Fashion as art was the theme of this year's Met Gala, held on the first Monday of May, with celebrities drawing inspiration from masterpieces to create stunning red-carpet looks. The event marked the opening of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute exhibition, and guests were encouraged to express their relationship to fashion as an embodied art form.
Rosé, the New Zealand-born member of Blackpink, wore a black strapless Saint Laurent dress by Anthony Vaccarello, adorned with a large bird brooch inspired by French painter Georges Braque's depictions of birds. The look also referenced Yves Saint Laurent's spring 1998 and spring 2002 couture collections.
Lena Dunham, creator of Girls, returned to the Met Gala for the first time since 2019 in a dramatic red Valentino dress by Alessandro Michele. The asymmetrical silk and sequinned gown, decorated with crow's feathers, was inspired by the blood spatter in Artemisia Gentileschi's 1620 painting Judith Slaying Holofernes, which hangs in Florence's Uffizi gallery.
Julianne Moore wore a custom Bottega Veneta black dress with one strap slipping down, alluding to John Singer Sargent's portrait of Madame Gautreau, known as Madame X. The painting, part of the Met's permanent collection, caused a scandal in 1884 due to its daring dress. Lauren Sánchez Bezos also wore a version of the look by Schiaparelli's Daniel Roseberry.
Hunter Schafer of Euphoria donned a custom Prada gown inspired by Gustav Klimt's 1912/1913 painting Mäda Primavesi, also in the Met's collection. The dress mimicked the Emilie Flöge design worn by the nine-year-old subject, with a long train and blue eyeshadow replicating the painting's details.
