Westworld has pushed so many boundaries across its third season, from a mind-bending new narrative to compelling new characters to an impressive attention to aesthetic details. That latter facet of the series has been particularly interesting, as the show imagined what life - and fashion - will look like in the 2050s. One of the most creative illustrations of that came a few episodes ago, when Dolores Abernathy(Evan Rachel Wood) was able to transform her short black dress into a long golden evening gown in the blink of an eye. While the detail could have easily been CGI, it actually was an entirely practical effect -- something that a recent behind-the-scenes video proves. Shay Cunliffe, who serves as the costume designer on Season 3, recently shared a behind-the-scenes look at the dress on her Instagram account, in celebration of the show getting renewed for Season 4.
"It's not enough that the dress transforms, but it had to go from two dresses that look good and plausible on her, in their own right, and could be stand-alone costumes," Cunliffe previously told Entertainment Tonight. "I also knew it needed to have fabric that would hang just the way we wanted under a gold gown. It's very important that it be a fabric that can roll up easily and not get stuck on itself."
"The whole dress is not sewn together but held together with snaps, little tiny snaps. So the one pull releases snaps and the rest just takes care of itself," Cunliffe continued. "I think it creates more of a shock, wearing a long gown from a very short one."
In the days since the video was shared, a gif of the transformation has gone viral on Twitter, and garnered quite a lot of reactions in the process. People have ranged from being impressed by the dress to using it as a new meme template, to everywhere in between. Here are some of our favorite responses.