How It Works, Designer Explains

One of the most talked-about moments from Olivia Rodrigo‘s opening night on the Unraveled Tour was how one of her outfits, well, unraveled on stage.

Starting out as a simple collared dress with a pleated skirt, the buzzy look in question made its debut as the pop star sang her Billboard Hot 100 No. 5 hit “The Cure” at PeoplesBank Arena in Connecticut on Friday (Sept. 25), standing beneath a curtain of artificial rain that breaks down the piece of clothing in a matter of minutes to reveal a red one-piece Rodrigo wears underneath. Three days later, designer Hussein Chalayan opened up in a piece published by WWD about how he pulled it off.

“I had previously made dissolving dresses for my SS2016 collection, ‘Pasatiempo,’” he began, revealing that he’d been “approached by Olivia’s team to design a piece in response to her song ‘The Cure,’ exploring the idea of revealing a sense of vulnerability as the upper layer dissolves.”

“This seemed very poetic and compelling to me,” Chalayan continued. “I designed a mini range, from which one design was selected, and we then went through a number of iterations to make sure the dress would be practical for the performance, including how it would look and function before the dissolution took place.”

Noting that Rodrigo was involved in “approving each step of the process,” the dressmaker shared that keeping the outer layer “simple and pure” was intentional to make the reveal of the interior layer “more powerful.”

“It is made from a special paperlike material that dissolves when it comes into contact with water,” he added. “The timing was definitely a challenge, as Olivia also has to be able to sing while under the water. There has therefore been a lot of back and forth and testing to get the timing and dissolution to happen in the right way.”

Supporting Billboard 200-topping album you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, the Unraveled trek will find Rodrigo traveling through North America and Europe through mid-May next year. Following the two opening nights in Hartford, Conn., her next stop will be in Pittsburgh at PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday (Sept. 29).

In addition to “The Cure,” the star’s setlist includes No. 1 Hot 100 hit “Drop Dead” as well as favorites from her previous two albums, Sour and Guts, such as “Drivers License,” “Good 4 U,” “Vampire” and “Bad Idea Right?”

See before and after photos of Rodrigo’s dissolving dress on the Unraveled Tour, and watch it melt away below.