabrics for this wedding gown designed in 2006. The dress is draped in more than 1000 pearls and propped onto the waist of the dress is a five-carat white gold diamond and an 8.8-carat green diamond.
3. VERA WANG: $2 MILLION
The distinguished designer temporarily stepped away from her love affair with white lace and ruffles in 2009. She broke all wedding dress rules when the creative decided to design a wedding dress laden with more than 2000 peacock feathers. Created for a Wedding Expo in Nanjin, China, it took eight craftspeople to stitch the feathers onto the dress.
4. DANASHA LUXURY X JAD GHANDOUR: $2 MILLION
Another wedding dress dream team was established in 2010, when Danasha Luxury teamed with Lebanese couturier Jad Ghandour to design a stunning gown – with a considerable cost, too. While the silhouette is not nearly as grandiose as the Diamond Wedding Gown, the reason it is priced at $2 million is due to the impressive 200g of 18-karat gold, 75 carats of Belgian diamonds and other precious gems as embellishment.
5. CALVIN KLEIN: $1.6 MILLION
All eyes were on Lupita Nyong’o as she stepped onto the 2015 Academy Award red carpet in this custom Calvin Klein gown. Former creative director of the House, Francesco Costa, designed a gown for the Star Wars actress purely of all-natural pearls – there were more than 2000 in total. This was the second time Costa worked with Nyong’o on a design – she donned another of his designs for the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards in 2014.
