TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - As celebrities stepped out onto the Met Gala red carpet in glamorous gowns and painting-inspired dresses, Olympic champion Eileen Gu turned heads wearing a dress made of 15,000 glass bubbles.
This year's Met Gala—themed "Costume Art"—has been neatly wrapped up, but talks about the best-dressed attendees still bubble up on social media. Among them is the 22-year-old freestyle skier Eileen Gu. What makes her dress one-of-a-kind?
15,000 Glass Bubbles and 2,550 Hours of Hard Work
In an interview with ESPNW as quoted from Page Six, Eileen Gu said her Met Gala dress—in all of its bubbly glory—was made of 15,000 glass pieces.
"It took 2,550 hours to make. There’s technology under the dress that enables reality to kind of come together with art," she said, referring to the actual bubble floating around her as she posed for pictures.
"It’s a play on surrealism, it’s a play on movement, it’s a play on nature, on fun, on whimsy," she explained.
When asked why sports are art, the athlete said, "It’s about self-expression. It’s about breaking boundaries and about being the truest version of yourself."
Who designed Eileen Gu's bubble dress?
Gu worked with Dutch designer Iris van Herpen to create her "tech-couture" dress, which collaborated with the contemporary artist duo A.A.Murakami, according to Hypebeast.
The boundary-pushing artists integrated technology with high fashion, which resulted in a whimsical, high-tech short bubble dress dubbed the "Airo" look that cemented Eileen Gu as one of the best-dressed during fashion's biggest night.
To highlight the laborious dress, Gu kept her accessories minimal. She wore see-through heels and a pair of small earrings "partially concealed by her chic, messy updo," as described by Page Six.
Her main "accessories" remain the dozens of bubbles that floated around her.
Not Elieen Gu's first Met Gala rodeo
Eileen Gu made her Met Gala debut in 2021, according to Parade, wearing a black-and-white Carolina Herrera bubble dress. At the time, she completed the look with black heels and a bold red lip.
She was back to the Metropolitan Museum of Art the following year, with an edgier leather mini dress by Louis Vuitton, a metal belt, and a pair of high black leather boots.
Gu is a decorated athlete with six medals in six events at the 2022 and 2026 Winter Olympics. But off the slopes, she's also a model signed with IMG.
Citing Page Six, Eileen Gu has appeared in Sports Illustrated 2025 issue, gracing the covers of the Chinese editions of Cosmopolitan and Vogue, and representing Louis Vuitton, Victoria's Secret, and Fendi.
Read: All BLACKPINK Members Arrive in Style at the 2026 Met Gala
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