It’s not Bennifer or AOC.
To celebrities, the red carpet of the Met Gala is like an average person’s front lawn: a place for making bold statements. The event, an annual fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, is made for flaunting ostentatious couture. The dress code is determined by a theme—this year’s was “American Independence,” in honor of a forthcoming exhibition —that can be interpreted however an attendee prefers. Tickets are $35,000 a pop. And for four hours, the invitees—normally the most relevant cultural figures of the year—get to mug for the camera before heading inside. As a red-carpet co-host, the actor Keke Palmer, declared at the top of last night’s show, “You can never go wrong with a message.” And so, plenty of attendees accessorized with a declaration. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wore a dress with the words Tax the Rich scrawled in red down the back, her fellow Democratic Representative Carolyn Maloney chose a gown festooned with support for the Equal Rights Amendment, and the model Cara Delevingne donned a top that read Peg the Patriarchy. But for all the overt political messaging, only one look managed to land as both a red-carpet showstopper and a medium for actual change: Billie Eilish’s peach tulle ball gown. At first glance, the singer’s slogan-less dress is simply showy glamour, made for the spotlight and nothing else. Working with the fashion house Oscar de la Renta, the 19-year-old pop star leaned into the blond-bombshell aesthetic of her latest album for her first Met Gala.
