Sculptural dresses, art history references, and dramatic headpieces were among the biggest red-carpet trends at the Met Gala on the first Monday in May at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York last night.
Ireland was represented by Sinéad Burke, a writer and fashion activist, who served on the host committee for the illustrious event and also featured in the exhibition, posing for two mannequins on display. Burke wore a black sequinned corseted gown.
Irish design was also visible on the Met carpet, with Jonathan Anderson, creative director of Dior, dressing guests including Sabrina Carpenter and Alexa Chung.
Sean McGirr of Alexander McQueen designed a multicoloured sequin gown for Chase Infiniti, and a white lace gown for Daisy Edgar-Jones. Simone Rocha also opted for a white design dressing model Adwoa Aboah in a sheer corseted gown.
One of the most anticipated red carpets, the Met Gala marks the Costume Institute’s spring exhibition, this year titled Costume Art.
More evolved and expansive than mere fashion pieces inspired by artistic works, the exhibition explores the relationship between fashion and art, and how both mediums interpret, celebrate, or conceal the human body.
Serving as a benefit for the Costume Institute, the Met Gala also doubles as an extravagant fashion spectacle, a parade of custom, couture, and archival ensembles, donned by A-listers across the fashion, entertainment, and music landscapes. With a dress code that reflects the exhibition’s theme, this year’s directive, Fashion as Art, set the mood on the red carpet, with Vogue encouraging guests to consider the many ways that designers use the body as their blank canvas.
The results veered from literal to art history lessons to predictable naked dressing.
Beyonce’s studded exoskeleton dress is a Olivier Rousteing design. Photograph: Angela Weiss/ Getty Images 
Bad Bunny in custom Zara. Photograph: Julian Hamilton/Getty Images 
Blake Lively in an archive Atelier Versace design. Photograph: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images 
Sinéad Burke in a custom Christian Siriano gown. Photograph: Mike Coppola/Getty Images 
Sabrina Carpenter in a custom Christian Dior design. Photograph: Mike Coppola/Getty Images 
Katy Perry in a white dress by Stella McCartney. Photograph: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
Guests like Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, and Charli XCX opted for their finest interpretations as they ascended the iconic museum’s steps. For many, the brief was a chance to go conceptual: model Heidi Klum was unrecognisable as she turned herself into a Grecian statue; Bad Bunny aged himself with prosthetics and wore Zara; and Eileen Gu wore a bubble-adorned dress that actually spouted bubbles.
Taking cinema as inspiration, Carpenter wore a Dior-designed gown crafted from film reels from Audrey Hepburn’s movie Sabrina. Surrealist styles were also prominent, including hand motifs with sculpted hands wrapped around the body on Lena Mahfouf’s gown. Gwendoline Christie wore a feathered red dress by Giles Deacon, complete with a real-life masquerade mask, and Janelle Monáe wore a custom Christian Siriano tech-meets-nature-inspired gown.
Alexa Chung in Dior. Photograph: Getty Images 
Charli XCX in Saint Laurent. Photograph: Mike Coppola/Getty Images 
Eileen Gu wears a bubble Iris van Herpen design. Photograph: Mike Coppola/Getty Images 
Nicole Kidman in a custom Chanel look by Matthieu Blazy. Photograph: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images 
Heidi Klum in a custom Maison Blanche design. Photograph: Mike Coppola/Getty Images 
Chase Infiniti in a trompe l’oeil Thom Browne dress. Photograph: Mike Coppola/Getty Images 
Daisy Edgar-Jones wearing custom Alexander McQueen. Photograph: Mike Coppola/Getty Images
Dresses with riffs on the traditional human form also dominated. For her first Met Gala carpet in 10 years, Beyoncé embraced exoskeletal dressing in a skeletal-inspired gown embellished with a dramatic feathered train. Zoe Kravitz opted for a full black lace Saint Laurent dress with an exaggerated bustle-hip detail, and Cardi B wore a lace Marc Jacobs with bulging shoulder detail. Moulded, sculptural gowns also fit into the body-centric dress code, with Kylie Jenner appearing in a trompe-l’œil nude Schiaparelli corset dress. Hailey Bieber also got the moulded memo, in a Klein blue chiffon gown, complete with a gold-breasted corset inspired by Saint Laurent’s body-sculpting work with Claude Lalanne. Kim Kardashian arrived in a sixties, sci-fi, liquid-copper ensemble designed by artist Allen Jones.
Metallic sculptural gowns were also seen on Margot Robbie and Gracie Abrams, both in Chanel. Rihanna wore a metallic embellished gown with sculptural wreath detail by Maison Margiela. Draped detailing, with falling fabric and goddess-inspired gowns reminiscent of sculptures, was spotted across the red carpet, including Serena Williams and Liu Wen. Kendall Jenner’s Zac Posen for Gap gown featured a twisted white T-shirt corseted into a gown referencing the goddess Nike.
Naked dresses remained a Met Gala stalwart, with slinky mesh and sheer layers paying tribute to the human form, as seen on Kate Moss, Gigi Hadid and Joey King. Tonal styles that gave the illusion of a second skin were spotted on Ashley Graham and Lauren Harrier, both designed by Di Petsa.
Zoë Kravitz in Saint Laurent. Photograph: Mike Coppola/Getty Images 
Cara Delevingne in a Ralph Lauren gown. Photograph: Theo Wargo/FilmMagic 
Ashley Graham in a sheer gown designed by Di Petsa. Photograph: Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images 
Gigi Hadid in custom Miu Miu. Photograph: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images 
Kylie Jenner in custom Schiaparelli. Photograph: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
Sarah Pidgeon brought a burst of colour in a Loewe chartreuse crop top and skirt, and Tessa Thompson wore a sculptural blue dress by Klein for Valentino. Amanda Seyfried and Camila Morrone also leaned into single-colour gowns, opting for pretty pastel shades that brought a soft, sweet note, if not exactly on theme.
Fiery red dresses were a fixture with Nicole Kidman in a sequin-feathered gown by Chanel, while tennis player Naomi Osaka did a red-carpet reveal, arriving in a white dress coat before stripping down to a laced-back red sequinned dress by Robert Wun. Figure skater, Alysa Liu, who has just been announced as Louis Vuitton’s ambassador, wore a red tiered gown by the French fashion house. Lena Dunham merged colour palette and art history, with her red sequin Valentino gown, taking inspiration from Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes.
Lena Dunham in feathered Valentino. Photograph: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images 
Kim Kardashian wears custom Allen Jones and Whitaker Malem. Photograph: Theo Wargo/FilmMagic 
SZA in custom Bode. Photograph: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images 
Sarah Pidgeon in a bright Loewe look. Photograph: Mike Coppola/Getty Images 
Aariana Rose Philip in a Louise Linderoth design. Photograph: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images 
Janelle Monáe in Christian Siriano. Photograph: Mike Coppola/Getty Images
Also drawing inspiration from iconic art-historical references, Lauren Sanchez Bezos wore a midnight-hued Schiaparelli dress with an off-the-shoulder strap detail, a nod to the Madame X painting, which hangs at the Met. Claire Foy, in a black Erdem gown, and Julianne Moore, also used Madame X as a reference point. Rococo paintings inspired Blake Lively’s multi-pastel-hued Versace gown with a huge train. Charli XCX put a goth spin on her Van Gogh Irises-inspired look, opting for a black sheer dress adorned with subtle blooms by Saint Laurent.
Anna Wintour in a feathery mint Chanel look. Photograph: Mike Coppola/Getty Images 
Tessa Thompson in Valentino. Photograph: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images 
Lena Mahfouf in a Burc Akyol design. Photograph: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
Florals also emerged as a leading trend, with dresses adorned with bold blooms, sculptural petal details, headpieces and appliqués, rather than traditional floral prints. Karlie Kloss wore a look from Jonathan Anderson’s first couture show for Dior, complete with lilac orchids in her hair. Alexa Chung also wore Dior, in a silky chartreuse gown featuring a lily-pad brooch. Sza wore a yellow corseted dress by Bode with a dramatic floral headpiece.
Offering a tougher twist on suiting for men were leather two-pieces, as seen on Nicholas Hoult and Luke Evans, while Patrick Schwarzenegger topped his tux with a cropped leather jacket, and Romeo Beckham trimmed his tux with leather lapels. Capes were another trend with singers Sam Smith and Sombr wearing dramatic, embellished iterations.
Romeo Beckham in Burberry. Phitograph: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images) 
Amanda Seyfried in pink Prada. Photograph: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
With the exhibition’s ethos centred on reclaiming the body beyond a singular, traditional ideal, the Met Gala reflected a more visibly diverse red carpet. In the exhibition itself, mannequins were mirrored on real bodies, with those individuals also attending the gala, including Burke, alongside Aariana Rose Philip, the first wheelchair user to attend the Met Gala.