By Rebecca Cecatelli & Kristine Urban. Cover Image by Armando Sauzullo.
It was 11 p.m. in Italy. The first guests were starting to ascend the staircase that you’ll probably remember from the Gossip Girl scene “you can’t sit with us”, but now it’s completely hidden under our favourite fabric: the Met Gala 2024 carpet. Despite no live streaming officially starting, we were settling for the live streams of fans crowded outside The Mark Hotel to watch celebrities make their way to the museum. The red carpet, branded with a black M, already looked like a full-fledged fashion runway. It felt quite chaotic. But then, in the middle of the night, the cream-coloured steps that were ‘dirty’ with green bushes on the sides started to appear on our screens. The atmosphere became a veritable fairy forest where the fashion favourites became mystical creatures ready to enter the “Garden of Time”. It’s Met Gala time!
As ordinary people, lounging on our sofas in our pyjamas, we watched closely carefully as our favourites gradually climbed ‘the stairway to success,’ ready to ask ourselves which Sleeping Beauties had been revived from the archives and which ones were brand new creations from the ateliers. Are you ready to recap our best looks of Met Gala 2024?
Best Looks at the Met Gala 2024: long life to the New Looks
Iris van Herpen: Screaming Mechanisms!
A new face made her debut at the Met for the first time, but what left us astonished was her gown. Transporting us directly into a fairy tale, Mona Patel appeared on the carpet at the Met Gala 2024, draped in a delicate fabric that was sometimes transparent, cascading into a scalloped train on the ground she walked on. The shy gold details that pervaded the frontal embroideries highlighted her warm skin tone and proudly reached the arms of the businesswoman in revolutionary ‘gloves.’ Indeed, what appeared to be golden creeping ivy turned out to be one of Iris Van Herpen’s many magnificent expedients. It was when we realised that the butterflies perched on her arms actually fluttered their wings that we understood everything. Struck at the core, wouldn’t you imagine the Sleeping Beauty of your stories to look exactly like this?
Jean-Paul Gaultier’s Gothic Wonderland for Emma Chamberlain
Emma Chamberlain embraced the “Garden of Time” theme with a whimsical and vampy take, wearing two custom Jean-Paul Gaultier outfits. The Gaultier ensemble featured intricate corsetry and voluminous skirts, creating a captivating silhouette. The lace detailing in dark brown hues added depth and richness to the overall look, complementing Chamberlain’s edgy yet elegant aesthetic. This collaboration further solidified Emma Chamberlain’s place as a Gen Z icon and cemented her presence on the Met Gala carpet.
Harris Reed’s Living Painting surprised as one of best looks of Met Gala 2024
Harris Reed made a dramatic entrance that left everyone stunned. The creative director for Nina Ricci wore a patterned silk pantsuit in gorgeous muted gold and slate blue tones, reminiscent of a Renaissance painting and perfectly encapsulating the Garden of Time theme. Harris arrived with the iconic actress Demi Moore, dressed in a black heart-shaped long dress with a maxi pink flower. Reed’s look exuded elegance and sophistication, topped off with a headdress complete with 3D-printed horns that added a final touch of avant-garde flair, while long, flowing hair paid homage to the iconic Birth of Venus. Embracing gender fluidity, their look epitomised grace and craftsmanship far beyond the confines of the binary.
Fka Twigs Otherworldly Glamour with Stella McCartney
FKA Twigs looked stunning as she stepped out into the spotlight, shimmering in a nude two-piece outfit covered in lab-grown diamonds. She paired the outfit with a statement cloak made from hundreds of loops of responsibly sourced wool. Yet, the garment wasn’t the only thing that sparkled; she had jewels on every inch of her body, including her toes and ears, making her look like a superhuman. The decadent cream cape and black headdress provided a stark contrast to the ethically sourced diamonds, highlighting her dancer’s form and giving her a luxurious appearance. This custom Stella McCartney creation transformed her into a celestial being, radiating with the brilliance of a star, as she moved gracefully through the night.
Chloe Sevigny’s Breathtaking collaboration with Dilara Fındıkoğlu
Having graced the Met Gala stage a remarkable ten times before, Chloë Sevigny is no stranger to making a statement. With an eye for detail and storytelling, she effortlessly channelled the historical aspect of this year’s official dress code, “The Garden of Time.” Sevigny paid homage to the Victorian era by repurposing fabrics and gold brocade and embracing traditional Victorian mourning hairstyles. In her own words, Sevigny used pale colours to reflect the themes of decay and rebirth, creating a timeless and visionary look. Her Met Gala appearance epitomised her mastery of fashion’s past and present and spoke to her iconic status, showcasing her ability to combine elements in a way that is uniquely her own.
Please don’t forget about us! The looks directly from the Archive are gems out of our best looks seen at the Met Gala 2024
Maison Margiela for Zendaya: one of the best vintage-inspired looks
John Galliano, a designer who is both celebrated and critiqued, was meant to be the main focus of this year’s MET exhibition. Although overshadowed by the idyllic garden theme, he still showcased his talent through meticulously dressed stars, often drawing from his own past. For Maison Margiela, Galliano successfully revived a vintage-inspired look from his 1999 Dior collection to create a stunning gown for co-chair Zendaya. She shone as the grape-accented fairytale villain of the night in a bias-cut gown that shimmered with shades of blue turning into green. The lead character of Challengers kicked off the evening by posing for photographers with curved shoulders and a captivating gaze emphasised by dark makeup reminiscent of the latest Margiela runway. She wore a floating chiffon dress that draped diagonally across her body, adorned with vine fruits that rested on her side and shoulders, inspired by a Dior archival piece. The stripes on the dress ran diagonally to the ground, creating an open mermaid tail effect. In fact, Galliano reminded us that every good tale has a misunderstood antagonist, and perhaps the sleeping beauty he reawakened is more Maleficent than Aurora.
The privilege of choosing directly from the archive: Givenchy for Kendall Jenner
Kendall Jenner surprised everyone as one of most unexpected best looks the Met Gala 2024 by wearing a dress that had never been worn before, except on a mannequin. The supermodel took the dress from Alexander McQueen’s 1999 collection in Givenchy’s archives. A seemingly transparent fabric, actually meticulously embroidered in black details, wrapped around the model’s body with a V-neck slit at the waist, revealing her skin tone, and ascended to the raised-edge shoulder straps, giving her a countess-like attitude. The dress fell on her body in fringes that blended with her dark, loose hair. Perhaps not the most fitting look considering the Met Gala theme, but certainly a noteworthy archival piece that only someone who has been a must-guest since 2014 could afford. When asked about the dress, Kendall said, “I had little chance that the dress would be my exact size, but the condition was not to make any modifications at all: once I tried it on, it fit perfectly. It was a bit of a sign of destiny, I believe”. She recounted this to La La Anthony, who was tasked with interviews for Vogue, directly on the carpet.
Cristóbal Balenciaga’s art of sculpting bodies was revived for Nicole Kidman
When a historic piece becomes so valuable that it can no longer be worn, the best way to give it new life is to reproduce it faithfully. Balenciaga did just that for Nicole Kidman, reviving a historical piece from 1951. The outfit featured a black ruffled skirt covered by a white silk overlay and elbow-length gloves. Given the brand’s recent Met Gala appearances, notably recalling Kim Kardashian’s entirely black dress from 2021 that covered her face entirely, we would have expected anything but a princely ball gown. However, if the goal was to awaken the past, it certainly hit the mark, reviving not only the magnificent Spanish genius but also evoking a sense of nostalgia.
When reawakening doesn’t necessarily mean to reproduce: Balmain for Elle Fanning
The crystal queen made a grand appearance at the Met Gala 2024 fairy tale, and this year Balmain experimented with all possible materials – with a notable mention of Tyla’s sand dress. Elle Fanning, who played the role of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, fully embraced the reference to J.G. Ballard’s short story and became the crystal flower that Count Axel plucked each night to stop time and keep the approaching rabble at bay. In a ruched transparent resin corset that echoed the draping of the underlying gown in organza, Balmain sculped a glass statue on the actress’s body, enriching her shoulders with a detail that didn’t go unnoticed, awakening memories of the 1950s films. From the resin of the dangling straps, two floating birds tried to fly away from the corset, reminiscent of a detail that costume designer Cecil Beaton brought to life in 1958 for Leslie Caron, the protagonist of the musical film “Gigi”.
A tree or a deer? Alexander Mc Queen for Lana del Rey
Who else but Lana could finally embody the gothic, ethereal, yet romantic soul of the Met Gala 2024? Sean McGirr, the creative director of Alexander McQueen, designed one of the most precious and fairy-tale-like dresses for her. He drew inspiration from the brand’s iconic 2006 design and reimagined it for a world that makes you wonder if the brown branches rising from her feet up to above her head make her a tree or if the centaur-like shoes make her a deer. In any case, the inspiration from the past is clear.
The result was a silk corseted dress, double layered in tulle and adorned with brown decorations reminiscent of winter branches not only adorning the dress but also emerging from her head, further covered with an additional layer of tulle veiling her face and separating her eyes from ours. Perhaps it was indeed a Bambi missing from this fairy tale.
