Met Gala Beauty: 33 Extravagant Red Carpet Moments
The Met Gala is renowned as the Super Bowl of fashion. What makes it so special? It’s one of the most exclusive and stylish social events worldwide, where celebrities pull out all the stops on the red carpet.
Just like a championship game, stars and their glam teams often surprise Us with the unexpected—whether it’s an unseen hairstyle or a daring eye makeup look.
At the event known as the party of the year, celebrities embrace the drama, even if it means polarizing their fans with jaw-dropping aesthetics.
Take Nicole Richie as an example; she captured everyone’s attention with gray-white hair at the 2013 gala, aligning with the event’s “Punk: Chaos to Couture” theme. The next year, Joan Smalls showed that a bold lip is always a winner, sporting a striking metallic blue shade for the “Charles James: Beyond Fashion” theme.
Throughout the years, Met Gala beauty has become bolder and more audacious. In 2019, Billy Porter embodied the “Camp: Notes on Fashion” theme by transforming into what he described as an “Egyptian Sun God,” while Gigi Hadid made a statement with spiky white eyelashes crafted from feathers.
When the first Monday in May arrived in 2021, Vogue‘s Editor-in-Chief, Anna Wintour, who has orchestrated the gala since 1995, had to postpone it until September 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new date turned out to be serendipitous, coinciding with the finale of New York Fashion Week. For the “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion” theme, the co-chairs included Timothée Chalamet, Billie Eilish, Amanda Gorman, and Naomi Osaka.
The red carpet dazzled, fueled by the trending technicolor eyeshadow look featuring vibrant shades of pink and purple. Several A-listers, including Rihanna and Camila Cabello, showcased this mesmerizing style.
Meanwhile, Kim Kardashian nearly broke the internet when she appeared in an all-black Balenciaga outfit that entirely obscured her face, letting her exquisitely styled hair—a 75-inch faux ponytail extension worth $10,000—speak volumes.
At the 2022 gathering, themed “In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” the Skims mogul arrived with a bleached hairstyle. Her platinum blonde updo beautifully complemented Marilyn Monroe’s iconic “Happy Birthday Mr. President” naked dress, which Kardashian borrowed for the occasion from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!
Yet, she was not the sole star to wow onlookers with a dramatic hair transformation. Keep reading to discover these and other breathtaking beauty moments from the gala over the years, just in time for the upcoming 2025 Met Gala, scheduled for Monday, May 5.
