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By Rebecca Flood
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A woman has painstakingly created a dress made of more than 2,000 pennies, worth just over $20 in coins.
Shay Rose regularly creates dramatic looks and shares the finished products on social media, with her latest design taking three weeks to finish.
The 22-year-old shared the incredible look to her Instagram and TikTok accounts, @crescentshay, earlier this month, where they amassed millions of views.
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In a series of posts Rose explained exactly how she made the chainmail-inspired look, as she revealed in the end 2,652 cents contributed to the look, which is worth $26.52.
Modeling the copper dress, which can be seen here, she said: "In total this dress took: 13 spools of thread. 4 broken needles. 150+ of hours of work."
She admitted it took her a lot longer than planned, saying: "But boy o boy yall has this dress been a JOURNEYYY.
"I totally underestimated just how many pennies this skirt would take, and especially how long it would take to chainmail all of the pennies, so this "quick December project" has stretched to the end of January.
"But it's finally done!!! and honestly, despite all the work it took, I really do think it was worth it. This dress came out SO much cooler than I initially imagined it would—I love this dress so much, I am so proud that I was able to bring this weird idea to life."
She joked: "Turns out chainmailing pennies takes a LOT of time." And there was a side effect of handling so much money, as Shay added: "Also my hands have smelled of pennies for weeks there is no escaping it."
And revealing how she made the look, Rose, whose bio indicated she went to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), claimed she drilled holes into each coin in order to be able to sew them together.
"But I think the ending effect is worth it—it's almost like mermaid scales or a fantasy style armor? either way, I think it's a really unique look," she added.
After finally finishing the look, made for a cash app sponsorship on TikTok and YouTube, Rose said she was a "little pennyd-out."
She added: "Typically when I post "finished" photos of the dress I love to have big full body shots of the whole look, but I found for this dress I really loved the close up detail shots so much more?
"I love how you can actually see each individual penny and how they makeup the top, but when you step back it all burs [blurs] together into this sparkly shiny piece."
Commenting on the sensational look, Tiocheli said: "If u look closely you can actually see the blood sweat and tears put into this."
Apru39_ joked: "Man, t-that dress must cost a p-pretty penny..."
Anya_lawliet raved: "All your hard work paid off. This dress is amazing and looks great on you. Well done."
Kaitymfritz thought: "This dress literally belongs on a runway."
This.totally.isnt.an.alias quipped: "Did you by any chance get this at ......... JCPenney."
While Dancerstar31 added: "Please do dimes and quarters."
According to the U.S. Mint, a cent weighs 2.5g, meaning Shay's dress weighs around 14 pounds (lbs.)
Chainmail dates back to the medieval period, and was worn by European knights and members of the military.
The body armor was usually made by "sewing iron rings to fabric or leather," according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.
The site added: "Medieval armorers improved on the early version by fabricating mail independent of cloth or leather and by interlacing the rings, which were firmly closed by welding or riveting.
They noted: "[It] was worn in late Roman times and may have originated in Asia, where such mail continued to be worn for many centuries."
Newsweek reached out to Rose for comment.
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