- Hi, everyone.
It's Justine and it's time to review the MET Gala,
which took place on the first Monday in May,
as it usually does, unless it's 2020 or 2021.
So this year we're back to the regular calendar.
Each MET Gala has a theme and that theme matches the opening
of a new exhibition about fashion at The Costume Institute
of the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
When I review the outfits of that red carpet,
it's not so much about who's best dressed
as in who is the prettiest,
it's more about who actually nailed the theme.
And the guests of that special night usually wear outfits
that they wouldn't wear on any other red carpets
or any other event ever,
(Justine laughing)
which is why I find this specific night's worth the video.
I will be giving notes from one to five stars.
(Justine laughing)
My personal opinion, of course.
And just before I do that,
let me tell you a little bit about the theme.
The theme was In America: an anthology of fashion.
So the word anthology suggests nothing less
than the cannons of fashion history.
Halston in the sixties, Grace Kelly Hollywood
in the fifties, The Great Gatsby in the twenties,
Edith Wharton's novels, 1910, and so on.
But on the invitations, there was also a clear dress code.
Gilded glamour and white tie.
So the briefing is in fact very clear,
it's about that period of industrialization
in the United States between roughly 1870 and 1900.
So no Halston and no Grace Kelly, wrong decades.
For the ladies, that meant a skirt with a bustle.
So an increased behind supported by horsehair
and petticoats.
The corset with a thin waist.
Bust pushed up, like, high up.
(Justine laughing)
And in the evening, ball gowns showing a cleavage,
lace, flowers, ribbons, gloves.
For the gentlemen, a coat over a three-piece suit.
Sometimes a cape as outwear.
An impeccable tie tucked in
and a very white and stiff color.
For formal events, the coats could have a longer tail.
At first sight, the theme looks pretty straightforward
and not wildly creative
because it's a very precisely defined moment somewhere
on the fashion timeline.
However, this era is also a moment when
if you didn't have the right skin tone,
you wouldn't have the same rights,
where the rich were getting insanely rich
and the poor, poorer.
So we are talking about an era
in which society has a huge gap between the rich
and the poor, and societal conflicts, really.
And that opens the door
to another potentially more political interpretation
of the theme.
We shall see which direction the guests went with.
Now let's look at the outfits.
(Justine chuckling)
I'm skipping all the zero star outfits.
The people who didn't bother to get
into the dress code and to do some research.
Zero stars, boo!
(Justine laughing)
Not even mentioned.
I'm starting with one star.
Kendall Jenner is wearing a large skirt with ruffles.
very dramatic, that's on theme.
But the top is too simple
and I'm missing some accessories for the era.
Anna Wintour surprisingly respected the dress code
(Justine laughing)
with feathers and embellishments.
Normally, she doesn't bother with this,
even though she's always the co-host of the evening.
Then we have two dresses that are very Hollywood,
very lavishly glamorous,
but such outfits would actually come
in a few decades later in history.
And Kim Kardashian is very simple, too simple.
Listen, on a night when it's all about big behinds
and push-up corsets, you would think
that Kim Kardashian has a head start,
(Justine laughing)
that she would have a home run at this theme.
So I'm a little bit disappointed here, I have to say.
Moving on to two stars.
Kaia Gerber looks like a debutant at her first ball
with beautiful embroidery by Alexander McQueen's atelier
with little buttons, typical of the 19th century.
Very well done.
Janelle Monae is wearing the stage look of a singer
in gilded New York and the perfect pose to go with it.
Ms. Hadid, Nicky Minaj, Kylie Jenner,
they're all wearing clearly contemporary designs close
to streetwear, and yet, very reminiscent
of the proportions of the gilded age.
Long skirts, bustiers, lace ruffles.
Nicky Minaj heard that the dress code included bustiers
and she went in all in, all out.
Now three stars.
Three stars is a great job.
It's both on theme and creative quality, no question.
Cardi B wore a Versace designed
that required, allegedly, 1,300 hours of embroidery work.
Fabulous, quite decadent and glamorous, very much on theme.
Shawn Mendes is an officer from the Civil War
after which the gilded era started.
So timewise, it's very close.
Venus Williams is wearing a sober suit,
but with a fitted bustier underneath with beautiful braids.
A necklace that fits right into the era
and eye embellishments and feathers on her purse.
For me, this is the most wearable look of the evening
that also nails the trend at the same time.
Regé-Jean Page looks exactly like in Bridgerton.
(Justine laughing)
He's clearly an expert of historic fashion.
Hillary Clinton's dress is sober and comfortable,
but very much fitting the theme.
Emma Chamberlain's outfit is a deconstructed
19th century inspired top blouse combined
with a super minimalistic modern skirt,
very trim down to create sartorial contrast.
Then come the outfits with four stars.
And from this moment onwards, it got really hard to rate
and give more or less stars to people,
because what's better?
An outfit that is more historically accurate
or a more modern take on tradition.
You could pick either way.
Here is a board that blinks
and must have cost a fortune in metallic threads.
Laura Harrier, I apologize if I mispronounce her name,
is very classic with pearls and long black gloves,
extremely stylish though.
Jessica Chastain is
how I imagine Mrs. Vanderbilt hosting a party
at her mansions, very extravagant.
On the left, we see a Louis Vuitton design
which is quite impressive because it's lace
and embroidery, yes,
but made decidedly modern through adding leather
and using horsehair under the garments
to create angles rather than curves.
Very innovative.
Alicia Keys cape is an homage to the architecture madness
that started in New York in the last decades
of the 19th century, skyscrapers as the new landmarks,
Art Deco design, geometric patterns.
The dress on the right feels like liquid gold,
custom molded on the shoulders, a beautiful Moschino design.
And I didn't have enough space on my board,
so here is the second one with four stars too.
Two gentlemen, one who did the classic frock look
with a tail and a stick.
And one who hijacked the corsetry from women's wear
to create this adjusted jacket.
Very well fitted, compliments to the tailor.
Bella Hadid
and Paloma Elsesser have taken off the dress kind of,
and are displaying their undergarments,
sulfurous and very glamorous.
Bella Hadid looks like a scandalous actress
who is also the mistress of a rich and famous banker
from Manhattan, like in Bridgerton
but three decades later in history, if you see what I mean.
And last but not least, Blake Lively's dress
by Ralph Lauren is fabulous.
The pattern reminds you of the architecture
and aesthetics of the city at that time.
The copper color of the bow detail
on her hip looks like the copper you'd expect
in the luxury interior of that era.
And under the bow, there's in fact,
a second dress in the dress, which has the blue green
of the copper once oxidation has kicked in.
Aesthetically, it's amazing.
And the handcraft is absolutely fabulous.
And now, five stars.
This year, men did a fantastic job
at playing the dress code.
So I decided to split.
One board for the ladies, one board for the gents.
Billie Eilish, she's wearing an outfit
that is historically quite accurate and yet she manages
to make it more modern thanks to the accessories
and the haircut, of course, and the attitude.
She's totally feeling it, right?
Another Bridgerton cast member, rocking feathers
and crystal embellishments.
Sometime in the 19th century,
I would need to check when exactly,
synthetic dyes were invented.
From that point on, bright colors were actually possible.
So towards the end of the century,
you would indeed see bright pinks, greens, et cetera.
Maisie Williams has, in my opinion, the best take
of the evening on (Justine speaking French)
on an undergarment look.
It's by Thom Browne,
who designed quite a few look this year,
and who happens to also be the partner of the curator
of The Costume Institute of the MET.
Coincidence, coincidence.
Kourtney Kardashian is taking men's wear
and showing the process behind the garments,
the work of the tailor, drawing on the fabric with chalk
to fit the garment onto the client.
An homage to the people who make the clothes.
And then Sarah Jessica Parker, she's always on point.
She always researches her outfits extremely well.
This time she worked with Christopher John Rogers
who just got elected designer of the year
for women's wear in the US.
I think the result is brilliant.
The overlook is amazing.
And there is a head piece.
I was surprised not to see more head pieces
or tiaras as women
in the gilded age would usually not go out bareheaded.
Now onto the gentleman.
On the left, Stromae wearing an embroidered cape
and a fabulous tie, which is in fact,
a piece of Cartier jewelry.
A longer cape in electric blue, very chiqué.
A full tuxedo look with the stick and laurels,
because that's him.
(Justine laughing)
Billie Eilish brother wearing Gucci like her.
He's that decadent tormented artist
who would drink the night away in the 19th century.
I'm loving this preachy jacket and undone tie look.
The last two, Lenny Kravitz and Eva Mock,
are blurring the lines of gender using design details
from women's wear and lace,
tailoring from men's wear and silk.
It's creative, surprising, and, I think,
an excellent job from the designers.
This year I'm adding a special mention
to the guests who took a more political stand.
Two of them, but there were more, are Cynthia Erivo
and Riz Ahmed.
The first one is wearing a headpiece, which is fabulous,
which is reminiscent of what black women would wear
in the 1800s in the US.
The white garments is suggesting clearly
the poor life conditions and wardrobes that these women had.
But here for the event, it's executed
with lace and feathers.
Incredible design work.
It's dressed by Louis Vuitton.
And Riz Ahmed said that he came as a worker,
as in the workers who labored in the fields
and in the mines behind the scenes
to make the incredible wealth of the gilded era possible.
Thumbs up if you enjoyed this review.
Thank you very much.
Which one is your favorite among all these outfits?
Is there a nice one that you think I missed
and that should have been on the list?
Let me know down below in the comments.
There has been some controversy, I have to add,
to conclude and give you a full picture,
around the choice of the dress code.
Some people said that it felt completely disconnected
to talk about gilded glamor when at the same time
in the real world there is a pandemic, inflation,
a war, recession, et cetera.
But on the other hand, I have to say,
the MET Gala themes are chosen way ahead of time.
It never was an event on the pulse of time.
It's something in its own world so to speak.
And also, the guests are people
who can afford a $35,000 ticket
and a completely custom made couture gown.
So it never was a relatable event, if I may say so,
it's more on the aspirational side.
I will see you very soon in a new video.
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Take care and goodbye.
(upbeat music)