.jpg)
Emma Corrin's See-Through Gala Dress Proves Sheer Dressing Can Be Oh-So Elegant
The actor wore an artful design from one of this year's LVMH Prize finalists.
Leave it to Emma Corrin, a master of sheer dressing, to make transparent fabrics gala-appropriate. Last night, the actor taught a lesson in elegant and slightly see-through fashion with some help from one of London’s most exciting young talents.
Corrin slipped into a show-stopping piece from Steve O Smith’s fall 2025 collection to attend a Cartier dinner at the Victoria and Albert Museum. (The evening doubled as a celebration of the luxury brand’s new exhibition at the London institution.) The actor’s outfit was an artful twist on the standard gala gown, with layers of transparent tulle circling throughout the piece. The mid-section of Corrin’s dress was partially see-through but fell into a dramatic maxi skirt with ruffled godets on either side. Corrin, wearing a diamond Cartier necklace, accented their black dress quite regally. They did play the late Princess Diana, after all.
Corrin has made a name for themselves on the red carpet with barely-there designs like lace dresses and undergarment-baring looks. But their latest outfit proved that embracing the sheer trend doesn’t mean you have to compromise one bit of elegance. Corrin’s outfit was that more special considering it came courtesy of one of the industry’s brightest emerging designers in Smith.
After launching his namesake brand in 2022, Smith’s artful creations quickly caught the attention of A-list celebrities and their stylists. His graduate collection for Central Saint Martin’s, which featured black-and-white suiting with lines mimicking the human form, was worn by Harry Styles in his “Daylight” music video. Cate Blanchett slipped on a similar outfit from the collection not long after. And Smith even had the opportunity to dress Eddie Redmayne at the 2024 Met Gala, in a look that used similar transparent techniques to Corrin’s gala dress.
“I’ll draw for a few weeks and make thousands of sketches,” Smith told W of his process in an October 2024 interview. “It’s a storage nightmare. Some of those will make it into the collection, but there are a lot that I haven’t even delved into yet.”
It’s shaping up to be an even bigger year for Smith. He and seven other designers were recently named as finalists for the prestigious LVMH Prize. While the prize’s winner is bound for success, receiving a nomination is a win in and of itself—meaning that Corrin won’t be the only one clamoring to wear Smith’s designs in the coming months.
