The Met Gala 2024 was bound to be a vintage fashion spectacle ever since its theme was announced as “The Garden of Time”. And true enough, countless celebrities pulled vintage looks for the Met Gala this year, or else had their ensembles based on designs from the past.
Zendaya, one of the co-chairs of the evening, set the tone by wearing two designs by John Galliano: the first, a recreation of a gown from his Dior spring/summer 1999 haute couture collection, and the second, a vintage Givenchy gown from Galliano’s first haute couture collection for the French fashion brand in Spring/Summer 1996. Kim Kardashian, who previously attended the Met Gala wearing one of Marilyn Monroe’s dresses, also chose a Galliano gown. Her silver ensemble, which featured a metal lace corset, was inspired by a look from the designer’s Dior Fall/Winter 1997 haute couture collection. Actress Nicole Kidman travelled even further back in time, tapping on Balenciaga to create a ballgown inspired by one of Cristóbal Balenciaga’s couture creations from 1951.
Alexander McQueen was another fashion designer that haunted the red carpet this year.
See Kendall Jenner, who made her Met Gala appearance in a McQueen design that, before today, has been preserved in the Givenchy archives. McQueen had served as creative director of the French fashion brand from 1996 to 2001, and Jenner’s Met Gala look was taken straight from his Fall/Winter 1999 haute couture collection, which was never presented on the runway.
That made Jenner the first person in the world to wear the vintage Givenchy dress, which features a plunging neckline and a sheer cut-out around the waist. The black dress is opulent, in true McQueen fashion; it’s constructed from tulle and lavishly embellished with hundreds of thousands of beads and sequins that were embroidered by hand.
Clearly, McQueen’s Givenchy gown still possesses the power to impress, given that Jenner landed on several best-dressed lists for this year’s Met Gala (including ours). As she told Vogue, “It’s been sleeping for the last 25 years. It’s literally a ‘sleeping beauty’. It’s such a special moment. I feel extremely honoured that they’re allowing me to wear it.”
Jenner wasn’t the only celebrity that harnessed the magic of McQueen this evening. There was Lana Del Rey, who was dressed by Alexander McQueen, the fashion label now helmed by Sean McGirr. McGirr drew upon the brand’s archives, specifically the Fall/Winter 2006 ready-to-wear collection, The Widows of Culloden.
That fashion show perfectly illustrates McQueen’s penchant for historic fashion. Models walked the show in floral ballgowns and bustles, frock coats and tailored jackets that nodded to the Victorian era. One of the most famous looks from the collection was worn by Raquel Zimmerman: an ethereal ruffled dress crafted from lace and silk tulle, which was paired with a striking headpiece resembling antlers draped with lace.
McGirr referenced that particular look for Lana Del Rey’s Met Gala ensemble. The singer arrived on the red carpet in a corseted silk and tulle dress, which was delicately embroidered with hawthorn branches crafted from hammered bronze-bullion. Instead of antlers, Del Rey was crowned with hawthorn branches—real, natural ones this time—over which was layered a tulle veil. To complete the look, the singer also held a rose, a McQueen motif.
McQueen’s flowers appeared elsewhere in the evening: Zendaya topped her second Met Gala ensemble with a bouquet-inspired headpiece from the designer’s Spring/Summer 2007 ready-to-wear collection, Sarabande.
While it has been over 10 years since McQueen has passed, his influence is still strongly felt—and now more so than ever. This year, Zendaya flaunted one of McQueen’s Givenchy designs at a premiere for Dune: Part II, while Maddie Ziegler graced the SAG Awards in a ruffled dress from his eponymous label’s Spring/Summer 2003 collection. For many celebrities, the decision to wear vintage Alexander McQueen over, say, vintage John Galliano or vintage Jean Paul Gaultier can even be traced to the Oscars 2020 after-party, when Kim Kardashian made headlines by wearing the British designer’s iconic Oyster dress. It remains one of the most talked-about celebrity style moments today.
With that in mind, there couldn’t have been a better stage than the 2024 Met Gala to demonstrate the enduring power of McQueen’s fashion legacy. After all, this year’s event is tied to the Met’s spring exhibition, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Beauties, which explores the ephemeral nature of fashion and how timeworn garments can be given a new life today. On the red carpet, celebrities showed us how the singular, uncompromising vision of Alexander McQueen lives on.
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