Gillian Anderson Says Her 2024 Golden Globes Vagina Dress ‘Manifested’ Over ‘Many Hours and Many Vulvas’

A lot of effort went into Gillian Anderson’s viral vagina dress.  

It’s been three months since the actress, 55, kicked off the 2024 awards season at the Golden Globes in a custom Gabriela Hearst gown covered in an embroidered vagina motif. The Internet, however, has yet to recover from the statement-making look.

During an April 3 interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, host Stephen Colbert asked Anderson if she expected the dress to make “such a splash” online. Her reply: absolutely not. 

“It was an idea, it happened. It was manifested,” she said as Colbert complimented the “wonderful embroidery.” 

“It must’ve taken forever,” he added. “Forever. Many many many hours, many vaginas — vulvas,” Anderson replied, correcting herself. According to Gabriela Hearst, the label, each motif on the dress took 3.5 hours to embroider.

Inside the venue, she told PEOPLE that the dress had a floral inspiration, noting what she loved most about it was that “it’s covered in peonies!”

When asked to expand why the design was so “brand appropriate," as she described it to Deadline in January, Anderson listed all her projects, some of which lend themselves to double entendres. 

Included is her role as sex therapist Jean Milburn on Netflix’s Sex Education, her wellness-inspired soft drink company, G-Spot, and her new book, Want (out Sept. 5), which is a collection of letters written and submitted anonymously by women around the world confessing their sexual desires. Anderson's is inspired by Nancy Friday's My Secret Garden.

“Did you submit a letter,” Colbert asked Anderson, who replied: “I did, thank you very much.” 

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Anderson is known for turning heads on the red carpet. In fact, she’s well aware of all the daring moments she has taken in the past.

Shortly after debuting the vulva look on Jan. 7, Anderson took to Instagram with a reel looking back at her most skin-revealing dresses — including the extremely backless one she wore to the 2001 Vanity Fair Oscar afterparty. Way ahead of her time, Anderson arrived in an Eduardo Lucero dress that, while beautiful from the front, stole the show from the backside with its thong-exposing cut. 

Her bold attitude towards fashion was also present at the 2024 British Fashion Awards, where she stole the carpet spotlight in a red velvet Valentino gown that dipped down to her navel in the front and all the way down her back.