Jourdan Dunn Turned Into a Rose for the Met Gala

A rose is a rose is a rose — and sometimes it is also Jourdan Dunn.

Ms. Dunn, a model, arrived at the Met Gala in a 30-pound dress made of large plastic petals, designed by Zac Posen and General Electric Additive and built by Protolabs. Each petal weighs about a pound and appears, on its own, rather naturalistic. But camp is artifice, and in their final form, attached in layers to a titanium cage, the petals formed a stylized idea of the flower.

“Mother Nature can be simple, abstract, challenging and definitely campy, in ways that are surprising, shocking,” Mr. Posen, an avid gardener, said at a fitting at his offices in Manhattan on Friday. He added: “You cannot beat Mother Nature. You can just homage.”

All in all, with printing, sanding and airbrushing, the two-tone petals took hundreds of hours to create. Would Ms. Dunn be able to sit in the dress? No. Her post-red carpet look will be a short, sleek dress, worn beneath the floral exterior.

Anyway, the point isn’t wearability.

Mr. Posen had been looking for an opportunity to try out new printing technologies, and the gala seemed like the right place to introduce his experiments. Unlike other red carpets, where awards for singing and acting are at stake, the Costume Institute’s red carpet is unabashedly about fashion.

“This is the time when you have the chance to work with interesting techniques and play with drama and fashion,” Mr. Posen said.

Each petal costs an estimated $3,000 to fabricate, which means Ms. Dunn’s dress would go for about $63,000. (Ms. Dunn will not keep the dress.)

Mr. Posen attended the gala for the first time in 1997, when he was an intern at the Costume Institute. “I saved up, I can’t remember how much, but obviously in a different hemisphere to what any ticket is now,” he said. “I believe it was $60, maybe $120. There’s no way I will find that receipt.”

This is the first year he has purchased a table, which costs between $200,000 and $300,000. His other guests include Katie Holmes, Deepika Padukone and Nina Dobrev. “This is a huge deal for me,” he said.

At the fitting, two men offered their hands to Ms. Dunn as another placed a pair of strappy heels beneath her dress. Carefully, her view of her feet blocked by the abundant petals, she stepped into the shoes.

“I’ve worn nothing like this before,” said Ms. Dunn, who has been to the gala 10 times in the past. “It feels like I’m wearing art that is very expensive and very hefty.”

She said that at her last fitting she had practiced walking up stairs. (The red carpet is at the front entrance to the Met and spread over several sets of stairs.)

“We had a step pyramid, and we went up and down, up and down,” Mr. Posen said.

“We’ve been training,” Ms. Dunn added.