At this year’s ever-grander, ever more memeable Met Gala, celebrities turned up in their finest to honor the late designer Karl Lagerfeld, the subject of the 2023 exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Gallery in New York City.
The designer, famous for his longtime collaboration with Chanel and Fendi, as well as his work at his own line and the houses of Balmain and Patou, gave guests a treasure chest of inspiration, with designs from the past seven decades all ripe for aesthetic plunder.
Rita Ora, dressed in ApparelMagic client Prabal Gurung, took her inspiration from Lagerfeld’s favorite color, black, as well as his constant use of chiffon in daring ways. Her sheer gown criss-crossed her body until it swept down the Met’s infamous stairs with a dramatic train.
Taika Waititi, in an ode to Lagerfeld’s employer since the 80s, Chanel, wore a sumptuous evening coat in grey satin with a pair of ivory trousers. Topping the Prabal Gurung look though, was a floral pin and strand of pearls, a perennial Chanel trademark.
Quinta Brunson took to the cream carpet with a fitted lavender and pink gown. Always putting a subversive twist on prim and proper evening wear, Gurung took a page out of Lagerfeld’s playbook by wrapping the gown in black tulle and pinning on a. camellia brooch.
Actress Alia Bhatt collaborated with Gurung on a perfectly suited white ball gown entirely encrusted in pearls. The rarity, a signature from Coco Chanel’s days, was one often referred back to by Lagerfeld in his Chanel collections.
And the model Anok Yai took pearls a step further in a dress that went in a different direction, looking like mother-of-pearl nacre herself. Her wide hemline positively dripping with sequins that copied the material’s impressive iridescence.
Finally, actress Kelsey Asbille wore another custom Prabal Gurung dress, this one a super-structured mini dress fell off the shoulders and exaggerated the hips, paired with the Met Gala classic, a long, statement-making train.
