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