Kim Kardashian's Met Gala look included 50,000 individual pearls

Kim Kardashian wears Schiaparelli to the 2023 Met Gala — (Image credit: Getty)

She is one of the most talked about women in the world, and anyone who is familiar with Kim Kardashian will know she does not do things in halves.

At last year's Met Gala, for a theme that celebrated American fashion, Kardashian wore Marilyn Monroe's exact sparkle-covered dress from 1962, and in 2021 the star donned a full-bodysuit and face covering.

Indeed, Kim K knows how to make an entrance and of course, this year's Met Gala was no different. For 2023 Kim chose to work with Schiaparelli (the brand behind those viral Lion head dresses from earlier this year).

In honour of Karl Lagerfeld, the luxury couture house created a showstopping gown for the star, which featured a pearl-adorned bust and skirt, alongside a corset-style waist. Kim finished the look with a long trailing, cream shawl.

While the dress looked every bit worthy of a couture title, you might be surprised to hear just how much work actually went into the design. According to reports, the gown featured around 50,000 fresh water pearls and around 16,000 individual crystals. (Yes, you read that correctly.)

If that isn't impressive enough, Vogue is reporting that the gown actually took around 1,000 hours of work in total to create. For context, that is around 41.6 full days. The design was created by Schiaparelli's current creative director Daniel Roseberry, and was reportedly worked on by dozens of artisans in Schiaparelli's atelier.

A post shared by Kim Kardashian (@kimkardashian)

While many celebrities opted to honour Karl Lagerfeld by dressing in monochromatic shades of black and white, or adorning themselves in the famed Chanel emblem, the Camelia flower, Kim Kardashian's choice to go for pearls felt a little more unique.

Although the designer certainly had a penchant for pearls and included the motif in many of his collections, the item was far less prominent than other Chanel hallmarks on this year's Met Gala red carpet.

Luckily, this feature allowed Kim Kardashian's look to truly stand out.

Zoe Anastasiou is a Fashion Editor with over eight years of experience working across digital publications in New York, London and Australia. She has contributed to publications including Harper’s BAZAAR and ELLE Australia, and was the Fashion and Social Media Editor at Who What Wear UK before joining Marie Claire.