Some red-carpet moments are pretty. Others are architecture. Jenna Ortega’s appearance at Monday night’s New York screening of Klara and the Sun was firmly the latter: the 24-year-old stepped onto the carpet at the Crosby Street Hotel in a custom-made dress built from steel rods, and within minutes the look had become the most discussed fashion moment of the film’s entire press run.
(Gabriel Brooks / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0))The gown, designed by Elias Matso, is a study in contrasts. Rigid industrial steel is shaped into a fluid, body-conscious silhouette that falls to the ankles, threaded with crystal detailing that softens the metal’s edge. It is handmade couture in the truest sense — laboriously constructed by hand, human-made with what Ortega described as “a lot of effort” — and, in her words, a carpet look that exists in exactly one copy.
“I’ve just met the designer, and he’s so special and so cool,” the Wednesday star told PEOPLE exclusively at the event. “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 Making of a Statement
This is not a dress that appeared out of nowhere. Matso has been documenting its creation for months. In April, he posted a video of a model wearing the piece to Instagram, describing the technique as “boning made fluid” and promising to share more about the process and the people behind it. He then held the gown back, waiting for the perfect stage — and chose to put it on Ortega for the Klara and the Sun screening, where its meaning would land hardest.
“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,” Ortega said of the designer’s decision.
The synergy is undeniable. In the film, Ortega plays Klara, a solar-powered Artificial Friend — a humanoid robot companion created to ease loneliness — who develops a deep bond with the teenage owner she serves. To wear a garment literally built from metal to celebrate a story about a machine learning to feel is storytelling through wardrobe, and it places this ensemble squarely in the emerging conversation around brutalist fashion: raw materials, exposed structure, and beauty that does not ask permission.
(TV10 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0))Why This One Matters
Ortega has been building a reputation as one of the most deliberate dressers of her generation. Where many young stars chase novelty for its own sake, her choices tend to carry intent — and this one carries plenty. A steel-rod gown for a film about an artificial being is not a coincidence; it is a thesis statement, worn on the body.
It also represents a meaningful platform for Matso, an emerging designer whose craft — fluid metal boning, hand-set crystal, sculptural couture techniques — now has one of the most photographed young actresses in Hollywood as its canvas. Moments like this are how designers graduate from industry insiders’ radar to global recognition overnight.
Stylist Enrique Melendez completed the picture with restraint: nude heels, a center part, and Ortega’s signature smoky eye. The restraint was wise. Nothing about the accessories needed to compete; the dress was always going to do the talking.
The Film Behind the Fashion
Directed by Taika Waititi, Klara and the Sun is a novel adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s bestselling 2021 book. The story unfolds in a dystopian sci-fi future where Klara — the Artificial Friend Ortega portrays — draws her energy from the sun and devotes herself to the teenager she belongs to, raising questions about love, loyalty, and the line between the solar-powered and the soulful.
The film’s source material comes from Kazuo Ishiguro, the Nobel laureate whose bestselling novel earned widespread acclaim on publication. Alongside Ortega, the cast includes Amy Adams — who joined her co-star at Monday’s screening — plus Mia Tharia, Aran Murphy, Steve Buscemi, and Natasha Lyonne. Waititi, also present at the Crosby Street Hotel event, directed the adaptation.
(Margaret Gardiner / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0))On the carpet, Ortega mused about the film’s version of tomorrow — a future nobody can predict, in a world that feels slightly uncanny because it almost resembles ours. “I’m playing a robot, and it’s a dystopian future where no one knows what the future looks like,” she said, reflecting on how old films imagined flying cars that never came.
Ortega’s Growing Fashion Legacy
This is not the first time Ortega has used fashion to say something. Across the Wednesday press tours and her recent film premieres, she has consistently favored looks with a point of view — gothic, architectural, occasionally theatrical. The steel-rod gown is the boldest chapter of that story so far, and it arrives at exactly the right moment in her career: 24, established, and clearly unafraid to take up space on the carpet.
What is striking is how personal the choice feels. Ortega described meeting Matso and being charmed by him, and there is something refreshing about a star who lights up talking about the human effort behind a garment rather than just the label. In an era of borrowed-archive uniformity, a one-of-one piece made by hand for a specific person on a specific night feels almost rebellious.
Klara and the Sun hits theaters exclusively on Oct. 23. Whether the film becomes a phenomenon or not, one thing is already certain: the steel-rod dress will be the image everyone remembers from this press tour — a one-of-one gown for a once-in-a-generation talent, worn on a night when fashion and story told the same story.