Summerlin woman’s toilet paper gown design nets grand prize, $10K

Kari Curletto of Summerlin will never look at toilet paper the same way.

The Summerlin mother’s wedding gown was chosen as one of the top 10 for the 2017 Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Contest. Curletto received $10,000 as the grand-prize winner, chosen from more than 1,500 entries.

“It was surreal and overwhelming,” she said of learning she’d won. “I laughed. I cried. It was a dream come true.”

The fashion show finale took place July 20 in New York City, where the 10 finalists had their designs evaluated by a panel of judges: Kleinfeld Bridal owner Mara Urshel; celebrity party planner Mikie Russo; and representatives of Ripley’s Believe It or Not and event sponsors Cheap Chic Weddings and Quilted Northern. Ripley’s plans to showcase Curletto’s gown at one of its locations.

The win was all the more noteworthy considering Curletto has never sewn a dress.

“I was always afraid of working with fabric, but I’ve always loved design … I love the art of transformation,” she said, adding that she never thought she’d make it to the final cut. “When they (phoned and) told me I was in the top 10, I screamed so loud, I probably burst their eardrums.”

She learned she was among the top 10 in mid-June.

The “art of transformation” way of looking at things led her to turn to butterflies for inspiration. Curletto, 36 and an actress, had been artsy for years, known for carrying a sketch pad. The design came easily to her; it involved covering her gown in butterflies.

Making the design a reality did not come so easily. Early attempts on a sewing machine were a disaster. The thin tissue clogged the machine and she had to start all over. The solution: chuck the sewing machine and rely on good old Elmer’s glue and tape.

She had to guard the 21 rolls of toilet paper she bought and keep the project far from her toddlers’ sticky hands.

“My children now believe that toilet paper is the most precious commodity on earth,” Curletto joked.

Then there was ensuring the dog and cat did not tip their water bowls over, onto her work. One day, her cat, Seymour, got into the toilet paper. It was strewn all down the hallway.

“I saw toilet paper everywhere and my heart stopped for a second,” she said.

It turned out Seymour had only gotten into a random roll someone had left out.

The cost to make the dress was about $80, plus roughly 250 hours of her time.

The gown’s train proved particularly labor-intensive. Curletto had to produce 1,600 individual butterflies, the vast majority of them covering the cathedral-length train. Each one required soaking a square of toilet tissue, pressing it into a butterfly mold and placing it in the sun to dry. She then embellished them. Half of them were embossed. Some were painted with glitter glue. And one, which topped the bouquet, was embroidered. That one took four hours to make.

As the pieces came together, the work became more critical and the learning curve tightened. One day, Curletto was so frustrated, she was ready to chuck the whole thing.

“I was staying up until about 2 or 3 a.m. (making butterflies for the gown), then getting up with my kids at 5:30 a.m.,” she said. “… I went out to my backyard and sat down and I was about to cry when this butterfly flew into my yard and literally came up to me. It landed on my hand. It was like the universe was sending me a message.”

From then on, things got back on track and she finished the dress. Her best friend, Celeste Childs, agreed to be her model and came from Utah to try on the dress. It fit perfectly. They went to Tivoli Village, where they’d gotten permission to photograph the dress on the grand stairway. The photo shoot was done early in the morning to take advantage of the breaking light. Only a handful of people were around, but they came over to congratulate Childs for getting married.

“No one knew (it was toilet paper) until they got really, really close,” Childs said, “and they saw the quilted Northern pattern. Everybody was like, ‘Wait. What?’”

Childs described Curletto as a “brilliant artist, painter and someone who bakes cakes. And when I say bakes cakes, I mean, like the ones you see on TV. The ones you (can’t bring yourself) to eat because they’re so beautiful. … I knew whatever she created for the contest would be amazing.”

Curletto crafted accessories of out of toilet paper: a clutch purse, a pussy willow bouquet and a wedding ring for her model to wear.

Contact Jan Hogan at jhogan@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2949.