CALVIN KLEIN DRESS HEIST: Calvin Klein officials had no comment Thursday about Lupita Nyong’o’s pearl-embellished Calvin Klein gown that was stolen out of her room in the London Hotel in West Hollywood, Calif., Tuesday. The actress wore the dress to the Academy Awards on Sunday night. News of the heist was first reported by TMZ.
The custom halter dress with an open back was designed by Francisco Costa and featured 6,000 white pearls. The police report put the value of the gown at $150,000; however AmericanPearl.com, an e-commerce luxury jewelry retailer, has calculated the value at about $1 million wholesale, or $10 million at auction, (but, then, it does sell pearls so would no doubt trumpet the higher value).
“Based on our analysis of the size range of the pearls used in the dress, over a hundred 16-inch strands of natural pearls of 4 millimeters to 7 millimeters in diameter would be needed to create this dress. Natural pearl strands of this size and quality are easily valued at $10,000 each for fair market value,” said Heidi Cohen, director of marketing for American Pearl. She said that Costa asserted that the pearls are all natural.
“The $150,000 estimate that many news outlets are reporting would be an approximate estimate for cultured pearls. Knowing how rare natural pearls of this quality are, we estimate the value of the dress much higher for just the raw pearls alone, which may be why the dress became a target for theft.”
It has been reported that the dress was stolen sometime during the day on Tuesday, while Nyong’o was gone from her room. West Hollywood sheriff’s detectives said they were investigating the theft.