Caitlyn Jenner’s moving speech at the ESPY Awards, where she picked up the Arthur Ashe Courage Award earlier this week, stood out for more than just her stirring words. The athlete and reality star looked gorgeous. Luckily for us, her stylist, Jen Rade, spoke to People about how she chose that stunning dress and the details that made it come to life.
Jenner and Rade began working together just a few weeks ago, leaving her with very little time to pull the outfit together. They were looking for something “classic, chic and sophisticated,” which seems to be Jenner’s signature style these days, and ultimately decided to go with a Versace dress accessorized with emerald earrings, a diamond bracelet, and Stuart Weitzman heels.
“We started talking about what Cait would want, and we talked about doing something ivory. This is not the time to come out in a red dress. It’s not a photo shoot. This is the first time for Cait live, not as a model in a magazine or something…Donatella [Versace] was over the moon — just so honored.”
Once the team decided on a design, they chose between endless options of color swatches:
“There are about 8,000 different colors of ivory, bone or cream — it’s really about what works best on your skin tone. We [placed] different swatches across her shoulder, near her face so we could see which was a nice, warm tone. They custom-dyed two bolts in case they had to re-do something, and then got to work!”
So, celebrity life means selecting the perfect shade for your skin tone out of thousands options? I can’t decide if the thought of that makes me envious or just exhausted! For Jenner’s custom Stuart Weitzman shoes, Rade says, they were sent “like, 15 cards of leathers, and we laid the ivory next to it,” after which they decided on a shade called Washed Napa Sun. Who knew being so stylish required so many decisions!
