Carrie Underwood literally lit up the stage at the 2013 Grammy Awards last night. The gown that had everyone talking was an illuminated custom couture ball gown by THEIA, the evening wear collection inspired by the Greek Goddess of light.

“When I received the call from Carrie’s stylist, Trish Townsend asking me to make the dress, I felt a rush of excitement and immediately said I’d be thrilled and honored to design a gown for her,” states Don O’Neill, Creative Director, THEIA. He goes on to say “Quickly after hanging up the phone, I realized “Oh My God” how on earth can we do this in the midst of crazy last minute Fall collection preparations? Thankfully it all managed to come together not a second too soon.”

Fabric options were then sourced from France and sent to Carrie’s team for approval, as well as to the video production company to ensure compatibility with the projection technology. Once both parties approved the fabric, the team only had three days to complete the gown. Beading and stitching were completed in record time and the dress was shipped out for Carrie’s fitting. It took a team of four over 80 hours to create the platinum ball gown, which features over 10 yards of Duchess Satin, 100 yards of tulle and crinoline to support the skirt. The inside corset was embroidered by hand with thousands of Swarovski crystals and the four and a half foot wide skirt was designed to seamlessly fuse fashion with projection technology.

While researching names for the evening wear collection in 2009 , O’Neill was drawn to Theia, the Greek Goddess of light. O’Neill says “I loved the serendipity of finding THEIA, the perfect name for an eveningwear company. There couldn’t be a more perfect opportunity to fuse light in a literal sense with one of my gowns and have it showcased on a national stage by Carrie Underwood, the first celebrity to wear a THEIA dress four years ago when we launched.”