Natalie Portman’s Dior dress took 250 hours to make and it’s gorgeous

natalie portman
(Image credit: Shutterstock/Rex)

Dior sure knows how to create a showstopper of a dress (and a saddle bag for that matter). For Nicole Kidman's Cannes dress, Maria Grazia Chiuri and her atelier spent a casual 1,000 hours sewing, embellishing and refining to create the look, inspired by a French garden.

Last night, Natalie Portman stepped out in a ballet dancer-inspired tulle gown for the Vox Lux film screening in LA, a look straight off the AW18 runway.

natalie portman

The dress was however specially made to fit the actress for the occasion, and while it didn't take as long as Nicole Kidman's, it still took 250 hours.

It took four seamstresses to sew the 45 metres of tulle together, to create the ballgown style dress which featured a dipped V neck back and full skirt.

Across town, Lady Gaga wore a similar Dior gown to another event, a strapless blush organza affair which took 300 hours to make thanks to its many scalloped layers.

Penny Goldstone

Penny Goldstone is the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire, covering everything from catwalk trends to royal fashion and the latest high street and Instagram must-haves.

Penny grew up in France and studied languages and law at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris before moving to the UK for her MA in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University. She moved to the UK permanently and has never looked back (though she does go back regularly to stock up on cheese and wine).

Although she's always loved fashion - she used to create scrapbooks of her favourite trends and looks, including Sienna Miller and Kate Moss' boho phase - her first job was at MoneySavingExpert.com, sourcing the best deals for everything from restaurants to designer sales.

However she quit after two years to follow her true passion, fashion journalism, and after many years of internships and freelance stints at magazines including Red, Cosmopolitan, Stylist and Good Housekeeping, landed her dream job as the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire UK.

Her favourite part of the job is discovering new brands and meeting designers, and travelling the world to attend events and fashion shows. Seeing her first Chanel runway IRL at Paris Fashion Week was a true pinch-me moment.