The first Monday of May — aka the Met Gala, aka the Super Bowl of fashion — was once again a sight to behold.
The gala’s theme perfectly set up attendees and onlookers to marvel at design and craft, while also honoring one of fashion’s most revered designers: Karl Lagerfeld. Lagerfeld, who died in 2019, had a decades-long career that began with an apprenticeship at Balmain; later included Fendi, Chloé and Jean Patou; and finally culminated with serving as creative director at Chanel, which he helped revive at the time of his appointment in 1983.
According to social media management platform Dash Hudson, this year’s Met Gala brought the focus back to fashion as an art form, with a renewed emphasis on the event’s theme and purpose. In an effort to address previous criticism that the event had become too commercialized and overrun by social media influencers, the Gala prioritized exclusivity and seriousness in its theme interpretation.
However, this did not stop certain attendees from making headline-grabbing moments that some people online interpreted as gauche. Namely, that included Jared Leto, who arrived in a cat costume modeled after Lagerfeld’s beloved pet, Choupette. Meanwhile. Doja Cat went full feline with facial prosthetics and meowed answers during an interview with Emma Chamberlain, and Lil Nas X came bedecked in silver paint and rhinestones courtesy of Pat McGrath. All three individuals were viewed negatively, per Dash Hudson sentiment data.
But only one person made it to the top 25 trending social keywords from the evening — that was Blackpink’s Jennie Kim. Notably, she received entirely positive sentiments. Kim wore a vintage white Chanel mini dress with black stockings and elbow-length black gloves, plus a black choker and a white camellia behind her ear. Overall, gloves and florals, namely the Chanel-favorite camellia, were the top trending styles of the evening, seeing a combined 21,700 engagements on social media. Bows, pearls and bridal were also top five trends, with another combined 35,300 social media engagements.
Vintage was another red carpet star, aside from Kim. Supermodel Gisele Bündchen made a post-divorce appearance, attending her Met Gala first in 15 years while wearing a white silk tulle Chanel dress from the Chanel Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2007 collection. Singer and gala co-host Dua Lipa also dipped into Chanel archives by wearing a 1992 bridal dress designed by Karl Lagerfeld that model Claudia Schiffer previously wore down the runway. Finally, Nicole Kidman, a spokesperson for Chanel No. 5 fragrance, re-wore the pale pink feathered gown from her 2004 Chanel perfume commercial.
