Best Met Gala 2021 Costumes: Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Billie Eilish

In New York, a charity costume ball Met Gala was held, which traditionally gathers A-list stars – from Isabelle Huppert and Whoopi Goldberg to Kanye West and Rihanna. We talk about the dress code of the event and dozens of attempts to avoid it

This year’s theme for the Met Gala and upcoming exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute is “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion.” However, most of the guests invited by the organizer of the ball, the editor-in-chief of Vogue Anna Wintour, did not begin to concentrate on conforming to the American style and simply dressed to the nines, demonstrating how much they missed secular exits during the lockdown.

Ball chairwoman Naomi Osaka, a tennis player, wore a Louis Vuitton kimono dress with frills and a train, singer Grimes couldn’t leave the house without a Bible and a sword, model Iman attacked doorways in a giant Harris Reed hat, actress Whoopi Goldberg drowned in a Valentino frill dress, and rapper Lil Nas X showed up wearing a Versace imperial cape, underneath which was a C-3PO suit and tight embroidered jumpsuit.

The celebration of kitsch (as if the theme of the Met Gala was again camp) was reflected even in the details: musician Frank Ocean rocked a frighteningly realistic baby robot in his arms, singer Erika Badu walked a dog bag, designer Virgil Abloh anticipated the onset of cold weather in a hat with earflaps, and the star On the relaunch of Gossip Girl, Evan Mock was trying to navigate space in a Thom Browne full-face leather headpiece that was clearly inspired by Kim Kardashian’s look at the MTV VMAs the day before. Kim also came to the Costume Institute ball in a blackout mask and a black tight Balenciaga dress, demonstrating couple-dressing with her ex-husband, rapper Kanye West. However, anyone could be under the black bag: The New York Times suggestedthat Kim was actually accompanied by Balenciaga creative director Demna Gvasalia.

In the art of choosing paired outfits, director Taika Waititi and singer Rita Ora, Justin and Hailey Bieber, as well as A$AP Rocky and Rihanna competed with Kim and her companion, whose appearance on the red carpet reporters were looking forward to with particular impatience. And for good reason: the newly-made billionaire chose a cape dress and a hat with a “tuft” from the Balenciaga couture collection (probably accompanied by Savage X Fenty underwear, which also became one of the exhibits of the new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art), and the rapper is black a suit with diamond brooches hidden under a voluminous plaid of the American brand ERL.

The Met Gala was not without Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, the news of the reunion of which the media have been savoring for several months now. True, they didn’t succeed in couple-dressing: Affleck chose a classic tuxedo, and Lopez chose a low-cut Ralph Lauren dress and a hat in the spirit of either Indiana Jones or Crocodile Dundee. Despite the fact that the image did not look too organic, the singer is one of the few who tried to comply with the dress code.

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez

© Kevin Mazur / Getty Images

Blondie leader Debbie Harry also paid tribute to American fashion in a striped Zac Posen skirt imitating the US flag, actress Regina King in a Michael Kors dress and cape, which could well have been presented at the inauguration, actor Timothée Chalamet, who complemented the white Haider Ackermann suit with Converse sneakers , and soccer player Megan Rapino in a Sergio Hudson suit and an Edie Parker clutch with the inscription “In Gay We Trust” (“We trust in a gay”) – the first part of the phrase was enterprisingly covered with a finger.

Such statement outfits have long been an integral part of any red carpet. At the Met Gala, in addition to Rapinoe, model Cara Delevingne, who ordered a bulletproof vest with the slogan “Peg the patriarchy” (“Punch through the patriarchy”) from Dior, and a member of the US House of Representatives Carolyn B. Maloney, who appeared in a colorful dress with the phrase “Equal rights for women” and a bag with a mention of the ERA, a proposed amendment to the US Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens, regardless of gender.

Caroline B. Maloney

© Kevin Mazur / Getty Images

Cara Delevingne

© Taylor Hill / Getty Images

Model Kaia Gerber, who repeated the image of Bianca Jagger at the Met Gala in 1981, model Kendall Jenner, for whom Givenchy reproduced embroidery from Audrey Hepburn’s dress from the movie “My Fair Lady”, actress Emily Blunt in a headdress, also distinguished themselves by symbolic, but less straightforward exits. with a scattering of stars, like Hedy Lamarr in “Ziegfield Girls”, and actress Lupita Nyong’o, who mimicked the painting “Tulip” by Lorna Simpson. Billie Eilish also chose an icon to follow and appeared in a modified Marilyn Monroe dress from the 1951 Oscars. However, thanks to the lush blond hairstyle, the Russian-speaking audience still compared her with Irina Allegrova.