Above (L-R): Zendaya in Maison Margiela, Nicole Kidman in Balenciaga, Kendall Jenner in Givenchy

See more from Vogue Australia's Met Gala 2024 coverage below:

• All the Met Gala 2024 Red Carpet arrivals
• The Best Memes from the 2024 Met Gala
• Watch the 2024 Met Gala live online
• The 2024 Met Gala theme, explained

Everything was coming up roses at the Metropolitan Museum of Art today. What else did we expect, really, with a Met Gala themed “The Garden of Time”? There were references galore to J.G. Ballard’s short story, which formed the conceptual foundation for this year’s dress code, from flowers fresh and wilted to the merciless current of time. As always, it shared much in common with the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s latest Costume Institute exhibition, titled “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion”, a celebration of the museum’s archive, and more specifically, pieces of clothing too fragile to ever be worn again.

Though there were plenty of unique looks on the steps of the Met—one-off haute couture designs, original interpretations of the theme—inevitable sartorial patterns emerged on the red carpet. Similarities revealed themselves in motifs and materials; palettes touched too on both facets of “The Garden of Time”, its ideas of beauty evoked in pinks and glowing whites, its melancholia in crimson and gothic shades of black. 

Here, we bring you the six key trends that defined the 2024 Met Gala red carpet. 

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Above (L-R): Zendaya in Maison Margiela, Gigi Hadid in Thom Browne, Greta Lee in Loewe

Florals for spring 

The easiest way to interpret the “Garden of Time” theme? Come covered in flowers—lots and lots of flowers. Floral appliqués, motifs and fresh flowers were everywhere to be found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art this year, from the grape vines growing over Zendaya’s Maison Margiela gown, to Gigi Hadid’s yellow Thom Browne roses and Ayo Edebiri’s Loewe halter neck. Add Amanda Seyfried, Kim Kardashian, Alia Bhatt and Sydney Sweeney to that list and you have a museum teeming with (groundbreaking) botanicals for spring.

Above (L-R): Lana Del Rey in Alexander McQueen, Wisdom Kaye in Robert Wun, Dua Lipa in Marc Jacobs

Gothic glamour

Of course, the other side of the “Garden of Time” coin has a distinctly gothic bent. J.G. Ballard’s story, after all, ends with the image of a once-beautiful villa in ruins. Hence there were plenty of darker nods to the theme on the Met Gala red carpet, from Lana Del Rey as a haunted, veiled Alexander McQueen tree—a nod to the house’s autumn/winter ’06/’07 collection—to Wisdom Kaye in a flame-eaten Robert Wun suit and coat. Dua Lipa cut a striking figure in boudoir lace and feathers by Marc Jacobs, while supermodel Liu Wen, Usher, and Penélope Cruz also tapped into their dark side, standing out in black on the green-and-cream carpet.

Above (L-R): Hari Nef in H&M, Kaia Gerber in Prada, Janelle Monáe in Vera Wang

Paillettes upon paillettes

There are always a horde of bridal looks on the Met Gala red carpet, but the class of 2024 turned to a very specific detail for their all-white outfits. Paillettes were the imperative for Hari Nef, Kaia Gerber and Janelle Monáe; while Nef and Gerber shimmered in traditional column gowns by H&M and Prada respectively, Monáe had a more risqué approach. Her Vera Wang design was reminiscent of The Fifth Element’s Leeloo, cut to resemble a two-piece with a flower affixed to one shoulder.

Above (L-R): Kylie Jenner in Oscar de la Renta, Nicole Kidman in Balenciaga, Chloë Sevigny in Dilara Fındıkoğlu

Old-school silhouettes

“The Garden of Time” and the “Sleeping Beauties” concept prompted many guests to look to history for inspiration—some, further back in the annals of style than others. Nicole Kidman asked Balenciaga’s Demna to recreate a flamenco-inspired black-and-white gown from the house’s archives; she told reporters that she’d first seen the look in a 1950s portrait shot by Richard Avedon. The attitude of the ’50s was also plain to see in Kylie Jenner’s Oscar de la Renta gown, from the conical bra to the cinched waist and train. Chloë Sevigny, on the other hand, planted herself firmly in Victorian England. Her Dilara Fındıkoğlu dress repurposed Victorian fabrics, and her hair was styled in the manner of Victorian mourning braids. 

Above (L-R): Precious Lee, Elle Fanning in Balmain, Rebecca Ferguson

The birds and the butterflies

It’s not just flowers you’ll find in a garden, but its many winged inhabitants. Thus it was the birds and the butterflies that a slew of stars referenced with their Met Gala outfits, from Elle Fanning, whose translucent, ice-seeming Balmain gown came topped with sculpted birds, to Troye Sivan, who accessorised his Prada look with a butterfly. Crows were splashed onto Rebecca Ferguson’s blue skirt, while Ariana Grande incorporated birds into her beauty with face-framing doves.

Above (L-R): Emily Ratajkowski in Versace, Zendaya in Givenchy, Kendall Jenner in Givenchy

Archive dive

“Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” is a showcase dedicated to clothing so fragile that it can never be worn again. It’s no wonder, then, that there was so much archival fashion to be found on the Met Gala carpet. Zendaya followed her custom Maison Margiela dress with a vintage Givenchy look—an 18th century-style gown from the maison’s haute couture spring/summer 1996 collection. So too did Emily Ratajkowski and Kendall Jenner delve into the archives to promenade in the “Garden of Time”, wearing Versace haute couture autumn/winter ’01/’02 and Givenchy autumn/winter ’99/’00 by Alexander McQueen respectively.

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