What did the stars wear to the Met Gala on Monday night? In some cases, not much.
The singer Rita Ora attended the event wearing multicolored strings of beads by Marni that cascaded down a sheer bodysuit. Doja Cat wore a white Vetements dress that looked like a clingy drenched T-shirt. A trompe l’oeil gown by Diesel superimposed an image of a naked torso atop Kylie Minogue’s real one.
All were part of a red carpet trend toward sheer gowns, or, as The New York Times’s chief fashion critic, Vanessa Friedman, has called it: “naked dressing.” The typical parade of opaque dresses was usurped by delicate constructions of mesh, lace and beads that allowed risqué glimpses of skin.
Nakedness on the red carpet may still scandalize, but it is time tested: Consider Rose McGowan’s backless mesh dress at the Video Music Awards in 1998, which she has described as a statement about reclaiming her body. On the Met Gala carpet this year, the approach seemed to catch on more than usual, even after barely-there clothing took over the spring 2023 runways in New York, London, Milan and Paris.
Perhaps it had to do with the gala’s reputation for one-upmanship: What better way to distinguish oneself from hundreds of well-dressed competitors than to wear practically nothing at all? Or maybe it had to do with the evening’s dress code, “The Garden of Time,” which might have gotten designers thinking about Adam and Eve.
Whatever the motivation, the see-through gowns kept coming: on Greta Lee, in lacy Loewe; on Jennifer Lopez, in beaded peek-a-boo Schiaparelli; and on Elle Fanning, in translucent resin from Balmain.
The model Emily Ratajkowski, who wore a backless Versace gown with beaded tendrils, said in an interview that she felt a certain confidence in her exposure.
“It feels really natural on me,” she said. “Comfortable, truly.”
Jessica Testa contributed reporting.
