three of my very favorite custom looks over the years.

[whoosh]

Okay, this is Gaga's Met Gala look from 2019.

So that theme was camp and I thought of all the people

going that night that she has naturally

embodied that theme since day one of her career.

So how would you have one look?

And I felt if anybody could change

in front of all these people it would be her.

There were three pattern makers that worked on this look.

So one pattern maker per look.

There were definitely five seamstresses

but I think it was more like 10.

I think probably the handwork was about 700 hours

over a period of a couple weeks, or a week.

This was a fuchsia silk faille.

And I think it was 24 yards maybe?

28 yards, it was 28 yards.

We made one muslin of this in the office

it was actually in red.

And so we made one of these, it was a little bit shorter.

It was probably to right here.

And we had different women come in the office

who are the same height and body type as Gaga

and they basically walked around the office for a week

and stood on chairs and we blew it in the wind.

And I chose this fabric, one, because it is very durable

and it doesn't wrinkle as much.

We've walked down many, many blocks

in the New York streets with hundreds of people around.

So anything could have occurred.

You know the outfits could have shifted underneath.

So the whole time I'm walking 10 blocks

I'm thinking please let all the bustiers

underneath this outfit be lined up the entire time

that we're walking.

But look at me, just smiling.

I'm available for your movies

because I am an actress.

I tied this bow by hand in the principal's office before

standing on a chair.

And Sarah did these gorgeous metallic lashes

and Freddie did this great blonde bob

that had all these tiny little hair bows in it.

This jacket has snaps inside here

and then all of these bows I tied by hand.

I am an expert bow tier.

Okay here's the first reveal.

My upper lip is sweating 'cause this is stressing me out

going back and looking.

Anyways as you can see here are the snaps I told you about.

And it was a zipper.

So this was the first reveal.

So underneath this was a pink bustier.

So this was the first time that I had a sigh of relief

because there was no pink showing.

And so I think most people thought that this was it,

we were just taking off the coat

and then she was gonna move in.

And this was kind of the point

where I could see confusion on everyone's face,

like this guys right here.

He's like what's happening.

Is this it, is this the final?

And then that was the feeling on the carpet.

Everyone was like oh black dress, okay, we're moving on.

She's wearing a Tiffany necklace.

And look, all the baby hair bows.

This Tiffany necklace was super expensive

and I was very worried to accidentally rip it off.

Oh here's the reveal.

See, look at the crowd back here.

They're like, yes!

So this dress was crepe.

It was like a black stretch crepe

and on the hip was a black gazar.

And the black gazar was a risk

because black couture like gazar does wrinkle a lot.

That's like one of the biggest characteristics of gazar.

Is characteristics the right word?

I don't know.

This was a big hip that was built in

and made from shoulder pads on the side

that had many, many layers of tulle and gazar on it.

And what you don't see between this and the picture before

is that there was a waistband that was velcro

that had the same exact hip on the other side

under the pink jacket.

So it helped to fill out the pink jacket.

And what we had to do in that moment

as we're removing the jacket,

is that I had to very quickly rip that belt off

and hide it under the pink when it moved away

so that nobody saw that there was

another equal hip side on the other side.

We had to think about tailoring everything

in a way that would fit the outfit underneath it.

Okay here we are, to the pink dress.

I mean this guy for sure is loving it.

He is thrilled to be there.

See this was the third one and he was like,

we're in for a ride.

Under here is a bra and panty that has crystals on it,

7000 or 8000 that were all placed by hand

by everyone in my office.

We were full of glue in there.

Anyways this dress, the first time I ever tried it on,

the woman in my office before Gaga,

you could see up here every tiny

little crystal coming through

and it looked textured and weird.

And then everything you can see underneath here

from the waist up is lined with neoprene

which is a swimsuit material

so that you can't see any bumps.

And Gaga of course is wearing her custom 12 inch shoes

which she walks in these shoes

better than she walks in sneakers.

On the back of this gorgeous Tiffany necklace

is a butterfly.

And in the rehearsal the only job I had

this entire night besides taking off the clothes

was to say butterfly to remind someone

to turn the necklace around.

And the whole way to the Met Gala for 10 blocks

in my mind I just kept saying butterfly, butterfly,

butterfly, butterfly and I forgot in the moment.

Of course, I forgot.

And literally all of these people,

these amazing dancers who I've worked with for years,

the whole time they're dancing and doing their umbrellas

and under their mouth they're just going butterfly,

butterfly and it never registered with me.

I'm in my mind I'm just thinking

isn't this an amazing magical moment.

I'm just living fully in it.

And then finally Gaga looked at me

and she said, "Butterfly?"

and I was like right butterfly.

I had turned it around and look how happy they were

that I remembered butterfly.

The butterfly was turned around,

not by me, by the professional

who has performed in front of people forever.

All right, so this is the bra, the panty.

The bra was totally crystallized,

so were the panties, and so were the shoes.

This was a project.

It was such a great moment.

'Cause everybody on my team worked super, super hard.

hand placed those crystals and like what this moment

means for them and to have been a part of it.

And it's such a special thing.

I don't think I could've done this moment

with anybody else in the world but her.

Okay, so this was a custom look

for the Obama state dinner for Singapore.

This was 2016, I launched my brand in 2015.

So this was a year into my business

for the ultimate American moment.

Am I gonna start crying on Glamour right now?

May I have my coffee?

So this is a silk crepe, an ivory silk crepe.

This was 14 yards of fabric.

We built a body form that matched Mrs. Obama's

and we made it on her.

It was constructed by hand, nothing was put under a machine.

There are intricacies that are involved

with a white dress which is that you have to wear gloves

and you can't put it on the floor.

And then when you send it it has to be wrapped

and things can get dirty very easily.

And then this type of crepe that we used on this

is a very, very nice crepe.

But also it absorbs liquids very quickly.

The top, the bustier here is lined with neoprene

to hold the structure.

Now I'm giving away all my secrets.

Everything has neoprene in it.

So there was also from the back a removable train.

So this was a column dress from the front

as you can see here.

And then this whole train was removable.

You know I think that sometimes

the intricacies of the design can get lost

when it's taken apart and put on a machine.

For this one I was really particular about

these two layers coming off the body in 3D.

I just didn't think that it was something we could take off

and put into the machine.

I think it had to be basted by hand first

and then handsewn.

I just, you know, and it's the First Lady

of the United States.

You wanna give her the hand quality.

We worked after hours on this dress.

We did not work on this dress

while people were in the office.

And obviously we did not want anyone to know

who the dress was for.

Because we wanted to respect the privacy of the First Lady.

So we had it locked away in my office during the day

when people were working and then we worked

late at night after 6 o'clock ourselves on this

once everybody left for the day.

So only two people knew about this dress.

So when this was happening I was in Austria.

I was in the hotel room by myself

and it was happening at 6 o'clock in DC

which is midnight in Austria, I think.

So they got C-SPAN.

First time I ever watched C-SPAN in my life.

And so the thing is that you can go on

the White House website and it shows the schedule

of the First Lady and the President every day

and they're always on time.

So I knew that she would walk out at 6:02.

So I'm like 6:01, I'm counting down 60 seconds.

I'm like maybe, and then the door opens,

and maybe I will cry, and she walks out in this dress

and it was a moment that changed my life.

I was like, this is the American dream.

And then President Obama,

can you imagine watching that live on television?

That the president then puts his thumbs up.

I know it wasn't for me obviously,

it was for his beautiful wife.

But in my mind it was for me.

I was screaming so loudly in that hotel room.

I took my shirt off, I was sweating.

I had to walk around town by myself and breathe.

I was looking at every person

like what did you do today?

I just dressed the First Lady,

to anybody who would listen.

Nobody spoke the same language.

Anyways, I'm in another country,

I'm watching our First Lady walk out,

wearing a dress of mine.

In the time of that administration

I had built an American business

and my American dream had come true

and it is just still the greatest moment for me.

So now this is Karlie Kloss at the 2016 Met Gala.

This was the first time I had ever made a look

for the Met Gala.

The first time I met Karlie I was a stylist assistant.

I was working on a Christian Dior advertising campaign