‘Derek Hough braved the traffic in a black mesh body stocking while Mark Ballas was the only man with something substantial on his back’
At just shy of 80 kilograms and with a 50cm train, Mariah Carey’s 80-piece Dolce & Gabbana Christmas special gown was a feat of engineering worthy of the 1930s. Her multicoloured diaphanous train may have caused commotion, but a six-man crew carried it from the Dolce & Gabbana factory to Carey’s Los Angeles home where the winter-themed décor is in full bloom.
K, a Brooklyn-based fashion writer, joined the men in the cavernous factory, where workers were hard at work wrapping the gown for a red carpet event.
Mark Ballas, working an iPhone while he waited in the traffic in a black mesh body stocking, and Derek Hough also took turns carrying pieces of fabric behind his back, seemingly without assistance from the costume department. Ballas, who was used to being cast in productions by the dance label, commended Carey for her commitment to her dresses and even dedicated the dress to Jennifer Lopez’s fiancé Casper Smart.
Carey’s dress for the 2015 Christmas special lacked a train but was 2.5 metres long and 35cm wide. It was also adorned with nearly 1,000 Swarovski crystals and covered in 3,000 yards of satin, according to Channel 7. Carey, who is well known for her wacky fashion choices, even sported a full head of red hair for the 2013 premiere. The reality show Mariah’s World, which first aired in February and that stars Carey and her ex-husband Nick Cannon, documents her intricate preparations for the expensive, elaborate and potentially dangerous feat of selling “vulture styles” to the public, according to Carey’s publicist Cindi Berger.