Met Gala 2022 live updates: red carpet fashion, celebrity arrivals and style highlights | Met Gala 2022
Table of Contents Actor Kieran Culkin arrives in … Converse and sunglasses? Speaking of padded…
Table of Contents
Actor Kieran Culkin arrives in … Converse and sunglasses?
Speaking of padded bustles worn under gowns for volume, the back of Blake Lively’s dress is a wonder.
Theatre producer Jordan Roth has given his bustle an industrial goth makeover, and brought it along as his date.
That padding you see is historically accurate in spirit, if not in form. The padded humps of bustles used to be stuffed with horse hair.
Jordan Roth wins.
Photographer and director Autumn De Wilde took glided as a palette rather than a period.
She looks comfortable, fun, and is making a better case for bringing the dress-over-trousers look back than most of the TikTokers who’ve been championing a return to y2k.
Also, canes are an underrated accessory.
What is the Met Gala? A quick explainer
For those of us who may not be full-time material girls, Guardian Australia’s Lifestyle editor Alyx Gorman explains what exactly the Met Gala is.
The nickname ‘the Oscars of fashion’ can be a bit confusing – the Met Gala isn’t an award ceremony; it’s a fundraising dinner. A single ticket to the event costs around $35,000, with tables going for hundreds of thousands. The money goes towards the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute, which houses an archive of more than 30,000 wearable artefacts, spanning over seven centuries – which, if you’ve ever tried to keep moths out of a cupboard of knits, you’ll know requires a fair bit of upkeep.
As for the party itself, it has been going since 1948. Originally it was a fairly low-key fundraiser, but when legendary editor Diana Vreeland began consulting for the Costume Institute, she brought a stack of celebrities along to the Gala, and they’ve been coming every year since.
Now it has a reputation for being the event where fashion designers can dress celebrities, models and lately (to ever-diminishing scandal) influencers in the wildest possible versions of their outfits; with tables usually paid for by brands, businesses and benefactors (although there are a few captain’s pick tickets handed out each year to keep things interesting).
All of which is to say: the Met Gala is a huge red carpet, with nothing at the end of it (except more clothes).
Janelle Monae is draped (quite literally) from head to toe in shimmering silver and black.
Sebastian Stan in hot pink appears to be emulating early-career Elton John.
WOW!
WOW: model Isabelle Boemeke in an ensemble by Noir Kei Ninomiya, a mohawked protege of Red Kawakubo who uses super dense and goth materials and modes of construction. This dress is similar to a look from Spring 2022 pic.twitter.com/ARJ9gjDGlV
— Harper’s Bazaar (@harpersbazaarus) May 2, 2022
Actress Cynthia Erivo arriving in a gown with a lace drop waist.
Though it speaks more to the early 1900s, Erivo is still serving closer to the Gilded Age decade than most so far.
Panniers v bustles
Alyx Gorman
Time for the (gilded) age-old question: what is the difference between panniers and bustles?
Guardian Australia Lifestyle editor Alyx Gorman explains:
So, there are several varieties of Big Skirt we’re likely to see today. The pannier, like Chan’s has most of its volume at the side, and tends to be made of a series of both horizontal and vertically positioned hoops to give it girth (imagine a hula hooper with hoops spinning around her arms and waist, then tuck it under a skirt). Meanwhile, the 19th century crinoline tends to be made from only horizontally positioned hoops, sewn down the length of a skirt at different sizes, to give it shape (imagine a hula hooper spinning three hoops around her hips, knees and ankles).
Meanwhile the bustle, which can be worn in addition to a crinoline, gives the majority of its volume at the back of the garment. It can have structural features like tulle to help contribute volume, or it can be made of layers, and layers and layers of fabric (imagine a 1960s beehive with lots of teasing).
Bustles tended to be worn over the top of a woman’s skirt, while panniers and crinolines were undergarments.
Note for the fashion historians: Bridgerton-esque princess necklines and pastels in fact fall into the Regency-era category – aka not the way to go for this year’s Gilded Age theme.
When we hear ‘Gilded Glamor’ we want it all: puffy sleeves, billowing skirts and padded bustles.
Finally, a bustle has been served. Underneath a tuxedo.
Gemma Chan’s look screams Versailles over Upper East Side.
It has everything you want from a Met Gala look: big, eccentric and dazzling with beads and crystals.
