The custom ballgown featured a sparkling rendition of Chanel’s signature tweed
What does elegance look like? Penelope Cruz offered a compelling answer at the 2022 Oscars.
Cruz, who was nominated for Best Actress for her role in Pedro Almódovar's Parallel Mothers, took to the red carpet in a Chanel halter-neck taffeta ballgown, featuring a ruched bodice lined with buttons and a full skirt that came with pockets.
The custom dress was inspired by a look from Chanel’s Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2020 collection by Virginie Viard, which originally featured a sheer cape.
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As a nod to the French luxury brand’s signature fabric, Cruz’s dress was also embellished with a metallic tweed bow, painstakingly created at the Chanel haute couture ateliers in Paris.
Using a hand embroidery technique known as the Lunéville crochet, which is named after the French town that it originates from, Chanel’s petites mains embellished the bow with over 8,000 blue and silver sequins. The entire dress took 680 hours to construct.
The sparkling neckline of her dress meant that Cruz could do away with a statement necklace. Instead, the Spanish actress finished her Oscars look with a pair of Chanel shoes, a Diamant Essentiel ring, as well as Vol Suspendu ring and earrings in white gold and diamonds from the maison's Coromandel High Jewellery collection.
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