With the Met Gala just days away, the annual ritual of spectacle and silhouette is upon us. The red carpet, a living archive of fashion's most daring statements, often tells a story that begins beneath the gown. In 2003, when Nicole Kidman co-chaired the "Goddess" exhibition, her arrival in Tom Ford's Gucci - a sculptural column of nude silk charmeuse - was as much about structure as it was about skin. That look, which earned WWD's front page, echoed the architectural boning of 19th-century corsetry, reimagined for a modern siren. Ford, who revived Gucci's erotic charge in the late '90s, understood that lingerie's grammar - lace, corsetry, garter-like straps - could speak volumes on the carpet long before the dress was even seen.
The term "walker," coined by WWD in the 1970s, evokes a bygone era of social formality, when a gentleman escort was a required accessory. Today, that dynamic has loosened, but the undergarment's role remains constant: shaping the body, defining the line, and often, stealing the scene. As we speculate on who will command the spotlight this year - whether arriving solo or with a companion - the real question is what hidden architecture will support their moment. From the elastic webbing of 1920s step-ins to the molded cups of 1950s bullet bras, lingerie has always been the silent co-star. The Met Gala carpet is merely its most glamorous stage.
Originally reported by WWD