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Fashion’s biggest night is always a canvas for spectacle.
The Met Gala kicks off Monday celebrating the theme “Superfine: Tailoring Black Stye,” an homage to black dandyism led by Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, A$AP Rocky, Pharrell Williams and Vogue editrix Anna Wintour co-chairing the Met Gala with LeBron James as an honorary chair.
“At some point, the Met Gala stopped being a fundraiser with incredible couture outfits and became the Oscars of fashion, with a twist of performance art, protest, and the occasional wardrobe malfunction,” Melissa Rivers, TV host, fashion expert and author told The Post.
“It’s the one carpet where fashion takes center stage, and no one plays it safe because safe isn’t the trend. It’s become the place to make a statement, whether that’s cultural, personal, or just pure ‘Camp’ chaos.”
Indeed, and in celebration, here are its most scandalous moments over the years:
X-Rated fashion, politics and faux pas
1. Cher’s naked dress
Long before other A-listers dared to bare, Cher set the template in 1974 with a sheer “naked illusion dress” covered in silver crystals and punctuated with white feathers on the sleeves and bottom of the dress.
“People were horrified, they thought, that’s not fashion, that’s just naked at the Metropolitan,” Mackie recalled to People earlier this year.
“Cher didn’t just wear the naked look, she invented it. That look said, ‘Who needs subtlety when you have sequins and Bob Mackie?’ Rivers told The Post.
“It scandalized the fashion world in the best way with glam, guts, and exactly zero apologies. Since then, everybody’s been trying to recreate that moment, and let’s be honest, failing.”
2. Madonna’s boobs and butt
Madame X wore a risqué bondage inspired body suit baring her chest and backside – both covered only by a thin layer of black lace – for the 2016 theme “Manus X Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology,” theme.
“There were boobs out there, there was butt out there and the jewels complemented that,” jeweler Neil Lane described to Page Six at the time.
3. AOC’s ‘Tax the Rich’ dress
Congresswoman AOC showed up to the Met Gala in 2021 wearing a political message aimed at her fellow Democrat-voting partygoers – a white gown by Brother Vellies with “Tax the Rich” splattered in red across her back paired with the matching slogan on her bag.
“If you’re trying to make it a branding opportunity, Sarah Jessica Parker did it better in Oscar De La Renta at the 2014 Met Gala,” Rivers quipped.
4. Kim Kardashian stars as a couch
Kim Kardashian’s ill-advised fashion choice drew comparisons to a couch, due to the rose printed Givenchy gown by Riccardo Tisci’s pattern. She wore it while pregnant with her first child, North West, in 2013 at her Met Gala debut with ex-husband Kanye West. The theme? “Punk: Chaos to Couture.”
“I think Robin Williams even tweeted it, said I looked like Mrs. Doubtfire,” Kardashian recalled in a video interview with Vogue, noting that the Olsen twins were practically the only fans of the dress.
5. Lady Gaga’s 16 minute ‘Camp’ parade
No stranger to wacky outfits [meat dress anyone?] Lady Gaga gave the “Camp”-themed Met Gala in 2019 a run for its money when she made a 16-minute entrance in a hot pink cape dress, matching hair bow and a 25-foot train. If that wasn’t enough, she then stripped down to four different looks, all designed by Brandon Maxwell. The fashion parade required an entourage to help her change into a strapless black gown with a bustle which she wore with a matching umbrella, followed by a neon pink gown before stripping down to her skivvies in a crystal-studded bra, underwear and fishnet tights. And that was before the show had even started!
6. Naked-ish Lil Nas X
Rapper Lil Nas X wore nothing but a silver Dior thong and platform booties to the 2023 Met Gala red carpet. The rest of his body was spray painted silver and decked in rhinestone and pearl detailing, plus a rhinestone face mask for the “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty” theme.
7. Jared Leto’s cat costume
Jared Leto gave the catwalk a new meaning when he showed up to the 2023 gala in a full cat costume. The animated ensemble paid homage to Choupette, Karl Lagerfeld’s beloved cat, for a playful nod to the year’s theme: “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty.”
8. Donatella’s deep V
Jennifer Lopez rocked the Grammys in an infamous jungle print, deep V-cut Versace dress in 2000, but the look was stolen from designer Donatella Versace who wore it to the 1999 Met Gala.
Infamous feuds
9. The Solange/Jay-Z elevator fight
Solange Knowles, with sister Beyonce by her side, yelled at Jay-Z in the elevator of The Standard High Line in 2014 then resorted to outright punching and kicking him, as a security guard attempted to restrain her, an incident which took place after the Met Gala. The shocking footage leaked soon after, but the reason for the fight remains a mystery.
10. Demi Lovato vs. Nicki Minaj
Demi Lovato admitted she nearly broke her sobriety at the 2016 Met Gala apparently because of Nicki Minaj whom she told Billboard was “miserable to be around.”
“I changed my clothes, but I still had my diamonds on – millions of dollars of diamonds on in an AA meeting,” she recalled of the year she and the “Starships” rapper were accompanied by designer Jeremy Scott. Following the gala, Minaj posted a photo of herself on the red carpet tagging only Scott. Lovato commented on Minaj’s post with a laughing emoji, peace sign and thumbs up, in an apparent jab.
11. Tim Gunning for Wintour
“Project Runway” alum Tim Gunn revealed he was banned from the 2024 Met Gala after he candidly recalled an incident from 2016 in which he watched the Wintour “being carried down five flights of stairs by two bodyguards – two big hulking men! – from a fashion show!” He also noted he’s had an “open war” with Wintour ever since.
12. Schlossberg’s protest
President John F. Kennedy’s immature grandson Jack Schlossberg posted a photo of himself as a child fully nude standing on a balcony, an apparent attempt to fuel a feud he has with Wintour, who is his former boss.
Stars who hate the Met Gala
13. Amy Schumer
Schumer attended the Met Gala in 2016 when she attended as Alexander Wang’s date in a low cut red gown and told Howard Stern on his SiriusXM radio show the gala felt more like a “punishment.” “We’re dressed up like a bunch of f—king a–holes.”
14. Tina Fey
Tiny Fey attended her one and only Met Gala in 2010, when the theme was “American Woman: Fashioning a National Identify,” where she described the fashion spectacle as a “jerk parade,” in an interview with Daivd Letterman in 2015.
“Clearly, I’ll never go again, but you go and it’s this beautiful space and it’s just every jerk from every walk of life is there wearing some stupid thing.”
15. Gwyneth Paltrow
The Goop founder was one of the first stars to confess she hated the Met Gala. “It sucked,” Paltrow told USA Today in 2013. “It seems like it’s the best thing in the world … and then you get there and it’s so hot and it’s so crowded and everyone’s pushing you.” Despite the review, Paltrow graced the famous Met steps again in 2017 and 2019.
Worst behaved
16. Cigarette selfies
It became a brief trend to join the ‘smoker’s club’ and post a pic from the Metropolitan Museum of Art bathroom with a cigarette. Rebels like Dakota Johnson, Bella Hadid, Stella McCartney, Marc Jacobs, Courtney Love, Frances Cobain and Remi Malek all did it, in clear violation of museum policy.
17. Man in a box
Two men in suits pulled up in an SUV to the Met Gala in 2017 then carried out a clear perspex box featuring naked, Russian performance artist Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich. They then dropped it down on the red carpet. Security raced over and threw a white sheet over the box before dragging it off the carpet. Firefighters then used a saw to cut it open, police said at the time. The Met Gala clearly doesn’t take well to uninvited guests.
18. Scented event
Fashion editor Diana Vreeland loved using a signature perfume in the galleries for each Met party. She apparently sprayed the air with the YSL eau de toilette fragrance Opium for the 1980 exhibit, New York magazine reported in 2005.
19. Steven Seagal’s tang suit
Action movie star Steven Seagal bizarrely wore a red silk Chinese tang suit to 1999’s “Rock style”-themed gala. Nobody’s sure why he was even invited.
20. John Galliano’s ‘tribute’
Controversial British fashion designer John Galliano wore what appeared to be a pimp suit to the 1997 gala with an over-sized, red velvet hat and over-sized stripped jacket, which he bizarrely claimed was a tribute to Gianni Versace, who was murdered earlier that year.
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