When “Gilded Glamour,” the dress code of the 2022 Met Gala, was announced, it seemed either a recipe for extravagant disaster or irony. After all, the present day has often been compared to the late 19th-century Gilded Age, that period between 1870 and 1900 when extreme wealth was concentrated in the hands of the very few, the robber barons came to the fore and income inequality grew. growing bigger just below the gold veneer on the glittering surface.
That first golden age came to a symbolic end with a famously ostentatious party, the Bradley-Martin Ball of 1897, during which many of those in attendance, the good and the great and the greedy of New York society, dressed up in full swag as Marie Antoinette. Also Queen Louise of Prussia.
Was this really what the organizers were going for?
Or could it be, one interpretation went, that by evoking such a moment, the conductors of today’s famously ostentatious Met Gala were suggesting that guests call it back, rewrite history and exercise some restraint. Stop dressing as if for a costume ball in which the aim is to outsmart each other.
That idea was brushed aside once Blake Lively, a co-host, appeared in a gleaming brass Versace column decorated with strips of intoxicating silk that later unfolded into a green-colored train embroidered with the constellations of Grand Central Station. It was a hodgepodge of skyscraper dreams rolled into one magical, changing dress. Along with the dress, she wore matching opera gloves and a tiara like the Statue of Liberty. Next to her, her husband (and co-host), Ryan Reynolds, in classic white tie, fell into obscurity.
It set the tone for the evening.
Those who played it subdued just got lost in the excess. Even Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, harbinger of the current gilded age, Twitter disruptor, who went out of his way to portray a responsible steward of a public utility in his white tie and tail, barely made a ripple. There was just so much to see.
There was gold-gilt apparently without guilt. (Sure; no one said that interpretations of the theme had to be subtle.) So there was Cardi B, draped in over a mile of body-conscious Versace necklaces and jewelry, and here was Megan Thee Stallion in shiny feathers and brocade, like a 24- carat Moschino Valkyrie. There was Carey Mulligan, whose Schiaparelli bustier and train were embroidered with 79,000 gold sequins; and here was Chloe Bailey, whose metallic strapless Area column mimicked the exaggerated curves and hips of a corset and pannier without resorting to those body-shaping devices.
Although many others did.
Corsets were the accessory of the evening, along with capes, opera gloves (the best of Kodi Smit-McPhee, who paired his red Bottega Veneta pair with a white tuxedo shirt and leather “jeans”), tiaras (Hamish Bowles wore a Verdura crown last seen in 1957 at Buckingham Palace) and trains.
In the waist-cinching stakes, perhaps the tightest statement has been made by Billie Eilish as a sort of gothic bordello madam in bubbly Gucci satin and green lace — all upcycled from studio fabrics. Lenny Kravitz, in leather and lace, Paloma Elsesser in a white Coach number, and Evan Mock in ice tones and a white head of state collar, like a Little Lord Fauntleroy sorbet, came close.
Feathers were also a trend, on honorary co-chair Anna Wintour (in Chanel), Nicola Coughlan (in Richard Quinn) and, in two relatively subtle looks, Emma Stone in a white Louis Vuitton slip and Hailey Bieber in white Saint Laurent .
They were the trendsetters of the evening, the yin to the yang of the peekaboo black dresses with strategically placed historical details from Vanessa Hudgens in Moschino, Phoebe Dynevor in Louis Vuitton and Precious Lee in Altuzarra who (yes) wore another corset. They were a reminder that, in fact, sometimes less is actually more, on an evening of predatory ruffles seemingly devoted to the opposite idea.
Another kind of memory came from Riz Ahmed, who said in a Vogue red carpet interview that his unbuttoned silk workwear shirt, tank top and trousers in knee-high boots “were a tribute to the guest workers who enter the Gilded Age.”
The outfit was from 4SDesigns, but that the accompanying necklace around his neck was an 18-karat white gold, platinum, chalcedony, turquoise, and diamonds chain from Cartier complicated the point somewhat.
Minder Questlove, who wore a quilt from the Gee’s Bend quilters under his Zegna coat to “represent black women who had sacrificed themselves for their country.” Because, he said, “for African Americans in this country, the Gilded Period is a little bit different.”
They weren’t the only ones trying to add layers to their outfits, at least conceptually. Hillary Clinton, who attended the gala for the first time in two decades, wore a burgundy Altuzarra gown with the names of 60 American women who inspired her embroidered on the hem, including Abigail Adams, Clara Barton, Rosa Parks — and her mother. Dorothy Rodham.
And New York City Mayor Eric Adams, whose decision to attend the gala was not without controversy given the state of the city, modeled a Laolu Senbanjo dress suit with the message “End Gun Violence,” as well as MTA and other metropolitan symbols on the back and lapel.
Coincidentally, the city – or rather the skyline – was also the inspiration for Alicia Keys’ sparkling Ralph Lauren column and cape, with the soaring silhouettes of the Empire State Building and Chrysler Building in silver on the hem, a nod to the already equally high ambitions of the industrialists whose dubious legacy built this city. Ditto Kaia Gerber’s steel-silver Alexander McQueen, though the ripples of the Titian hair she wore with it evoked Lady Godiva even more than architecture.
But when it came to channeling history, Kim Kardashian, who made the evening’s final entrance with Pete Davidson, was on top. Not just because she managed to tie herself in Marilyn Monroe’s famous nude “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” dress—literally, the same one Mrs. Kardashian wore to climb the stairs, and immediately traded it for one to continue on to dinner. . Not just because the entire Kardashian female clan was invited for the first time.
It was because when given the honor of being the last to arrive, a pop culture figure born out of reality TV who was once banned from the gala guest list, she proved conclusively that it is influence and fame, not just pedigree and filthy profit, those are the real currency of success; the keys that open the doors of even the most exclusive events. Today even more than in the original Gilded Age.