The Nails File

Nail Art Dress Dazzles Fashion World

It’s a nail fetishist’s dream come true. Parading down the “7th on Sixth” catwalk clad in a dress made of 3,000 chrome-plated fake nails, model Sybil Buck wowed the crowd at the unveiling of the Fall 1996 Van Buren Collection. The brainchild of Van Buren designers Maggie Barry and Ty Moore, the extraordinary outfit was most definitely a collaborative effort. First off, Calabasas, Calif.-based nail art supply manufacturer Fing’rs Inc. supplied the designer with several thousand nail tips. Next, Two Ladds, a jeweller and metal-working company, enamelled the tips in chrome and drilled a pair of tiny attachment holes at the top of each one. After that, nail technician Jacqui Pierce of Beverly Hills’ Umberto Salon handpainted the nails (and did all the nail art on the runway models for the entire show). Finally, Barry and her helpers sewed round-the-clock for three days, overlapping one nail over another on the dress’s white, crushed velvet body. “The nails look a lot like sequins, only stronger, more like armor,” says Barry. “We love that nail art is such a powerful trend in fashion these days; we just had to take it to its logical extreme.” The dress, which weighs five pounds, is a mini A-line with a scooped-out-at-the-sides silhouette. Silver glitter thigh-high boots from Jungle Shoes complete the look.