Gilded Glamour? More Met Gala in mourning
“Everything about her shimmered and glimmered softly, as if her dress had been woven out of candle-beams, and she carried her head high, like a pretty woman challenging a roomful of rivals," The Age of Innocence.
It's a white tie affair.
“she carried her head high, like a pretty woman challenging a roomful of rivals," The Age of Innocence.
The mood was mourning at the Met Gala. Black dominated this evening's attire, in gauzy lace, opaque corsets, vixenlike latex, and tulle galore.
In the Gilded Age there were traditionally three stages of mourning dress: deep mourning (dull fabrics, like crepe and wool), ordinary mourning (black silk, trimmings, beading), and half-mourning (grays, purple and lilacs.) Our dear celebs slouched towards ordinary mourning, whilst looking anything but.
As the celebs swanned about the Metropolitan Museum of Art, we delivered our most scathing critiques from the comfort of bed, clad in musty Muji pyjamas. “Did they even read the brief?”
Miss Anna Wintour enlisted a strict White tie dress code. Give us grandiose people! Death to the skinny suit. We want to see some coattails. Granted, the fellas did deliver: Gunna looked absolutely regal in Thom Browne, as did Oscar Isaac (and Travis Barker looked just fine), Riz Ahmed delivered a thoughtful interpretation on the theme (class consciousness chic). As for Jack Harlow... try again next year.
Below, all our hot takes from this year's carpet.
Our esteemed host Anna Wintour in Chanel. It's kind of giving subdued Romance was Born.
Youtuber Emma Chamberlain looking predictable cute in Louis Vuitton and Cartier. The first torso we've seen grace the carpet.
Director Franklin Leonard committing to the theme in a derrière-elongating bustle.
Serena Van Der Woodsen showing up Alice Claypoole Vanderbilt in palatial, patina Versace. It's gilded, it's glamour! An outfit inspired by the architecture of New York, the crown features seven spikes and 25 gems, an homage to the Statue of Liberty. "I'm a Virgo, lose my number."
Tommy... girl... why?
Kaia Gerber looks heavenly in Alexander McQueen.
Riz Ahmed paying tribute to the immigrant working class of the Gilded Age.
Finally... we eat. Isabelle Boemeke in Rei Kawakubo-protege Noir Kei Ninomiya.
Bored. Jack Harlow in Topman 2012, probably.
Anderson Paak is not serious 😂 #MetGala pic.twitter.com/7OBL1i7mL0
— NINE (@NeenXQueen) May 2, 2022
At least Anderson Paak is having fun. In Gucci.
Yes, yes, yes. Billie Eilish is the best dressed of the night, so far. In an asphyxiating Gucci corset gown, made entirely out of existing materials.
A thoughtful look by Sarah Jessica Parker, who worked with designer Christopher John Rogers to develop a dress inspired by the work of dressmaker Elizabeth Keckley. Born a slave, Keckley bought her freedom after developing a successful business as a seamstress.
Madelaine Petsch looking like a Zimmermann employee that would bully me.
See ya at dinner, @ThomBrowne pic.twitter.com/qeit45rm4j
— FOLLOW @YITTY (@lizzo) May 3, 2022
Lizzo wearing the man of the moment, Thom Brown. A fun take on formal black tie. 1200 man hours went into embroidering the cape. “It feels like an old dressmaking way of creating something,” says Brown.
Irina Shayk as a leather daddy dom. Sure.
Tessa Thompson giving Rihanna’s 2015 Grammy’s Dress.
When Kourtney Kardashian was asked on the carpet what she thought of the theme Gilded Glamour she responded “Oh I don’t really know I didn’t think about it” - that tracks. It's giving "desperately trying to make a look work at the Dion Lee Paddington Town Hall warehouse sale."
Gigi Hadid paying homage to Cardi B’s 2019 Thom Brown look, in a PVC Versace jumpsuit. Plus, an exclusive dispatch from Vogue Australia Editor In Chief Edwina McCann, taken live at the scene.
Oh this is CAMP - shame that theme was 3 years ago. Emily Ratajowski in 1992 archival Versace. The dress was last worn by the Yasmeen Ghauri.
It's giving Hens Night at The Albion, Parramatta. RnB Friday's. Kylie Jenner wears Off-White couture short-sleeved gown with a matching baseball cap veil, in a look that's neither gilded nor glamour.
Hell is two Jared Leto's. Leto and Gucci director Alessandro Michele in, well Gucci.
The rumours are true, Kim bought the dress that Marilyn Monroe sang to JFK, purchased at Ripley's in 2015 for $5 million.
She's alive. Maybe this is the year Sky Ferreira's LP2 will finally see the light of day. Dust off your American Apparel tennis skirts, girls.
No caption just sxc.
It is so refreshing when celebs don't just lean on looking hot. Love everything Emma Corrin brings to the red carpet. Clad in Miu Miu, this look is inspired by New York City socialite Evander Berry Wall, crowned the 'King of Dudes', Wall was known to change 40 times between breakfast and dinner.
Finally, a busty Vivienne Westwood moment. SZA is totally divine in jewel-toned future, the naughty latex flourishes are everything.
SYDNEY SWEENEY IS NO LONGER STUCK IN TRAFFIC. The red carpet certainly was not missing her look. Snooze. Sweeney wore a white Tory Burch gown with a peplum waist.
This year marked the second instalment of In America: A Lexicon of Fashion, a two-part exploration of fashion in the United States.
Where last year’s theme, In America: An Anthology of Fashion focused on the way American designers build upon each other, this year honed in on the grandeur of Gilded Age New York.
So what is the Gilded Age?
At the risk of sounding like a year eight history assignment: The Gilded Age was a period of economic boom that extended from 1870 to 1990. Following the civil war, the country went through a period of unprecedented prosperity, industrialisation, and marked cultural change.
Through rose-tinted glasses it’s remembered as a time of great affluence: lavish parties, operas, ruffles galore. Though beneath the tulle lay inequality and corruption. The term itself was derived from Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner’s 1873 satirical novel, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, which explored an era of social rot masked by a gold gilding.
So what was the fashion like?
Excessive and OTT (for those on the up, that is.) Fabric manufacturing became faster and easier to produce, thus clothing became more extravagant. Lots of combined textiles like satin, silk, velvet, fringe, with all the trimmings like bows, frills and lace.
Think Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence, Bridgerton, Vivienne Westwood Fall/Winter 1995. Corsets galore, gowns and hats adorned with feathers. A nightmare for the slinky slip-loving Hailey Baldwin.
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