The Met Gala is considered one of the most expected red carpet events of the year. Some people say it is the “fashion prom”, while others believe it is one of the biggest and fanciest fashion parties ever thrown throughout the year!
Each year, the Met Gala, held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, hosts some of the most famous celebrities around the world, along with some of the world’s best known fashion insiders, and it is an annual fund-raising event for the Costume Institute, part of the New York Met. This year, the Met Gala was yesterday. The Estilo Tendances team stood, waiting for the storm of tweets and instagrams to come, as it was no longer live-streamed as in the previous years. And boy, did we enjoy it! At one point during the evening, all we could find on twitter scrolling up or down were photos from the Met Gala. It was almost like a live streaming, but in photos.
Earlier yesterday morning, Michelle Obama, dressed in a wonderful Naeem Khan dress, inaugurated the Anna Wintour Costume Insititute, as it will be called as of yesterday, and it was one of the happiest we have seen Anna Wintour so far.Looking through the photos she seemed genuinely touched by the gesture and by the support she has received.
Here are some photos from that magical moment:
Michelle Obama, cutting the ribbon, flanked by Anna Wintour, Thomas Campbell and Emily Rafferty
Image courtesy of WWD
Who was there? Well, who wasn’t? From designers such as Alber Elbaz, Diane von Furstenberg, Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, to celebrities, such as Sarah Jessica Parker or Mary-Kate Olsen, but most of the celebrities were most certainly pampering themselves for the evening’s event.
You can read more about them in our Top 10 Fashion Icons Article
Even her daughter instagrammed a photo of the event with the caption: “Now she’s in a museum?! This is a lot to live up to…”- we could not agree with you more!
Screen shot courtesy of @beeshaffer Instagram
Enough with the morning routines, let’s plunge into the actual Gala. As every year, it is a themed event, and this year the theme was: “Charles James: Beyond Fashion”.
Let’s get into a little history moment of who Charles James was. Born in Britain, he is known to the world as “America’s first couturier”. His innate talent at pattern-cutting and his mastery of a highly structured aesthetic brought him to the attention of the whole world.
He was a self-taught designer, who moved from New York to London, and set up his first shop in Mayfair. He spent some time in Paris, in the 1930s, studying, but he remained a mainly self-taught designer. He showed one of his most celebrated collections in Paris, in 1947, and he moved to New York in the 1950s, where he spent most of his time.
Harold Koda, The Costume Institute’s curator in charge of the exhibition, names James one of the transformers of fashion design. Charles James was one of the first designers ever to do licensing with his brand, but also the designer that inspired Dior to do his famous New Look dresses.
This is what made him a perfect contender for an exhibition at the New York Met, thus giving the theme for this year’s Met Gala.
When we heard the name of Charles James, we all grasped and waited patiently to see some of the most lavishly done dresses, those kinds that would take the whole space of the red carpet. It was a white tie event after all, so we were expecting all the best and most elegant designer dresses to walk off that carpet. We were not very disappointed, but at points, some people seemed a bit off.
Let’s talk about Who Wore What now, as we were all expecting the most Cinderella- like dresses.
We were not disappointed to see Zac Posen, Valentino and Oscar de la Renta on the red carpet, as they are known for their very elegant attire, our surprise, came in the name of Topshop, the British high-street brand that definitely exceeded our expectations of elegance. Here is the night in photos as it was shown on our Twitter feed:
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in Balmain
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Gisele Bundchen in Balenciaga
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Allison Williams in Oscar de la Renta
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Emmy Rossum in Carolina Herrera
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Tabitha Simmons in Dolce & Gabbana
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Bee Shaffer in Alexander McQueen
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Anna Wintour in Chanel
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Victoria Beckham wearing her namesake label
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Rachel McAdams wearing Ralph Lauren
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Diane Kruger in Hugo Boss
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Chrissy Teigen in Ralph Lauren
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Hailee Steinfeld in Prabal Gurung
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Jessica Pare in Michael Kors
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Nicole Richie in Donna Karan Atelier
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Suki Waterhouse in Burberry
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Anna Kendrick in J Mendel
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Karolina Kurkova in Marchesa(in love with this dress!)
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Dakota Johnson in Jason Wu
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Greta Gerwig in Olivier Theyskens
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Toni Garnn in Topshop(shocking, right?!?!)
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Jessica Alba in Diane von Furstenberg
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Kim Kardashian wearing Lanvin, and Kanye West
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Kendall Jenner wearing Topshop (again it looks stunning, doesn’t it?)
Images courtesy of Fashionista.com
Amy Adams in Oscar de la Renta
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Selena Gomez in Versace
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Taylor Swift in Oscar de la Renta
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Lily Donaldson in Burberry
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Reese Witherspoon in Stella McCartney
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Sarah Silverman in Zac Posen
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Hayden Panettiere in Dennis Basso
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
Arizona Muse in Zac Posen
Image courtesy of Fashionista.com
All in all, we loved the event, we would have loved it even more if it was live-streamed, but the live-streaming in photos last night was as good as it gets.
How did you feel about the event?
Comment below and tell us what you thought of it, and how did you find the dresses!
Feature image: gratisography.com
