Some premieres are about the film. Others are about the fashion — and the New York premiere of Klara and the Sun was firmly the latter. On October 19, Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams arrived at the Crosby Street Hotel for the special screening and delivered a study in contrasts: one star in a hand-forged, multicolored fringed ensemble, the other in sculptural black minimalism. Together, they made the strongest red-carpet argument of the week for dressing with intention.
Ortega’s look was the night’s conversation piece. The silver, orange and yellow gown — a halter neckline with a fringed skirt — came from 24-year-old designer Elias Matso, a recent graduate of Italy’s Polimoda fashion school. The dress was built like architecture: a twisted bodice with corset boning made from steel rods, covered in crystals and multicolored beads, cascading into dangling tassels of futuristic fringe. The back was laced tightly up the spine. “It’s hand-made, human-made, a lot of effort,” Ortega said on the carpet — a fitting choice for a film, based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2021 novel, in which she plays Klara, an artificial friend searching for human connection. The piece came from Matso’s “Melt with Me” capsule collection, a body of work known for extreme proportions and hard-edged textiles. She finished the look with nude pointed stilettos, letting the gown do the talking.
(Sara Komatsu / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0))Amy Adams, her co-star, chose the opposite path — and it worked just as powerfully. Her black off-the-shoulder gown by Rosie Assoulin was defined by its oversized white cuffs, a single oversized detail that transformed a classic silhouette into something sculptural. Where Ortega’s dress moved and shimmered, Adams’s held its line. She paired it with sleek black satin pumps, keeping every other element quiet so the cuffs could carry the look. It was made-to-measure restraint: proof that on a night of maximalism, precision can be the boldest choice of all.
Contrasts That Worked
What made the evening so compelling was how the two looks spoke to each other without competing. Ortega leaned into color blocking and texture — silver against orange against yellow, hard steel softened into fluid fringe. Adams worked in monochrome, letting embellishment-free tailoring and one dramatic cuff do the work. Both understood the assignment: a premiere for a story about what makes us human deserved fashion with a point of view.
The supporting details mattered too. Ortega’s gown, held by the young designer specifically for the occasion, carried the narrative of human craft in a story about artificial life — fashion as storytelling, not just decoration. Adams’s look, meanwhile, nodded to a longer tradition of premiere dressing: the column gown, the bare shoulder, the single flourish. Director Taika Waititi joined both stars at the screening, and the trio’s photocall became one of the most circulated fashion images of the week.
(Krainagrzybow / Wikimedia Commons (CC0))Meanwhile, in Los Angeles
While New York debated fringe versus minimalism, Los Angeles offered its own spectacle at the 2026 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Tate McRae — who both walked and performed — wore a black beaded bra with a butterfly motif and a matching low-rise maxi skirt, the beading catching the stage lights. It was a different kind of red-carpet calculus: less about the premiere photocall, more about movement, music and the long walk.
And in Newport Beach, McKenna Grace closed out the week’s fashion conversation at the 2026 Newport Beach Film Festival in a black strapless Nicole + Felicia gown covered in 3D butterflies. The appliqué-like butterflies gave the gown dimension and motion, while the skirt’s short train added old-school drama — a softer, more romantic take on surface detailing than the steel and crystal of Ortega’s premiere look, but no less deliberate.
(Kevin Paul / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0))From hand-wound steel rods to sheer overlays to butterfly detailing, the week’s best looks shared one quality: they were considered. Whether custom-built for a premiere or built for a runway, each outfit felt chosen rather than worn. And in a season of endless premieres, that kind of intention is the rarest accessory of all.
The Designers Behind the Moments
Behind every great premiere look is a designer betting on a star, and this week’s bets were fascinating. Elias Matso is 24 years old, a recent graduate of Italy’s top-ranked Polimoda fashion school, and his corset-focused, hand-built work has already dressed Julia Fox, Sarah Paulson and Demi Lovato. He held Ortega’s steel-rod gown specifically for the Klara and the Sun premiere — a young designer trusting a young star with his most ambitious piece, and being repaid with a global fashion moment. He even co-designed Lisa Rinna’s tutu confection for the 2026 Victoria’s Secret show, making this something of a breakout fortnight for him.
Rosie Assoulin operates at the other end of the experience curve — an established name known for sculptural, architectural womenswear — but her contribution to the evening was equally deliberate. The oversized white cuffs on Adams’s black gown were pure Assoulin: a single exaggerated proportion that turns a classic into a signature. Together, the two designers framed the night’s central tension — the avant-garde versus the eternal — and proved that great red-carpet fashion can come from anywhere on the industry’s map, as long as the vision is clear.