The Met Gala red carpet remains the world's most exacting stage for fashion-as-performance. While the Costume Institute exhibition unfolds inside the museum, the real drama - and enduring cultural commentary - happens on those marble steps. This year's theme, "Fashion Is Art," invited interpretations ranging from architectural couture to unabashed costume, and as always, the results were a study in intention versus excess.
What connects this annual ritual to lingerie history is the persistent negotiation of exposure and concealment. Consider Beyoncé's masterful redefinition of the naked dress - a silhouette that traces its lineage to the sheer illusion gowns of the 1930s, when designers like Madeleine Vionnet used bias-cut silk to suggest the body beneath. Or Rihanna, who has used the Met steps to cement her status as fashion royalty, often channeling the subversive elegance of early 20th-century corsetry reinterpreted as armor.
Even the misses offer lessons. Jared Leto's full-body Choupette homage echoed the theatrical excess of 19th-century stage lingerie, where performers wore elaborate, impractical pieces to command attention. Katy Perry's chandelier ensemble? A nod to the crystal-beaded bodices that once adorned burlesque stars.
From the Mark Hotel to the Carlyle, New York becomes a living gallery of draped silk, lace, and structural boning. The hits commit to their vision; the misses remind us that risk is the price of entry. At the Met, that tension is everything.
Originally reported by WWD