NEW YORK (AP) — Rihanna closed out the Met Gala carpet in style on Monday, covered in white camellias in her long, flowing gown. Janelle Monáe dropped a voluminous coat to reveal a sheer crinoline and Jeremy Pope walked around in a cape emblazoned with Karl Lagerfeld’s face.
In the spirit of Lagerfeld himself (who was often late), Rihanna had the rug to herself except for her partner, A$AP Rocky, who wore a red tartan with tail. They arrived much later than everyone else.
The gala was dedicated to Lagerfeld, and many of the nearly 400 celebrity guests brought vintage models from the fashion houses where Lagerfeld worked in a career that spanned more than 60 years. But elegance was not quite the hallmark of the evening. Jared Leto dressed in a duffel by Choupette, Lagerfeld’s beloved fluffy kitty. Lil Nas X was semi-naked covered in silver body paint and crystals from Pat McGrath and Dior Men.
Bad Bunny arrived late dressed head-to-toe in brilliant white with a long cape trimmed with camellias, a Coco Chanel motif adopted by Lagerfeld. Monáe’s look, with a kind of black bikini underneath, was done by Thom Browne.
Cardi B. first dressed in pink and then changed into a black dress adorned with huge camellias, even bigger than Bad Bunny’s. She said that she channeled “Karl, the house of Chanel and Karl at the same time.” The dress was finished off with a white gentleman’s shirt collar and a black gentleman’s tie. The outfit honoring Lagerfeld was made by an up-and-coming British design house, Chenpeng Studio.
“The Met Gala dress code was ‘in honor of Karl,’ and the guests definitely understood the task,” said Alison Cohn, deputy editor for fashion news at Harper’s Bazaar. “They were referencing the many signatures that Karl Lagerfeld developed during his career of more than six decades.” Many wore bouclé fabric (Teyana Taylor’s Thom Browne suit and Anne Hathaway’s must-see Versace dress). Emily Blunt also wore camellias in a Michael Kors blouse and Adut Akech in a Carolina Herrera dress.
Dua Lipa walked in a cream Chanel dress from the fashion house’s archive and Nicole Kidman chose a look that Lagerfeld himself did for her 20 years ago.
And there were some stunning models: Serena Williams wore a Gucci 1920s-inspired look to announce that she’s pregnant with her second child. Karlie Kloss did the same in a black dress and pearl necklaces.
Lipa, one of the hosts of the gala, wore a necklace with a huge diamond from Tiffany & Co. She described it as “very special”. The singer’s cream-colored 1992 Chanel dress was also “very, very special” as she had been one of her inspirations before her, she said.
Claudia Schiffer debuted the dress on the catwalk, although hers wore a matching hat. Lipa’s platinum necklace included a center diamond of more than 200 carats.
Nicole Kidman said it was Lagerfeld who ignited her spark in fashion. She wore a pale pink dress created by Lagerfeld for a commercial for Chanel No. 5 perfume that Kidman starred in. It is adorned with 3,000 silver crystals for the commercial directed by Baz Luhrmann.
“I am very grateful to wear it,” she told The Associated Press. “He was such an important part of my life, as was his entire team. He was the one who really guided me…in terms of my love of fashion.” Kidman completed his look with Harry Winston diamonds.
“My favorite look was Nicole Kidman’s ethereal sequined and feathered Chanel dress. Stars typically wear haute couture fresh off the runway or commission a custom look. It was a beautiful statement on sustainability, proving that beautifully handcrafted pieces never go out of style,” Cohn said.
Kim Kardashian, for her part, opted for strings and strands of pearls throughout her Schiaparelli gown. Brittney Griner arrived in khaki in a Calvin Klein long jacket suit, who also dressed his wife, Cherelle Griner, in an elegant strapless column gown in white onyx.
Many of the attendees were friends of Lagerfeld or worked with him at Chanel, Fendi, Chloe or one of the other fashion houses where he created.
And many guests dressed in black to walk the carpet, which had an unusual pattern of lines. Black was a color that Lagerfeld used almost exclusively. Black and white games also abounded.
Kristen Stewart, Lagerfeld’s muse, wore those two colors with black pants and a cropped white jacket. Cara Delevingne honored her longtime friend Lagerfeld in a ruffled white shirtdress, short in the front and flowing in the back. Ruffled shirts were one of Lagerfeld’s favorites.
Margot Robbie, who stars in the live-action “Barbie” movie opening this summer, wore a 1993 black Chanel dress that Cindy Crawford first wore on a runway. Robbie said that she was the last Chanel ambassador to be selected by Lagerfeld.
“I feel great in this dress. It is an honor,” she said.
The invitation-only gala raised $17.4 million last year for the museum’s Costume Institute, a self-financing department with a budget that depends on the gala’s success. The price to attend has risen this year to $300,000 per table and $50,000 for a single ticket.
The party coincides with the popular Clothing Institute’s spring exhibition, which this year is titled: “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty”.
This year’s five hosts include Vogue editor Anna Wintour, as usual, as well as Michaela Coel, Chanel ambassador Penélope Cruz, and recently retired tennis star Roger Federer.
Cruz looked like a bride with a see-through hood in her belted white Chanel dress with silver details from the spring/summer 1988 couture collection.
When asked how he came to co-host the Met Gala, Federer said it’s useful to know Wintour. He added that it makes sense for the athletes to be at the gala because they have become a bigger part of the fashion world in recent years.
“I think jocks have become more and more fashionable,” Federer told the AP. “We are lucky to be on the covers much more often today. Before it was always the models, the beautiful people, not the athletes”.
Rumor had spread that Lagerfeld’s cat Choupette would be attending, but her humans posted on Instagram earlier in the day that the 11-year-old feline was staying in Paris. However, Doja Cat wore a cat-eared cowl with a sparkly white gown with silver beading by Oscar de la Renta. The rapper wore prosthetics that gave her a catlike appearance, as well as claws.
Associated Press writer John Carucci contributed to this report
2023-05-02 04:08:01
#Met #Gala #Rihanna #Leto #Choupette #Kim #pearls
