There is red-carpet dressing, and then there is method dressing — when a star’s outfit becomes an extension of the film she is promoting. At Monday’s New York screening of Klara and the Sun, Jenna Ortega delivered a masterclass in the art: a steel-rod gown by Elias Matso that turned the actress into a living echo of the artificial being she plays on screen.
(Gabriel Brooks / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0))Let’s be honest: Ortega could have shown up in anything. She is Jenna Ortega — the face of Wednesday, one of the most in-demand young actresses working today, and a fixture of every star style roundup worth reading. But for the Klara and the Sun movie press tour, she has chosen something far more interesting than pretty. She has chosen narrative.
From Runway Brutalism to Robot Romance
The ankle-length dress — constructed from steel rods and finished with crystal beads — is the work of designer Elias Matso, who spent months building it by hand. When Ortega spoke about it in an exclusive interview at the Crosby Street Hotel screening, her admiration was unmistakable. “I’ve just met the designer, and he’s so special and so cool,” she said. “His name is Elias. He is incredible. This is a one-of-one dress. It’s made out of steel rods. So it’s handmade, human-made, a lot of effort.”
The phrase “boning made fluid” — which Matso used when he first teased the dress on Instagram in April — captures exactly what makes it work. Corsetry’s most rigid element becomes something that moves, breathes, and catches light. The result is a fashion statement that manages to be both severe and delicate, industrial and intimate — which, funnily enough, is also a decent description of the film.
Ortega connected the dots herself. “He’s been holding onto this dress for me, and it’s perfect. It’s very fitting with the film, so I’m so grateful,” she said. In Klara and the Sun, she plays Klara, a solar-powered Artificial Friend — a machine built to keep a lonely teenager company — and the idea of wearing a garment assembled from metal to celebrate that story is the kind of conceptual styling that separates good press-tour fashion from great.
(Irene Suwandi / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0))The Anatomy of a Perfect Press Moment
What elevates this beyond a single great outfit is the full choreography around it. Stylist Enrique Melendez kept everything else quiet — nude heels, a center part, the smoky eye that has become Ortega’s beauty signature — so the dress could hold the entire frame. No competing jewelry, no loud bag, no distraction. When the garment is the story, the styling gets out of its way.
The timing was impeccable too. Klara and the Sun, directed by Taika Waititi and adapted from Kazuo Ishiguro’s bestselling 2021 novel, opens in theaters on Oct. 23 — meaning this film premiere-season appearance landed just days before the theatrical release, at peak media attention. A photo call image of Ortega in a steel dress is now circulating everywhere the film is being discussed, and every share is free marketing the studio could never buy.
It is also a defining designer spotlight moment for Matso. Emerging designers live for nights like this: one perfect placement on a global star, and a handmade technique years in the making becomes the industry’s favorite new reference point. The dress was a one-of-one, but the attention it earned will echo far beyond a single evening.
The Bigger Picture: Premiere Fashion Gets Conceptual
Ortega’s steel gown belongs to a growing movement in premiere fashion where stars dress as their characters’ ideas rather than just their characters’ aesthetics. Think less costume, more concept. A dress made of steel for a film about an artificial friend. A gown that is literally human-made for a story about what makes something — or someone — feel human.
(Chris Roth / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0))And the box office stakes make the fashion matter more, not less. In a crowded release calendar, a film about a robot learning to love needs every advantage — including a star who understands that the carpet is part of the campaign. Ortega, joined at the screening by co-star Amy Adams and director Waititi, clearly does.
Why Method Dressing Works
The strategy is not new — stars have been dressing in character for press tours for years — but it works best when the connection feels earned rather than forced. Ortega’s steel dress earns it twice over: it is genuinely extraordinary as an object, and it is genuinely meaningful as a reference. You do not need to have read Ishiguro’s novel to feel the resonance between a woman in a machine-built gown and a story about a machine learning to be human.
There is also a quieter story here about craft. In a fashion landscape dominated by mass production and overnight virality, Matso’s months-long, hand-built process is a reminder of what couture actually means: one person, one garment, many hours. Ortega’s enthusiasm for that labor — “handmade, human-made, a lot of effort” — gives the look an emotional anchor that no styling trick could manufacture.
The lesson for anyone watching this space: the most powerful red-carpet looks are no longer just beautiful. They are literate. They reward the viewer who knows the story, and they intrigue the one who doesn’t. Jenna Ortega in steel rods is not just a dress — it is the film’s thesis, worn on the body, walking into theaters on Oct. 23.