Lupita Nyong’o continues to establish herself as a style icon at the frontier of fashion here on earth and, more recently, galaxies far, far away.

At a recent promotional event for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Nyong’o—who plays Maz Kanata in the film that hits theaters December 18—wore a ZAC Zac Posen design that literally lit up the red carpet. The dress was covered with LED lights that emitted different intricate designs of life beyond the Milky Way.

But what stood out about the dress was the fact that the designs were created by young women programmers thanks to Google’s Made with Code initiative.

The goal of the project is to correct the gender gap in STEM fields, like Computer Science, through interactive projects like creating dance visualizers, beats, and designing a Zac Posen gown, to support girls’ long-term passion for science and technology.

Keep paving the way, Lupita!

Photo credit: YouTube

Author

  • Victoria M. Massie is a freelance writer and anthropologist who is currently the Staff Writer for Black Youth Project. Her work focuses on feminism, politics, science, and diaspora, but, more often than not, she spends her time obsessing about ideas of "home." She is a National Science Foundation fellow and a Lifetime Member of the West African Research Association.