Sao Paulo
It’s been a long time since a red carpet this riskfree has been seen at an edition of the Met Gala, the charity ball designed to raise funds for the fashion department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
With an overwhelming majority of pasteltoned looks, the prom that was to be the pinnacle of celebrity fashion looked more like a small plate of lukewarm oatmeal compared to previous years.
Much is due to the topic. This year, guests were supposed to pay tribute to designer Karl Lagerfeld, who was responsible for reviving Chanel in the 1980s and renewing the brand before he died in 2019.
The very exclusive party, hosted by Vogue’s ironclad editor Anna Wintour, is usually dictated by vague themes. Such was the case in 2019 with the broad theme “Camp”, inspired by Susan Sontag’s concept that paints kitsch and confuses celebrities with hideous looks, such as Zendaya’s Cinderella dress or Frank Ocean’s grotesque green baby.
Even suggestions that it should be papaya with sugar cause confusion, as in the case of last year’s Gilded Glamour, topped with the oddities of starving Kim Kardashian in a Marilyn Monroe dress or Gigi Hadid’s futuristic bathrobe.
This issue’s theme helped the guests of honor deliver an Enem essay that stayed on topic eye candy and social media tedium.
Light tones dominated white, pink, blue but often combined with details in black, a color Lagerfeld wore and defended until his last days in the form of gloves, sunglasses and shoes the designer’s favorites. By the way, brooches marked the ties of the simple black suits of men, who at most decided on waistcoats, chains and various fabrics.
The tributes also came as memes, like a shiny jeweled bag in the shape of a white cat with blue eyes, a nod to the feline Choupette, the designer’s heiress, who was raised on tuna milk.
The cat was the target of those who decided to appeal to the potential to hit the webs of the night. Doja Cat, who lives up to her name, wore a hooded dress with small ears, all made of shiny stones, like the bag, a discreet item at this point. Jared Leto went straight to the point and donned a Choupette doll costume—it’s hard to believe that Lagerfeld or the cat himself would approve of the rough, spooky look.
But it was, despite the crude reinterpretations, Lagerfeld’s touch of irreverence that marked his everloud passages through highend houses like Chloé, Fendi and Chanel. At the Italian brand, he invented the FF logo, “Fun Fur”, something like Fun Fur, to defend the use of animal skins. At Chanel, he reused the controversial footage for his own keychain, which was paraded by a smiling Cara Delevigne on a catwalk for the brand in 2014.
As expected, Chanel was left behind at the event. Dua Lipa doesn’t let go of her hottie pose in the 1992 collection’s bodice dress, which was made from the fabric of the brand’s blazers.
The dress, while sounding bland compared to what we’ve seen in previous editions, shows what Karl Lagerfeld was capable of at the helm of the French house.
Until the designer’s arrival, the brand once known for the little black dress, with its tweed suits and crew necks, beading and quilted pockets, was considered grandma’s headwear.
All of this on the Met Gala carpet, by the way, in a controlled, subversive tone. Influencer Emma Chamberlain was more literal, keeping the top of an actual blazer separated from the skirt by a shiny fabric that looked more like part of a carnival costume. After all, not every subversion works.
Gisele Bundchen, alone for the first time on the red carpet, wore a dress, of course by Chanel, from 2006, in which she herself was photographed. White, simple, with a generous fleece cover.
Nicole Kidman was another one who went for the vintage she wore herself, a pale pink dress with glitter and a velor train, complete with a sheer cape in the same colour. The costume starred with her and Rodrigo Santoro in the 2004 commercial for Chanel fragrance #5.
It was an ethereal carpet, with so many icy tones contrasted only by the richness of black that they all looked like little Lagerfeld angels, bathed to the last hair in the most obvious and simple references.
Those who didn’t bet on the designer’s flashy creations, the easiest way to hit the target, paid obvious tribute, appealing to memes like the orphaned cat, the sunglasses or prints of the name, or even the face of Lagerfeld himself.
Not even Anitta, buried in a structured black Marc Jacobs with white gloves, managed to create a surprise factor there.
It was all very chic, a welcome change after years of baseless Met Gala kitsch. But when you’re paying homage to a designer who’s been propped on the pedestal for his poignancy, you’d expect the extravagant party to feel a little less like a funeral.
Barbara Blume