Here’s everything you didn’t see on the live feeds.
The screams were coming from everywhere: the street, crazed red carpet reporters.
“Benito! Benito!”
Without them, you’d never know that the biggest musician on the planet was walking the Met Gala red carpet. Bad Bunny had come dressed as himself in 50 years, in white hair, prosthetic makeup filled with wrinkles and sunspots, and a custom all-black tuxedo of his own design in collaboration with Zara, as one of many stars who took this year’s gala dress code, “Fashion Is Art,” literally.
Joining him in the more interpretive camp were Katy Perry in a white Stella McCartney gown with opera gloves and a chrome fencing mask that she cheekily opened, then dramatically closed, for photos, and Madonna in Saint Laurent, who came with a shipwreck on her head and an enormous grey veil that required six fabulous young ladies to carry it. Janelle Monáe took the costume assignment as social commentary, teaming up with Christian Siriano for a fascinating gown aiming to spark conversation about tech’s impact on the environment, made of Ethernet cables, pieces of circuit boards, moss, and succulents. And Hudson Williams of “Heated Rivalry” was mildly costume-y in sky high gelled hair and winged eyeliner, that make him resemble a Batman villain (as opposed to Connor Storrie, who came in a Saint Laurent polka dot halter that mainly showed off his toned arms.) The look, Williams said, represented the moment the White Swan became the Black Swan.
Alongside them was Olympic skiing champion Eileen Gu, who wore a dress made of glass bubbles that blew actual soap bubbles. Her confection of an outfit from Dutch designer Iris van Herron, in collaboration with artist duo A.A. Murakami took 2,550 hours to make. As she walked, the bubbles flew around Gu like a fantastical cloud of whimsey.
“It is so special,” said Gu as reporters popped bubbles flying into their faces. “I personally, in skiing, think about time and about movement. This look is exactly that: You’re taking something that lasts such a short period of time and freezing it forever, just like when you’re in the air. It feels like time slows down. And it’s so science-y. I love it!”
The dress weighed 30 pounds (“but I lift weights, I’m good”) and she planned on keeping the bubble machine on as long as it lasted (likely an hour), even through dinner. “I feel like people have been enjoying them… You can’t help but poke them and play with them,” she said. “I just like bringing that sense of fun wherever I go.” The Met Gala, she said, was “so much more chill” than preparing for the Olympics. “It’s also not life-threatening.”
Other celebs hewed closer to the themes of the “Costume Art” exhibit at the Costume Institute, which is the beneficiary of this fanciest of fundraiser galas. In it, all kinds of bodies are celebrated, from Rubenesque figures to people in wheelchairs. Tennis star Naomi Osaka came in a white Robert Wun gown with a dramatic hat and gashes of red, as an ode to a part of the exhibit about the body in pain. When she pulled off the gown, the crowd gasped at the dramatic reveal of a body-con red sequined dress that looked like human musculature without the skin.
Sequins arranged to look like anatomy seemed to be a trend. Jeremy Pope wore a vintage Vivienne Westwood jacket made of pearls, glass beads, and sequins that looked like a naked chest with an 8-pack. Chase Infiniti made a billion best dressed lists for her multi-colored Thom Browne gown, made from 1.5 million sequins artfully arranged to look like the Venus de Milo statue — nipples, belly-button, and all. And Chinese singer Kun, also in Thom Browne, dressed as the “Vital Body” from this year’s museum exhibit, with one side of his suit dripping with red sequins and beads, meant to represent the circulatory system.
Beyoncé’s, though, was the most thrilling of the anatomy-based outfits, serving up an instantly iconic look from her Beychella costume designer Olivier Rousteing. With an infinite train of feathers attached to a sparking silver skeleton, it was completed by glittery hand bones attached to silvery nails.
When the clothes didn’t imitate innards, they imitated bodies themselves. Nearly every Jenner-Kardashian wore a custom-sculpted body plate. Kim looked incredible in a burnt orange custom molded breastplate from designer Whitaker Malem and British artist Allen Jones, with a pointed bosom in the mode of Madonna’s Jean Paul Gaultier cone bra. Kylie and Kendall both wore flesh-toned leather breastplates from Schiaparelli and GapStudio by Zac Posen, respectively. For their first-ever collaboration, Posen said he was inspired by the draping of “Winged Victory of Samothrace,” or the Goddess of Nike, in the Louvre, but he took a Gap T-shirt off his back and just started tearing and draping it. The finished look is hand-dyed in tea.
The most stunning body-con look of the night, though, had to be Hailey Bieber, wearing a molded bodice in 24-karat gold, with a skirt and train in Saint Laurent electric blue.
And then there were the stars who chose to imitate art itself. Gwendoine Christie came in a red gown crafted by her partner Giles Deacon, carrying a masquerade mask on a stick of her own face. (The look was inspired by artists John Singer Sargent, Madame Yevonde, and Ira Cohen.) Tennis great Venus Williams wore a breastplate made entirely of Swarovski crystals in homage to the plate you win at Wimbledon and filled with symbols from her life, like L.A’s Watts Tower. Sabrina Carpenter wore a bustled Dior slit dress made of film strips from a movie she feels extremely close to: “Sabrina.” 10 Magazine USA cover boy Jordan Roth carried a faceless sculpted figure on his back and called the whole work, “Symbiosis.” And Lisa from Blackpink brought a couple extra (of her own 3D-printed) arms courtesy of her stylist and designer Robert Wun. They were delightfully arranged above her head and covered in a sparkly white veil to mimic traditional Thai dance positions.
Then a few others mimicked actual works of art. Ben Platt wore a Tanner Fletcher suit that was hand-painted and embroidered to display scenes from Georges Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte.” Louisa Jacobson of “The Gilded Age” was a showstopper in a Chanel piece that took 294 hours to make out of safety pins, coins, and other found objects. Her inspiration was Joan of Arc and the arms and armor section of the Met, which she said was her favorite part of the museum. “Right now it feels like we need to put on a little armor to deflect literally and figuratively weapons,” she said.
Two stars were inspired by Vienna Art Nouveau painter Gustav Klimt. “Euphoria”’s Hunter Shafer came in a shredded custom Prada with a floral train, designed to look like the little girl in Klimt’s famous Mäda Primavesi (1912/1913) painting, all grown up — complete with rosy cheeks and a bow in her hair. My favorite of the night was probably singer Gracie Abrams, who looked like she’d stepped out of Klimt’s famous portrait of a Jewish socialite, best known as “Woman in Gold.”
The night wouldn’t be complete without Rihanna shutting down the carpet. She’s always the last to arrive, and word of her arrival was broadcast via reporters who were watching her ever move on Instagram. “She just left her hotel!” One shouted, to cheers.
The pop star/mogul came shockingly early (by Rihanna at The Met standards) around 9:15pm with A$AP Rocky and quickly shot to the top of the best looks of the knight. Her hand-crafted Maison Margiela by Glenn Martens, which included an Art Deco headpiece and rings of metallic duchess woven silk circling her torso, was made of beads, antique jewelry, chains, and computer wiring — and inspired by the medieval architecture of Flanders, Belgium.
She looked incredible, but Teyana Taylor probably won the award for having the most fun. The Oscar nominee showed up in a head-to- toe silver fringe look by Haider Ackermann for Tom Ford, including a wig made of fringe to match the dress. She looked like a cross between a character from a Dr. Seuss book and a disco queen. As she shimmied and shaked, talking to so many reporters it felt like her PR had to pull her inside with an invisible hook from The Apollo. It was clear that she was going to be the life of the party. It didn’t matter who was best dressed. Whoever got to sit next to her clearly won the night.
