Met Gala: A night of fashion one-upmanship
It’s the first Monday in May, and this year’s Met Gala has been appropriately heavy on firsts.
Stars arrived in gowns inspired by artwork, some adorned with feathers, flowers or crystals. The event’s A-list co-chairs are Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, Anna Wintour and Beyoncé, who returned to the Met steps for the first time in a decade, arriving with her daughter Blue Ivy. There were notable looks from rapper Doechii, K-pop star Ejae and skier Eileen Gu.
The three-word dress code for the night, “Fashion Is Art,” brought out creative takes with touches of feathers, hands, crystals and even bubbles. Sabrina Carpenter was draped in strips of film; Chase Infiniti wore a dress splashed with primary colors; Sarah Paulson walked the carpet in a blindfold resembling a dollar bill.
As for the firsts, it’s the first time the Metropolitan Museum of Art is staging one of its blockbuster fashion exhibitions in the new Condé M. Nast Galleries off the Great Hall. The first time the fundraiser has broken the $40 million mark. The first time an honorary chair of the event has been protested with small bottles of yellow liquid hidden throughout the museum.
The latter was a reaction to the involvement of Jeff Bezos in this year’s gala, which has elicited widespread criticism – and attention-getting stunts – from groups who accuse the tech billionaire of tax dodging and exploitative working conditions in Amazon warehouses.
Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos, are the lead sponsors of both the gala and the Costume Institute’s spring exhibition, a multidisciplinary examination of “the dressed body” throughout art. Amid vigorous calls to boycott the event, Jeff Bezos was absent from the red carpet, while Lauren Sánchez Bezos wore a Schiaparelli gown inspired by John Singer Sargent’s famous portrait “Madame X,” which hangs in the Met.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
‘Fashion is Art’
The dress code, “Fashion is Art,” asked guests to examine fashion as an embodied art form. Some attendees took a more literal approach.
Blackpink singer and rapper Lalisa Manobal, who goes by Lisa, wore a white, diamond-encrusted gown that featured two additional arms protruding from her shoulders, holding a dramatic veil over her head.
In an interview, Lisa said the limbs were modeled after her: “These are my actual arms – 3D.”
Then there was Nichapat Suphap, a Thai fashion consultant and editor, who posed on the carpet wearing a black mermaid-style gown adorned with several silver hands cupping her breasts, hip and thigh.
Finally, Tony Award-winning producer and performer Jordan Roth wore a gray velvet frock with a matching anatomical structure towering over his shoulders that resembled a conjoined twin.
Robert Wun, a London-based designer known for his dramatic pieces, was behind all three looks.