IBM Watson co-designed the most high-tech dress at the Met Gala

Officially, fashion's biggest party is a fund-raising event for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's fashion department, but ever since Anna Wintour, Vogue's high-powered editor, took over as chairwoman in 1999, it has turned into the industry's equivalent of the Oscar's red carpet, bringing together an invite-only list of dressed-up celebrities and bigwigs. This year, as everyone was asked "Who are you wearing?" one attendee--model Karolina Kurkova--got to say IBM Watson, in collaboration with high-fashion label Marchesa. Covered in fabric flowers embedded with LEDs, the "cognitive dress" was light, elegant, and romantic, as is Marchesa's signature. It continually changed color with the help of Watson's powerful analytical technology, tying it perfectly into the theme of this year's fashion exhibit at the Met, called "Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology." But while the dress was beautiful, the lights were sometimes overbearing.