Met Gala 2021: A look back at 10 looks from 2019 that still has us impressed

The Met Gala had to be cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic, and 2021’s edition would have taken place on May 3. But all is not lost, because the starry fashion parade returns in September with actor Timothee Chalamet, singer Billie Eilish, tennis player Naomi Osaka and poet Amanda Gorman as its hosts.

This year, Met Gala will have the theme ‘In America: A Lexicon of Fashion’. The event is formally called the Costume Institute Gala and raises funds for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York City. According to Vogue, designer Tom Ford, businessman Adam Mosseri, and Vogue Editor in Chief Anna Wintour (pictured) will be the honorary chairs at the September 18 gala.

The last Met Gala was held on May 6 in 2019 and blew away critics and celebrities with the theme: ‘Camp: Notes on Fashion’. The annual event may have been paused amid the coronavirus pandemic, but we can still celebrate the fashion with our favourite looks from 2019.

Billy Porter’s fashion took flight when he arrived glittering in gold as he channelled a sun deity, designed by The Blonds.

Tracee Ellis Ross was a walking piece of art in her her black Moschino dress and picture frame, put together by Karla Welch. The stylist, who dressed the black-ish star, told InStyle magazine: “We went camp in a really kind of cerebral, nuanced way.”

Priyanka Chopra Jonas relived her fairytale as she landed on the Met Gala red carpet in a look inspired by Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice In Wonderland’. Dressed in a grey-yellow-pink Dior gown, with her hair in tight curls, we could mistake her for the Queen of Hearts with some style sense. Singer Nick Jonas, meanwhile, dressed to kill in an all-white suit with a thin, fake moustache.

Zendaya created magic on the red carpet, floating in dressed in a Cinderella gown by Tommy Hilfiger, with her stylist Law Roach dressed as her fairy godmother. With a few waves of his magic wand, the Spider-Man star’s gown lit up like a very classy Christmas tree. By far, our favourite look of the night.

Kim Kardashian West took our breath away dressed as a dripping wet version of herself, a design that even got Thierry Mugler to come out of retirement to design the latex beaded gown for her. Apparently, the dress took eight months to get read. “He envisioned me as this California girl stepping out of the ocean, wet, dripping,” Kardashian said when interviewed by Vogue on the Met red carpet. What had everyone talking of course was Kardashian West’s tiny waist.

Janelle Monáe shook up the style stakes dressed by Christian Siriano, wearing a stack of hats over a seriously colourful dress. She told Vanity Fair: “I am camp. It’s embedded in my DNA.”

Cardi B owned the 2019 Met Gala red carpet in her blood red feathered Thom Browne creation. The high-neck gown encircled the rapper’s head and had sleeves that went all the way to her fingertips. Vogue reported that her designer gown was styled with 30,000 feathers and took 35 people close to 2,000 hours to complete. Meanwhile, the custom bodice boasted 44 carats worth of rubies. Okay then.

Ezra Miller commanded all eyes, pardon the pun, when he walked the red carpet decked out in a Burberry suit, rhinestone corset, while his face was covered with a mask of his own face. But the real show-stopping detail was only revealed after Miller lowered his mask to show that his face was painted with five optical-illusion eyeballs surrounding his real eyes.

Jared Leto had fans (and a few celebs) stop in their tracks when he showed up at the Camp-themed Met Gala in a custom-made Gucci, high-neck red gown, with jewel-encrusted bodychains to complete the look. But what had everyone gasping was his accessory — a severed head that looked just like him. Now that was a show stopper.

Lady Gaga, our resident queen of camp, had four outfit changes on the Met Gala 2019 red carpet. Starting out in a hot pink Brandon Maxwell gown, with a giant matching bow on her head, the singer then went on to impress with by shedding her giant pink cape to reveal an all-black ensemble—complete and a matching umbrella. We also loved the second hot pink gown complete with a giant black cell phone bag by Judith Leiber. She ended it all with a bustier fishnets, while dragging a pink wagon with cowboy hats. We cannot make this up even if we tried.