Emma Chamberlain attends The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating the opening of the “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty” exhibition on Monday, May 1, 2023, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — Fashion’s biggest night was the first Monday in May.
The 2023 Met Gala was held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This year’s theme revolves around late fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld.
IS RIHANNA AT THE MET GALA?
Yes! About an hour and a half after reporters were told to expect one more guest in about 15 minutes, Rihanna herself arrived at the Met Gala. She ascended the steps in voluminous white bedecked with rosettes that doubled as a hood, accompanied by A$AP Rocky in a kilt-type layer over jeans (reminiscent of mid-aughts Disney Channel couture).
It’s just May and it’s already been a year of grand entrances for Rihanna, who revealed her pregnancy during her Super Bowl appearance in February.
MEANWHILE, A CUTE MOMENT
Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union departed and then Britney Griner walked down the Met steps to cheers. Wade came back in to hug Griner, chatting with her and then FaceTiming his daughter on his phone. He did a pan as all the press yelled and waved: “Thanks,” he said, “I wanted to show my daughter what the Met Gala was like.”
Wade has two daughters, 4-year-old Kaavia and 15-year-old Zaya, who is trans. Wade recently said in an interview with Rachel Nichols that his family left Florida because his family wouldn’t be accepted, a reference to the state’s pursuit of anti-LGBTQ+ policies.
THE BUZZ ABOUT FLORENCE PUGH
Florence Pugh did not hold back for her Met Gala debut. The 27-year-old actor surprised onlookers with a shaved head, adorned with a sky-high feathered headpiece by Valentino. Her gown, also Valentino, was white with a black ribbon.
Pugh has sported several showstopping Valentino looks lately, including at the Venice Film Festival premiere of “Don’t Worry Darling” and then again at the Oscars earlier this year. Last week she revealed that she was the new star of Valentino’s Rockstud bag campaign.
But it was her hair that drew the most attention. Some onlookers wondered if it was a wig.
In an interview last week with the New York Times she teased that her Met Gala look was going to be “big.”
“The idea is to be as bold as possible. I love the power that it gives me. I love how it sparks conversation,” Pugh said. “Every time I step out in whatever dress, that’s a version of me that I’m really proud of. So it doesn’t matter if people don’t necessarily like it. I don’t think anything that I do has to be 100% loved. Things being up for debate is good. It means people are interested.”
Just last week, Pugh attended an event with a long blonde bob with bangs.
BRITNEY GRINER SPEAKS OUT
Brittney Griner knows she has an advantage over other Americans being detained overseas as a public figure with access to media.
The WNBA star used that influence on the carpet at the Met Gala to talk about helping support families working to free Americans jailed in foreign prisons through the organization Bring Our Families Home, dressed in Calvin Klein and alongside her wife
The 6-foot, 9-inch Griner is finally taking on a more public profile after being traded for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout on Dec. 8, 10 months after she was arrested at a Moscow airport. Authorities said a search of her luggage revealed vape cartridges containing cannabis oil. She later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Griner recently appeared at an event with Al Sharpton and attended the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington on Saturday. She had her first news conference since her release in preparation for the upcoming basketball season, which starts May 19.
PRECIOUS LEE ON FATPHOBIA
Model Precious Lee only had only positive things to say about Karl Lagerfeld’s designs. “It’s alluring, seductive, captivating, timeless, elevated,” Lee told the Associated Press.
Lee, a plus-sized model, wore a black Fendi gown with a hot pink Fendi baguette purse for the night.
She did not have any direct comment about Lagerfeld’s comments about fat people, but simply said, “I’m fab. Always have been, always will be.”
Lagerfeld was not shy about his own fatphobia and did not think he should have to cast models of different sizes in his shows.
SERENA WILLIAMS PREGNANT, TOO!
Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian announced they were expecting a baby during a Vogue livestream interview with La La Anthony.
The tennis superstar announced she would retire from the sport in August, saying she wanted to focus on her business interests — and having another child.
Williams and Ohanian beamed as they told Anthony there were three of them up there for the interview. Then Ohanian and Anthony both offered to have a drink on Williams’ behalf inside.
The couple has a 5-year-old daughter, Olympia. Williams actually announced her intention to step away from tennis in an essay for — where else? — Vogue.
Earlier in the night, Karlie Kloss also announced she was pregnant.
WHO’S THAT CAT?
New York’s rat czar can rest easy — the cats have overrun the Met. There’s still no Choupette (how many times can we link to our story on her absence?), but the attendees are stepping up:
1. Jared Leto talked to AP’s John Carucci as Choupette. He didn’t just channel her spirit from across the ocean — that was him in a giant, white fursuit complete with heart-melting eyes. At some point, though, the head came off, at which point it looked alarmingly like a medieval battle trophy.
2. Lil Nas X talked to cameras in meows. If you speak Cat, help meow-t. The singer’s look was “crystallized cat,” created by Pat McGrath and Dior Men.
DOJA CAT. THAT’S THE HEADLINE.
Doja Cat leaned into her name and love of cats for her first Met Gala look. The rapper arrived on the carpet with makeup and prosthetics that gave her a feline’s face, cat claws for her nails and sequined dress with cat ears.
“I’m just really happy about it and I feel sexy,” she said of the look.
The makeup took 45 minutes to an hour and getting the dress on took about 20 minutes.
Doja Cat said the inspiration for her look came immediately when she heard this year’s theme, which honors the late designer Karl Lagerfeld, who counted among his many muses his cat Choupette.
“We just went for it,” she said.
A viewer of AP’s livestream of departures from the nearby Mark Hotel could purr-dict that something was afoot. Doja left ensconced in a phalanx of umbrellas, much to the chagrin of the present fans, photographers and video journalists.
ACCESSORIES JOURNALISM
It’s all in the details. Some notable accessories on the carpet:
3. Chloe Fineman’s cat-shaped bag, a Choupette substitute (we’re really sad the cat didn’t come, if you couldn’t tell. This isn’t an accessory, but Emma Chamberlain wore “Choupette blue,” by the way)
4. Rita Ora’s long, jeweled chain nails
5. Irina Shayk’s ballet flats
6. David Byrne’s bicycle, complete with a handbasket
7. Chloe Malle’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” purse
8. An unrecognizably blonde Jessica Chastain’s sunglasses (that she was asked to remove because no one could tell who she was)
SIGH: WHO WORE IT BEST?
What would Karl say? Actor and filmmaker Olivia Wilde and Margaret Zhang, Vogue China’s editor-in-chief, showed up to the Met Gala in what appeared to be the same Chloe dress in different colors. Wilde’s was white and Zhang’s was black, but both had a gold embellishment that resembled a guitar on their torsos.
The fashion faux pas caught fire on social media as people pulled out old jokes about “the dress” that some people saw as blue and black and some people saw as white and gold.
BOB IGER ALL SMILES AMID LAYOFFS AT HAUS OF MOUSE
Disney CEO Bob Iger was all smiles on the Met Gala carpet amid massive layoffs at the company and a lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday over the Republican’s takeover of its theme park district, alleging the governor waged a “targeted campaign of government retaliation” after the company opposed a law critics call “Don’t Say Gay.”
Iger said the Met Gala is “one of the best nights of the year.” Iger said that the Met Gala may be second to the happiest place on earth but that it’s “the happiest night on earth.”
When asked about the lawsuit Iger told the AP that he had nothing more to say “than what we’ve already said.”
The Walt Disney Co. last week also went through a second round of layoffs this year in an effort to cut 7,000 jobs before the summer.
HOPE IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS — AND SO IS GISELE
Gisele Bündchen looked happy and confident on the Met Gala carpet, wearing a white sequined Chanel gown with a white feathered cape draped on her shoulders with her hair in long, beachy waves.
The supermodel wore the gown previously, in 2007, for a Harper’s Bazaar Korea shoot, shot on location by Lagerfeld.
The last time Bündchen attended the Met Gala was in 2019 with then-husband Tom Brady. The pair divorced in October.
MICHAELA COEL IS HERSELF
“What I like about you is you’re unafraid to be yourself.” That’s what Michaela Coel said Anna Wintour told her when she asked why she was picked as a co-chair of this year’s gala. Coel told Vogue livestream host La La Anthony that Wintour likened the British multihyphenate to Lagerfeld in that way.
“I’m just out here being myself,” Coel declared, clad in a Schiaparelli dress with more than 130,000 crystals and chain embellishment.
QUINTA BRUNSON DID HER HOMEWORK
On brand for her “Abbott Elementary” character, Quinta Brunson knows her fashion and studied up before her first Met Gala.
The writer-actor says her dress was inspired by a piece in Karl Lagerfeld’s 1992 collection, while her hair inspiration came from one of the late fashion designer’s 2003 shows.
Asked how she felt about attending her first Met Gala, Brunson says, “I’m just speechless. I’m just really happy to be here.”
The Emmy winner has become a fixture recently in New York’s fashion world, attending several shows during February’s fashion week.
On the eve of a possible writers strike, the proud WGA member said: “No one wants a strike but I hope that we’re able to rectify this. Whatever that means.”
NICOLE KIDMAN CREDITS KARL
“I’m wearing a dress that Karl designed for me 20 years ago. I’m very grateful to wear it. He was so much a part of my life as were his whole team,” Nicole Kidman said. “He was the one really sort of shepherded me … in terms of my love of fashion.”
In 2004, the Australian actor appeared in a three-minute Chanel No. 5 commercial shot by director Baz Luhrmann. Lagerfeld designed the costumes and also appeared in the short.
PENÉLOPE CRUZ FEELS LUCKY
Actor Penélope Cruz, one of this year’s Met Gala co-chairs, said she felt lucky and privileged to be part of group honoring a genius, the late designer Karl Lagerfeld, who she said she was lucky to call a friend.
“He really deserves this and not only because of his talent and his generosity,” Cruz said. “I know people at Chanel for almost 30 years. I know, like whoever is and has been there for so long, they loved him so much. It’s not just the ones at the top.”
Cruz, who has an ongoing relationship with Chanel, said that everyone at the house is treated with respect. On Monday she wore a hooded, sheer, white gown by Chanel.
“I’m proud to be working with a brand that has those values,” she said.
Lagerfeld transformed the historic fashion brand but also was a controversial figure for his views on fatness, gay men who want to adopt children, migrants, sexual assault survivors, the #MeToo movement and “ugly” people.
ROGER FEDERER, A LA MODE
Asked how he got to be a Met Gala co-chair, tennis great Roger Federer says it helps to know Anna Wintour.
Federer is one of the evening’s chairs and among the early arrivals, walked up the Met’s carpeted steps a few minutes after fellow co-chair Dua Lipa arrived.
The tennis star says it makes sense for athletes to be at the Met Gala because they’ve become a bigger part of the fashion world in recent years.
“I think the sports people have gotten more and more fashionable,” Federer told the AP. “We’re fortunate to get onto covers much more frequently nowadays. Before it was always the models, the good-looking people, not the athletes.”
“Life has been so intertwined between sports and fashion in recent years, so it’s nice to come out on a type of red carpet like this,” he said before ascending the steps.
DUA LIPA IS VERY SPECIAL
Met Gala co-chair Dua Lipa wore a Tiffany diamond around her neck that she called “very special” and that she hoped shimmered for the night. The singer’s cream-colored dress, by Chanel from 1992, was also “very, very special” as it has been on her mood boards, she said. Claudia Schiffer wore the gown on the runway for its debut, although hers had a matching hat.
ANNA WINTOUR ON HER FRIEND KARL
Karl Lagerfeld was “a very kind person,” Anna Wintour — Vogue’s editor-in-chief and the host and mastermind behind the gala — said when asked what people misunderstand about the late designer.
She also said she hoped “he would understand how many people love and respect him.”
Wintour was escorted by actor Bill Nighy.
BOTTLE EPISODE
More on the decor, courtesy the Costume Institute:
“Each side of the red carpet tent is lined with trompe l’oeil panels inspired by 18th century French decorative arts, which Lagerfeld collected. The traditional hedges of greenery and florals are replaced this year with light installations comprised of recycled water bottles lit with a blue glow. Matching chandeliers also hang above the carpet. The Great Hall information desk is transformed into a cylindrical-shaped architectural installation, also comprised of recycled water bottles lit with a blue hue.”
MAKING ITS MARK
The Mark Hotel has become an integral part of the Met Gala fabric. Located one avenue and about four blocks away from the museum, it bills itself as “New York’s most boldly lavish hotel” and it’s where many high-profile guests get ready for the gala. There’s no chance of getting a room there tonight, but fans and photogs alike are lining the entrance to capture departures. We even have a livestream up right now.
RED CARPETS ARE SO LAST YEAR
You’d be forgiven for thinking the Met Gala seemingly followed in the Oscars’ footsteps with a more champagne-colored path into the exclusive party.
Garnished with red and blue lines snaking up the famed stairs, the Met Gala carpet also pays tribute to the Karl Lagerfeld exhibit inside, which “centers first and foremost on the dichotomy of the curved ‘S’ line (think romantic, decorative) and the straight line (modern, minimalist), with one curved wall and one straight wall in each gallery,” according to AP’s Jocelyn Noveck.
But the Oscars’ departure from the typical red this year actually came courtesy creative consultants Lisa Love, a longtime Vogue contributor, and Raúl Àvila — the creative director of none other than, you guessed it, the Met Gala.
The carpet’s design shows one of Japanese architect Tadao Ando’s original sketches for the exhibition, a publicist for the Costume Institute said.
HAVE YOU MET THE DEBT GALA?
Monday’s gala is a benefit for the museum’s Costume Institute and a pricey affair — last year, the exclusive event brought in more than $17 million. For those with no invite or who aren’t inclined to spend tens of thousands, alternative events have popped up in recent years.
On the torrentially rainy Sunday before, the Brooklyn borough played host to two such events: The People’s Ball, at the Brooklyn Public Library, and the Debt Gala, at The Bell House. The former is a free event that allows guests to sashay down the runway in the Central Library’s lobby. The library’s website doesn’t specifically reference the Met Gala — rather, pitting itself “in contrast to the elite galas that pop up across the city in the spring” — but the Debt Gala very much does.
Around 300 people attended the inaugural Debt Gala, raising more than $15,000 for RIP Medical Debt, organizers told the AP. This year’s funds will go toward buying and wiping out others’ medical debt, but organizers say the gala might target different types of debt in future years.
Inspired by the 2016 Met Gala theme, “Manus x Machina,” the Debt Gala chose “Garbage X Glamour” for a sustainability focus. “The drama of the weather matched the drama of the looks,” organizers said — among them: a pink shawl and personal runway made of bubble wrap; a harness made of tampons and condoms created by performer Joyelle Nicole Johnson; a green corset made of CDs; and, of course, a dress made of trash bags.
The guests had to evacuate the venue because of flooding, but sustained the night at a nearby bar.
