Daryl Hannah's Upcycled Red Carpet Outfit

Over the years Escama Studio has been in many interesting situations. We've had our share of hits, near misses and surprises. Our favorite surprise of all was when actress Daryl Hannah asked us to make a red carpet outfit from up-cycled materials.

Daryl as Pris, Renegade Android of Blade Runner

Daryl Hannah has played a lot of iconic roles in her film career. The first role that brought her to everyone's attention was the renegade android assassin Pris, in the future-noir cult classic, Blade Runner. In real life, Daryl is nothing like the killer robot Pris, rather, she's an environmentalist who is deeply involved with environmental activism. 

One day we got a call from Daryl's staff and learned that DH would soon travel to Italy for the re-release of Blade Runner Redux at the Venice Film Festival. She urgently needed a red carpet outfit. The reason she contacted Escama Studio is that she wanted a runway outfit that reflected the post-apocalyptic, cyber-punk fashion aesthetic of the film. But more importantly, she wanted a runway outfit made from up-cycled materials that would send a message -- reduce, reuse and recycle. It all made perfect sense, except for one thing: how the hell did she even know about us?! At that time, we were making purses and accessories, but we had not yet started making clothing from soda pop tabs.

This was a big deal, we absolutely needed to make it happen! With its dystopian vision of the future and a cyber-punk fashion aesthetic, Blade Runner was an enormously influential film. The Venice Film Festival red carpet event was going to be a high-profile international affair. This was the first (and only) time that we had an opportunity to make a red carpet outfit for a star. The only problem was that we only had....10 days! After hanging up the phone from LA, I frantically called Brazil to see if the artisans could possibly get a dress made and shipped to LA within 10 days. Much to our surprise, the artists heard the news and flipped out.

The artisans in Brazil

It turns out that even in rural Brazil, Daryl Hannah is famous. The women were very familiar with the name Daryl Hannah, but for the artists, it was the film 'Splash' that rocked their world. They could not believe that Daryl Hannah knew about us and recognized their work. They all joked about making a mermaid tail from soda tabs for the red carpet. It was a surreal moment for all of us.

The artisans set to work in our own version of the Project Runway unconventional recycling challenge, where designers have to create fashion from unconventional materials. In the end, the artisans designed an armor-inspired red carpet outfit from up-cycled pop tabs, complete with a chain-mail coif hood. The dress arrived in LA on time, and Daryl flew to Italy the next day. We all got very excited and happy looking at photos of Daryl wearing the dress on the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival.

We've gotten a lot of mileage out of this story over the years. From all of us at Escama Studio: Thank you Daryl Hannah!

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