Perhaps more than any other red-carpet event, one of the most amusing parts of tuning into the Met Gala is seeing which celebrities understood the assignment and dressed according to the theme and which ones appeared to have never bothered to open their invitation. This year, to celebrate the opening of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “In America: An Anthology of Fashion” exhibition, the annual fundraiser extravaganza proposed a “Gilded Glamour and White Tie” affair. Occurring on the heels of HBO’s The Gilded Age, the suggested attire would seem to imply an opulent turn-of-the-century sartorial sensibility.
Several celebrities donned corsets, bustles, gloves, and tuxedo tails, recalling the iconic garments and accessories of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In a handful of instances, American architecture was front of mind, as illustrated by Alicia Keys, who wore a Ralph Lauren dress and cape adorned with thousands of crystals forming the New York City skyline. Other stars evoked Newport, Rhode Island, and New York mansions and landmarks built by the likes of Gilded Age starchitects Richard Morris Hunt and Stanford White, even if unintentionally. Here, discover the red-carpet moments that bear uncanny resemblances to some of America’s most opulent edifices and interiors.
Blake Lively as the Statue of Liberty, Grand Central Station, and the Empire State Building in New York City
As one of this year’s co-chairs, Blake Lively quite literally epitomized Gilded Age dress and architecture in her homage to three New York City icons. She first delivered a jaw-dropping transformation when the skirt of her copper-colored Versace gown, whose silhouette was inspired by English American fashion designer Charles James, was released to reveal a pale green, representative of copper’s oxidation over time. Her dress’s embroidery also referenced Grand Central Station’s celestial ceiling and the Empire State Building’s Art Deco shapes. While the latter was unveiled during the 1930s, the Statue of Liberty opened in 1886. Likewise, having originally been established in 1869 by shipping and railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt, Grand Central Terminal underwent an extensive renovation led by Reed & Stem in 1913.
Ariana DeBose as Marble House in Newport
With railroads and other technological industries booming, the Gilded Age embraced conspicuous consumption in all aesthetic expressions. New York’s elite frequently flocked to their not-so-modest “cottages” in Newport, which is one of the greatest representations of Gilded Age living today. One of the most commanding and lavish properties is the aptly named Marble House, built between 1888 and 1892 for William K. Vanderbilt and renowned hostess Alva Vanderbilt. (William was the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and his brother, Cornelius II, built the nearby Breakers mansion.) Marble House’s architect, Richard Morris Hunt, was a founding trustee of the Met and also designed the museum’s classical Beaux Arts Fifth Avenue façade and Great Hall. As demonstrated by West Side Story star Ariana DeBose, the troupe of Moschino-clad celebrities captured the ballroom and reception room’s grand Louis XIV style.
Ivy Getty as the Frick Collection in New York City
Today, Fifth Avenue’s Frick Collection represents one of America’s finest house museums. It was originally built in 1913-14 by the firm Carrère and Hastings for Henry Clay Frick, one of the country’s most successful industrialists and art patrons. Of the numerous expansions and changes the residence underwent, one of its most charming additions was the idyllic Garden Court, designed by John Russell Pope for the museum’s opening in 1935. Ivy Getty, a descendent of another legendary American family—that of J. Paul Getty—wore an Oscar de la Renta gown comprised of a Lyon lace tablecloth, borrowed from the Getty estate.
La La Anthony as Rosecliff Mansion in Newport
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For her 2022 Met Gala look, Vogue livestream cohost La La Anthony opted for a maroon satin gown by LaQuan Smith and a dramatic metal fascinator by Laurel DeWitt. Although Anthony and the designers did not cite Newport’s Rosecliff Mansion as inspiration, the property’s romantic heart-shaped staircase, with its undulating, architectural curves and ironwork immediately comes to mind. Not only does the shape echo that of Anthony’s bedazzled bodice, but the gown’s train could also easily be imagined trailing down the “sweetheart’s staircase,” as it was known, to make a proper grand entrance, just as architect Stanford White had intended.
Adut Akech as Château-sur-Mer in Newport
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One of the earliest Newport mansions that still stands today is Chateau-sur-Mer, completed in 1852, decades before the famed Vanderbilt houses. As a landmark of High Victorian architecture, it was originally built as an Italianate-style villa for Old China Trade merchant William Shepard Wetmore. After he died in 1862, his son, George Peabody Wetmore, had Richard Morris Hunt remodel and redecorate the house in the Second Empire French style during the 1870s. South Sudanese Australian model Adut Akech’s Christian Lacroix Fall 2003 haute couture gown recalls the equally one-of-a-kind central staircase at Chateau-sur-Mer.
Cara Delevingne as the Morgan Library in New York City
Although it is one of the night’s most daring looks, we cannot help but draw similarities—if only for their distinct warm-toned color scheme—between Cara Delevingne’s ensemble and the Morgan Library and Museum. While walking the red carpet, the model and actress removed her Christian Dior double-breasted jacket to reveal her gold-painted chest, further adorned with gold jewelry. The radiant, intrepid combination parallels the three-story bronze-and-walnut bookshelves and luminous ceiling of the Morgan Library, originally built between 1902 and 1906 as the personal library of financier, collector, and philanthropist John Pierpont Morgan. Designed by Charles McKim of the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, the library housed Morgan’s illuminated and historical books and manuscripts, as well as numerous artworks.
Sarah Jessica Parker as the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina
It would only be fitting that the Met Gala red carpet’s reigning queen, Sarah Jessica Parker, would sartorially align with “America’s chateau,” the Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina. Designed by Christopher John Rodgers, her voluminous gown was inspired by an 1860s dress made by designer and activist Elizabeth Keckly, who, though born enslaved, used her dressmaking talent to garner clients as elite as First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. Keckley’s role as a pioneer of American fashion is one of the untold stories highlighted in “In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” which also addresses the country’s troubling history. Parker’s dress evokes the sophisticated color palette and contours of the Biltmore, whose construction began in 1889 and took six years to complete. George Vanderbilt enlisted Richard Morris Hunt and Frederick Law Olmsted to bring his 16th- and 17th-century French-chateau vision to life.
Lena Waithe as the Park Avenue Armory in New York City
Styled by Jason Bolden, Lena Waithe wore another standout Versace look. With its intricacies and gleaming turquoise fabric, the ensemble effortlessly captures many of the unique details that feature in the Park Avenue Armory’s Veterans Room, a national treasure of Aesthetic Movement interiors. Built in 1861, the armory originally functioned as a military facility and social club for the Seventh Regiment of the National Guard of President Lincoln’s volunteer militia. By the early 2000s, the five-story building had fallen under disrepair, and Herzog & de Meuron led its renovation. As part of this project, the firm restored the Veterans Room—completed in 1881 by Louis Comfort Tiffany, designer Candace Wheeler, architect Stanford White, and painter Samuel Colman—to its former glory.
