Met Gala 2023: Rita Ora sizzles in a black sheer gown as she joins dapper husband Taika Waititi on the star-studded red carpet
Rita Ora joined husband Taika Waititi at at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City for the star-studded Met Gala on Monday evening.
The British singer, 32, sizzled in a black sheer gown that hugged every inch of her jaw-dropping figure.
Her barely there frock boasted floral lace appliqué and perfectly placed chiffon along with a huge dramatic train.
Meanwhile husband Taika, 47, looked suave in a long gun metal blazer which he wore shirtless and teamed with smart white trousers.
He added extra style to the ensemble with pearls as well as a black floral corsage.
Gorgeous: Rita Ora joined husband Taika Waititi at at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City for the star-studded Met Gala on Monday evening
Style: The British singer sizzled in a black sheer gown that hugged every inch of her jaw-dropping figure
Wow:Her barely there frock boasted floral lace appliqué and perfectly placed chiffon along with a huge dramatic train
Rita completed the look with $90K worth of Buccellati jewellery including a gold cuff, pearl bracelet and cocktail earrings – along with long diamond extensions that hung from her perfectly manicured nails.
She accentuated her features with glam make-up palette and wore her caramel tresses in loose curls.
The 2023 Met Gala returns to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, with everyone from Kim Kardashian to Paris Hilton set to attend the annual fundraising event.
Since 1948, stars have ascended the majestic staircase into a very exclusive party where no selfies are allowed.
In keeping with tradition, the event will be held on the first Monday of May. It is scheduled to begin at 6:30PM EST on May 1, 2023.
Fans can watch the event unfold in real-time via a livestream on Vogue.
This year, the ball’s theme is Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty. The late German designer was Chanel’s long-time creative director. He passed at age 85 in 2019.
His beloved cat, Choupette, has even been invited to the festivities.
Suave: Meanwhile husband Taika, 47, looked suave in a long gun metal blazer which he wore shirtless and teamed with smart white trousers
Hello! The couple appeared in great spirits as they arrived at the satr-studded event
A little help? The huge train needed help from assistants
Wow: Rita completed the look with $90K worth of Buccellati jewellery including a gold cuff, pearl bracelet and cocktail earrings
Sensational: She also wore long diamond extensions that hung from her perfectly manicured nails.
The decision to honor Karl has sparked controversy given the many offensive remarks he has made over the years, from slamming the #MeToo movement to opposing same-sex marriage.
‘I’m against it for a very simple reason: In the 60s they all said we had the right to the difference. And now, suddenly, they want a bourgeois life,’ he told Vice of same-sex marriage.
‘It’s difficult to imagine—one of the papas at work and the other at home with the baby. How would that be for the baby? I don’t know. I see more lesbians married with babies than I see boys married with babies. And I also believe more in the relationship between mother and child than in that between father and child.’
While he ultimately showed his support for same-sex marriage at his spring 2013 Chanel haute couture show, he still said he was ‘less keen’ on same-sex couples adopting children, according to AP.
Along with the Vogue editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, who runs and hosts the annual event, the 2023 MET Gala will also be co-hosted by Penelope Cruz, Dua Lipa, Michaela Coel and also Roger Federer.
Curves! She accentuated her features with glam make-up palette and wore her caramel tresses in loose curls
Her moment to shine: The Hollywood director stood back to let his wife enjoy her moment in the spotlight
While the show may be known for its glitzy and over-the-top red carpet – with details of what occurs inside often remaining mysterious – at its heart, it is a fundraising event for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute.
Last year, the 2022 MET Gala alone raised a grand total of $17.4 million, reported Billboard.
This year the price of admission has been raised from $30,000 to $50,000, according to Page Six.
Even if you have the funds, that doesn’t guarantee you entry into the party.
Every guest has to be invited, and a waiting list exists for the coveted golden ticket.
Honour: This year, the ball’s theme is Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty. The late German designer was Chanel’s long-time creative director. He passed at age 85 in 2019 (pictured in 2017)
Drama: The decision to honour Karl has sparked controversy given the many offensive remarks he has made over the years, from slamming the #MeToo movement to opposing same-sex marriage
And status matters, according to The New York Times, meaning the hottest stars are a shoo in for an invite.
Paris Hilton is among the big names attending in what will be her first Met Gala.
Meanwhile, Blake Lively, a frequent attendee, announced she will not be at the party.
‘I will be watching,’ she said, according to People.
Elle Fanning, Kim Kardashian and La La Anthony are among the other celebs attending.
As for Wintour’s role in the bash, Vogue’s editor-in-chief organizes the party and oversees the guest list and even the menu.
She has served as the Met Gala’s chairwoman since 1994 and continues to serve look after look at every event.
THE SHOW AT THE MET
Seven words from Karl Lagerfeld adorn a doorway at the Metropolitan Museum of Art´s sumptuous new exhibit honoring the late, legendary designer: ‘Fashion does not belong in a museum.’
Andrew Bolton, who masterminds the New York museum’s blockbuster Costume Institute shows each year, chuckled as he led a visitor through that doorway this weekend, a few days before opening, with crews nearby bustling to prepare for Monday’s splashy Met Gala.
‘That´s what Karl said to me when I met him,’ the star curator said. ‘He believed fashion was not art – it belonged on the street. So, I really don´t know what he would think of all this! I´m not sure he would come.’
‘All this’ is a lavish, loving tribute to the hugely prolific career of German-born Lagerfeld, who died in 2019 at 85 after more than a half-century of designing that left a deep mark on luxury fashion, especially at Chanel, but also at Fendi, at his own eponymous label, and elsewhere.
Set in 14 galleries, the show´s very walls have been constructed to embody the essential contradiction, or duality, in Lagerfeld´s style and persona – a series of curved and straight lines. The show, titled ‘Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,’ is large in scope but intricately detailed, and clear in its message: Lagerfeld´s creative tentacles spread far beyond fashion into culture, and constantly adapted with the times.
What the exhibit does not do, purposely, is focus on Lagerfeld´s words – despite that quote on the doorway.
A design by Karl Lagerfeld is displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute exhibition, Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty, on Saturday, April 29, 2023, in New York
Many of Lagerfeld´s best-known quotes have shocked people over the years as he opined on subjects from #MeToo (skeptically), curvy bodies (dismissively), and political issues like immigration (offensively, to many). What was more interesting to Bolton, he says, was to focus on the work, and that was daunting enough. He examined 10,000 items before slowly winnowing the show down to about 200.
‘He was Karl,’ the curator said, noting that Lagerfeld himself referred to not always meaning what he said. ‘There could be 10, 20 different shows on Karl. To me, I thought the way to get to know him better, and understand his contradictions, was through his work.’ And at end of the day, he says, ‘that´s his legacy – the body of work you see here.’
Bolton´s shows, which have brought many thousands of visitors to the museum, have mostly centered on concepts and not individuals. But it´s hard not to sense that this show, dedicated to one man, is more personal for him, as he walks through the galleries and stops before a relatively simple tweed suit with a tight ribcage, narrow waist and exaggerated hips that he calls his favorite item.
Each gallery combines contradictory moods: romantic and military, historical and futuristic, feminine and masculine, floral and geometric. Filmy tulle coexists with shiny black plastic. It´s striking to think the same mind conjured up the pastel pink gown with cascading roses, and a jaunty design with huge block alphabet letters, which Lagerfeld loved because, Bolton says, ‘L comes after K in the alphabet. So, KL.’
One showstopping number is a glittery, golden embroidered dress, at its time said to be the most expensive ever made, Bolton said, because of its ingredients: literally, it´s spun with gold. In contrast, another item is simply ‘plastic on plastic.’
What stands out is the variety, making it impossible to describe one Lagerfeld style, even though his personal uniform became so recognizable that he called himself a caricature: the gray ponytail, the starchy white collars, the black fingerless gloves, leather pants, dark Chanel shades – a morphing of Mozart and maybe Keith Richards.
‘Fashion does not belong in a museum,’ it read above these colorful dresses
But that in itself, the show argues, is what defines the designer and explains his longevity: that he was always changing, in a determined – perhaps even obsessive – bid to stay relevant.
‘He was a chameleon,’ said Bolton, ‘able to change with the times so quickly. I think the reason he designed for so many years is that he wanted to remain relevant. Everything he did was about being in tune with the zeitgeist.’
Lagerfeld was also a man with many interests: Literature, film, music – and business, too, making him an early example of designer-as-impresario. To illustrate this, Bolton has created an item sure to draw eyeballs: a faithful recreation of Lagerfeld´s chaotic desk.
It is piled with books, magazines, favored sketching pencils from Caran D´Ache, and a glass of Diet Coke (actually resin, here).
All over the place: The mannequins were placed all over the wall
‘He drank it all day long,’ Bolton said. ‘I never saw him without his glass of Coke.’
To create the tableau, Bolton spent three days in Paris photographing Lagerfeld´s library. Not wanting to disturb the actual collection, he sourced books from Amazon. The cultural artifacts range from highbrow to lowbrow.
‘He wasn´t a snob,’ Bolton says, then catching himself: ‘Well, he WAS a snob. But he was a democratic snob.’
There´s also a sketchpad: open, and blank: ‘We wanted it to look as if he was about to sketch.’
It was also sketching that provided the inspiration for the show. Bolton was at Lagerfeld’s memorial at the majestic Grand Palais in Paris – ‘much hoopla, as you can imagine’ – and was touched by footage of the designer sketching, ‘lost in his imagination, oblivious to everybody.’ He started dreaming up a show. (Lagerfeld was also a close friend of Anna Wintour, the influential Vogue editor who masterminds the gala and is one of this year´s hosts. Chanel is the show´s main sponsor.)
A guitar was on the back of one dress while another included a candelabra
The exhibit centers first and foremost on the dichotomy of the curved ‘S’ line (think romantic, decorative) and the straight line (modern, minimalist), with one curved wall and one straight wall in each gallery, and designs that express each aesthetic. Then, raised up in the center, there’s a garment called an ‘explosion’ which combines both moods. So, for example, a traditional pastel-colored ballgown is topped with a black motorcycle jacket.
Speaking of jackets, there’s also a military-style women’s police jacket, designed by Lagerfeld as part of a competition run by the Rome police to dress its female officers.
And there’s a room full of iPhones – yes, iPhones – their screens capturing moments of what the exhibit calls ‘Karlisms.’ It’s an illustration of the designer’s constant use, in later years, of his phone in his creative process – and of his huge collection of smartphones.
‘I think he was ahead of the times, I really do,’ said Bolton. ‘I think he saw where fashion was heading, as early as the 1950s. And fashion finally caught up with him.’
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A recreation of Karl Lagerfeld’s desk is displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute exhibition
Now in ivory: Several looks in a lighter tone were seen
One dress had a long hem that put a new spin on the ‘mermaid finish’
Suits were seen on another wall with a white feathered creation in the middle
Cute bows were used in some of the dresses on the right with Chanel suits on the left
Gold is good in these designs
A rocker style was seen far right with Oscar gowns in the middle
Tiers were a theme in the dresses on the right
Karl Lagerfeld’s personal items are displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute exhibition
Color was another theme with Pucci looks
Another view of a room with a pink skirt could be seen
So much to take in all at once
There were seven different black gowns here
A closer look at this jacket showed the double Chanel Cs on the buttons
Designs by Karl Lagerfeld are displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute exhibition
Flower power was a theme on this silver sequined gown
Letters made a theme on this black and white beauty, left
Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty included a purse with his likeness
More looks are seen here with a 1960s feel
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