EJAE Wears a Baby-Blue Basque-Waist Gown Covered in Mother of Pearl to the 2026 Gold Gala
A work of art
Reported by Harper's Bazaar.
The fifth annual Gold Gala brought out its expected mix of cultural heavyweights — but EJAE arrived in something that stopped the scroll entirely. For the gold carpet, the K-Pop Demon Hunters star tapped Korean house LEJE, a label built on the intersection of traditional craftsmanship and contemporary design, to create a look that felt less like fashion and more like ceremony.
The result: a strapless baby-blue gown with an exaggerated basque waist and a mermaid skirt encrusted with over 1,000 individual pieces of mother-of-pearl, arranged into a mosaic of peonies that seemed to drift across the fabric like a spring bloom caught mid-air. It's the kind of dress that has a mood — and the mood is otherworldly.
The Recognition Behind the Look
The occasion was more than a red carpet moment. EJAE was honored as part of Gold House's Gold100, a roster of Asian and Pacific Islander creatives, athletes, and entrepreneurs recognized for driving global impact. According to Harper's Bazaar, she was specifically celebrated for her history-making contribution to "Golden" — the track from K-Pop Demon Hunters that became the first K-pop song to earn a major Grammy win, co-written with Mark Sonnenblick and performed alongside vocalists Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami, with production from Teddy Park, 24, and Ido. That win didn't just make waves in the industry — it effectively redrew the map between K-pop and the global mainstream.
She was in exceptional company. The 2026 Gold100 class included Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu, Hamnet director Chloé Zhao, author Jenny Han and The Summer I Turned Pretty star Lola Tung, Wicked: For Good's Bowen Yang, Michelle Yeoh, director Jon M. Chu, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Lucy Liu, designer Sandy Liang, and musicians Laufey, Kehlani, and Bruno Mars — a list that reads like a cultural power grid.
When the dress and the moment are this aligned, fashion stops being decoration and starts being a statement.
Read the original at Harper's Bazaar.
