MET Gala Recap

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where the MET Gala takes place every year.

Courtesy of Wiki Commons

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where the MET Gala takes place every year.

Logan Davidson, Staff Writer

The 49th Annual MET Gala took place this past Monday in New York, and celebrated the legacy of fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld with the theme: Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty. The evening provided the media with hundreds of attendees dressed head to toe in big, chic, and sometimes furry, outfits.

The most looks on Monday night hailed from none other than Chanel, a brand that Lagerfeld famously helped evolve into its place as a prominent fashion house.

The Beginning. Dua Lipa, Phoebe Bridgers, and Emma Chamberlain were some of the first to arrive on the carpet. Lipa donned a gorgeous white tweed ball gown – the same one Claudia Schiffer wore as a Chanel bride in the fall of 1992. Phoebe Bridgers stepped on the carpet wearing a black dress with pearls outlining Bridgers’ signature skeletal design. Emma Chamberlain wore a light blue crop top with a matching skirt, pieced together by Miu Miu and Cartier, before continuing the night as an interviewer.

The Highlights. The night included Anok Yai in a silver and gold structured mini dress – designed by Prabal Gurung – with silver fringe draping down to meet the mesh train that followed. Halle Bailey in a fitted Gucci gown with an accompanying poofy coat that she wore off her shoulders. Anne Hathaway also shocked viewers, appearing in a white tweed Versace gown with gold and pearl accents. The leg slit paired with the matching jacket secured Hathaway’s look as one of the best of the evening.

Dua Lipa in the tweed Chanel bride dress designed by Versace. (Courtesy of Wiki Commons)

The Biggest. It’s no secret that simple outfits for the MET Gala are overlooked and just plain boring. The event designed to be a showcase of the limitless nature of fashion brings some of the biggest and wild looks anyone has ever seen. Gisele Bündchen attended, wearing a humongous feather coat that fell gracefully behind her as she walked, as well as a striped white gown, both from Chanel. Florence Pugh shocked the masses by entering the event with a black-dyed buzzcut. She joined most attendees, with the black and white color scheme and wore a white dress with a massive train, a black bow tying the top together, and, the centerpiece of the outfit, a black feathered headdress that stood nearly 3 feet tall. Brian Tyree Henry also took the big route, wearing a black vest elevated by ruffled sleeves and the massive ruffled jacket worn over it. The look was then completed by matching black and white beaded necklaces. Janelle Monae wore a large jacket as well, before removing it to reveal a sheer black hoop skirt dress and a matching sequined bikini underneath.

For, arguably the biggest outfit of the night, Jeremy Pope wore simple black flared pants to contrast the 30-foot-long cape that extended from his chest to the very bottom of the carpet. The cape featured a tufted portrait of Lagerfeld himself, designed by Balmain.

Doja Cat attends the 2023 MET Gala in a diamond-rich Oscar de La Renta dress, with a matching cat ear hood. Her makeup takes on a more feline look, as an ode to Karl Lagerfeld’s beloved pet cat. (Courtesy of Wiki Commons)

The Cats. Yes, believe it or not, there were multiple cat-themed outfits on the carpet. Lagerfeld’s prized cat, Choupette, was a memorable icon in the fashion world, resulting in a few outfits dedicated to her. Jared Leto walked the carpet in a mascot costume that resembled Lagerfeld’s beloved pet. Doja Cat, on the other hand, took a more creative approach, wearing a fitted silver dress covered with diamonds, and an accompanying fur train. She also had prosthetic makeup done to make her look more cat-like, akin to the diamond cat ears on her head. Lil Nas X also had a very glamorous diamond-y outfit, wearing nothing but platform diamond boots, diamond undergarments, and cat-inspired pearl makeup. The rest of his body was covered in silver body paint and diamonds.

Notable Mentions. Men, for the first time in a while, stepped out of the conventional plain suit look, with Bad Bunny wearing an all-white suit, with a cut out in the back and a chain following his spine – reminiscent of Nicole Kidman’s back chain in her Chanel No5 short film. The look was completed with a matching floral off-the-shoulder coat with a massive train. Elle Fanning wore one of the many Chanel bride dresses of the night. Hers was done with a black shrug and a floral headdress. The same daisies in the headpiece were also seen around the waist area of her dress, sticking out like a wildly grown patch of flowers. Yara Shahidi in Chanel, Maya Hawke and Amanda Seyfried both in Prada, and Michaela Coel in Schiaparelli were all gorgeous contributions to the MET catalog this year. The nostalgic looks of the night, as well as new, ambitious looks, created a memorable evening of luxury and extravagance, cementing the 2023 MET Gala as one of the best in a while.