Weighing 150 kg and featuring 96,762 Swarovski crystals, Alin Le’ Kal’s creation was valued at $1 million in 2019. Like everything else in this inflationary environment, the price has since gone up, he tells Forbes Australia.
It took nine months for Alin Le’ Kal and his Parisian team to complete the exquisite gown closing the Glam Up Runway show at this year’s PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival. The Swarovski crystal-covered showstopper was shipped back and forth from the French Capital to Melbourne twice, at no small expense.
“By the time we finished the dress, it weighed about 150 kg, and we used DHL and FedEx to ship it. The transportation cost was calculated per kilo, each trip cost between $4,000 to $5,000,” Le’ Kal tells Forbes Australia.
Dubbed the ‘million dollar dress’ when first valued for sale, the tumultuous six years since have had an inflationary effect on the gown’s price tag.
“It was quoted at $1 million in 2019, but now the price may be a couple hundred thousand more, based on inflation and increased Australian and French labour costs,” says Le’ Kal.
“We keep saying to clients that this dress is not wearable guys. You can’t wear this for your wedding.”
Alin Le’ Kal
The designer says the high-necklined ‘feminine yet traditional’ gown is still for sale, but its significant weight makes it a better fit as an exhibition piece rather than something to be worn by a client.
The weight constraints have also made the logistics of getting the dress into Victoria and down the Fashion Week runway difficult.
“It’s never been done before as far as I know. We had to get all the approvals and necessary paperwork to get this dress into the country,” says Le’ Kal. “Melbourne Fashion Festival has been a complete pleasure to work with because they’ve been so understanding. It has been a big mission to dot the I’s and cross the T’s to make this happen.”
The fashion designer says the hand-sewn 96,762 Swarovski crystals are what weigh the dress down.
“It’s not a beaded fabric, it was all hand-beaded specifically for that dress. This dress has not touched a machine. All of the crystals, all the seams, the zip, the hem have been hand-sewn,” says Le’ Kal.
The journey to the million-dollar dress
Creating a million-plus-dollar dress was something the designer conceived in the last decade, but Le’ Kal’s journey to Melbourne and fashion started long ago.
“I grew up in Melbourne – we migrated from the Middle East when I was five,” says Le’ Kal.
He says he knew he wanted a career in fashion before becoming a teenager.
“I remember watching ‘The Parent Trap’ with Lindsay Lohan, and in the film Lindsay’s mum is a designer. I remember just loving the photo-shoot they did in that movie, and I knew then I wanted to be a designer.”
Some 20 years later, in a full circle moment, Lohan wore Alin Le’ Kal designs while on trips to Australia. The designer has also dressed Kelly Rowland, Paris Hilton, and Sophie Monk. Le’ Kal has been in business for almost 20 years, having started the company at age 18.
Le’ Kal’s specialty is spectacular gowns, a skill that the South Yarra-based designer honed from a young age, reconstructing bridal dresses in his mind.
“My parents would take me to weddings, and I’d be looking at the bride and thinking, ‘how could I rework this dress,'” says Le’ Kal. “Then I started making dresses for my sisters and their friends.”
From Melbourne to Paris, Dubai, LA, and beyond
Le’ Kal was in a Melbourne restaurant in 2018, having lasagne with a fashion designer friend when he came up with the plan for the crystal-covered dress.
“I told him I want to create something that no one else in Australia or probably even the world has ever created. I thought, let’s make a gown that’s completely covered in crystals,” says Le’ Kal. “And I completely underestimated the logistics of it,” he laughs.
He started the project in Paris, intending it to be shown at Paris Fashion Week in 2023. The hand beading alone took six months to complete, and the weight of the dress made getting it down the Parisian runway on a body challenging, so the project was delayed.
That didn’t stop clients from asking to purchase the couture gown, however.
“We have had so many customers in the UAE contact us because they want this dress – clients in Qatar, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi. And we keep saying to clients that this dress is not wearable guys. You can’t wear this for your wedding,” Le’ Kal laughs.
After finally making its way down the runway in Melbourne, Le’ Kal says, unless it sells, the million-dollar-plus dress will stay in Melbourne.
The homegrown successful fashion entrepreneur, meanwhile, will be focusing on the career goals ahead of him, which include getting glittering gowns on more A-list talent.
“I’ve done Paris Couture, which was a bucket list moment that I have ticked off. I’ve dressed Lindsay Lohan and Mariah Carey, which I always wanted to do. Now, the ultimate people I would love to dress are Kate Winslet and Charlize Theron.”
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