Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogel bomb here. The popularity of award show fashion
Speaker 1: has practically eclipsed the award shows themselves. For example, the
Speaker 1: E Network now devotes an entire broadcast day to the
Speaker 1: Oscars Red Carpet, starting with a morning pre pre show
Speaker 1: followed by hours long live coverage. For designers, the Red
Speaker 1: Carpet is one of the most visible and buzzed about
Speaker 1: ways to promote their brands. Some top designers will pay
Speaker 1: a list, actresses and musicians big bucks to wear their
Speaker 1: dresses or jewelry between one hundred thousand and two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty thousand dollars, depending on the star power of
Speaker 1: the given celebrity. Other celebrities are allowed to borrow a
Speaker 1: designer dress, handbag, or jewel studded necklace for the night
Speaker 1: for free, of course, in order to get the designer's
Speaker 1: name into the highly clickable Red carpet photo slide shows.
Speaker 1: But what happens to that very expensive dress when the
Speaker 1: red carpet is rolled up and the TV camera us
Speaker 1: move on to the next event. Is the gown stuffed
Speaker 1: into a closet never to be worn again? Or does
Speaker 1: the designer take it down to the dry cleaner and
Speaker 1: try to sell it on Craigslist. We reached out to
Speaker 1: Ariana Wisener, a Hollywood stylist, for some answers. Wisener, who
Speaker 1: dresses celebrities for award shows, press tours, and magazine spreads,
Speaker 1: says that one of the dresses loaned out for awards
Speaker 1: shows go right back to the designer or okay, like nine.
Speaker 1: Weisner said, on rare occasions, the designer will gift the
Speaker 1: celebrity the gown. One famous example the ethereal and deeply
Speaker 1: plunging green Versaci dress that Jennifer Lopez wore to the
Speaker 1: Grammys in the year two thousand. Wisner said Versaci gifted
Speaker 1: her the dress because it was such an iconic moment,
Speaker 1: and indeed it was. According to a blog post by
Speaker 1: Google CEO Eric Schmidt, the dress was the direct inspiration
Speaker 1: for creating Google image search. The really big design houses
Speaker 1: like Dior, Louis Vuitton, and Chanel will take back a
Speaker 1: red carpet dress and keep it in their archives, says Wisener.
Speaker 1: You won't see a statement gown from the Oscars resold
Speaker 1: to the public, dry cleaned or not, but that's not
Speaker 1: the case for lower tier designers. Wisener sites the rise
Speaker 1: of fashion rental companies in Los Angeles and New York
Speaker 1: for this trend. Less conspicuous red carpet dresses from whatever
Speaker 1: designers Wisener's term could very well end up on the
Speaker 1: racks of shops like Our Miriam or rent the runway
Speaker 1: a few years after a big event. Sample sales are
Speaker 1: another place where you might stumble upon address that a
Speaker 1: celebrity war for one big night. When a designer's warehouse
Speaker 1: becomes overstuffed with leftovers from events, last year's line and
Speaker 1: sample sized dresses that were tried on repeatedly in the store,
Speaker 1: they hold a sample sale, frequently involving deep discounts. Even
Speaker 1: if you can't get the very same dress that a
Speaker 1: celeb war on the red carpet, you might be able
Speaker 1: to buy an exact replica. Every once in a while,
Speaker 1: says Wisener, a dress that really pops at an award
Speaker 1: show is picked up for mass production, one recent example
Speaker 1: being a pleaded silver gown that Kate Hudson war to
Speaker 1: the Vanity Fair Oscars post party. The designer sells the
Speaker 1: same dress online for only three thousand three hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty five dollars. Really luxurious dresses not only grabbed the
Speaker 1: attention of fashion fans but also thieves. At the Oscars,
Speaker 1: actress Lupid and Youngo wore a white gown by Calvin
Speaker 1: Klein studded with six thousand pearls worth an estimated hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty thousand dollars. The gown was reported stolen from
Speaker 1: Yongo's Los Angeles hotel the day after the Oscars, but
Speaker 1: was then mysteriously returned by the thief. According to TMZ,
Speaker 1: after the dress burglar snatched the gown, they removed two
Speaker 1: pearls and took them down to the garment district. There
Speaker 1: were fakes. The thief dumped the worthless dress in a
Speaker 1: bathroom back at Nyongo's hotel and tipped off TMZ to
Speaker 1: its location. Today's episode was written by Dave Ruse and
Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Klang. If you're interested in fashion, check
Speaker 1: out our new compatriot podcast called Dressed. It's all about
Speaker 1: the stunning his story of how we humans clothe ourselves,
Speaker 1: and of course, for more on this and lots of
Speaker 1: other topics that make a statement, visit our home planet,
Speaker 1: how Stuff Works dot com.