Met Gala 2023: Celebrities hit the red carpet at event honouring designer Karl Lagerfeld

It’s the first Monday in May, and you know what that means: The Met Gala is finally here.

On fashion’s biggest night, expect bold looks, high fashion, and behind-the-scenes drama. Due to the pandemic, the 2021 gala was postponed until the next year. The two galas in 2022, in May and September, brought in $33.7 million for Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This year, the Met Gala is paying homage to controversial auteur designer Karl Lagerfeld, who died in 2019. The night will spotlight the opening of the newest Costume Institute exhibition, “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty.”

The event starts at 6:30 p.m. EST. Follow along here for live updates from The Kit.

7:55 p.m.: Lil Nas X put on quite the cheeky display walking the red carpet leaving little to the imagination in silver body paint. And thank goodness for that: We’re still waiting for our memeable moment over here.

For the most part, it’s been a very… tasteful red carpet. Lots of gowns, pearls, tweed, a mostly black-and-white palette. Safe, a little boring.

7:46 p.m.: We weren’t exactly expecting Karl cosplay from Chanel ambassador and muse Kristen Stewart, and yet that’s exactly what we got. K-Stew’s satin suit features a cropped tie and jacket, a Chanel logo belt, white cotton socks and penny loafers (perhaps not surprising for the heel-averse star). A pompadour and drawn-on eyebrows make for a striking look.

7:32 p.m.: Genuinely sweet moment courtesy of Elle Fanning: When she was 13, Karl photographed her for his “The Little Black Jacket” book, and let her wear the white dress she arrived in, styling her only with a jacket and a flower crown. Tonight, she paid tribute to him by wearing a coronet of daisies.

7:31 p.m.: Margot Robbie (the last Chanel ambassador to be chosen by Karl before his death) smartly saved the hot pink for her Barbie movie press tour.

She’s wearing Chanel from a 1993 collection (first worn by Cindy Crawford) that features a chain-embellished, see-through corseted waist.

7:30 p.m.: Yes, that’s Jessica Chastain! We noticed the shock of platinum blond hair way before we could pay any attention to the gown.

Her all-black Gucci gown features a fuller skirt than she normally opts for, and Chastain paired it with sheer black gloves and costume-y black shades.

7:28 p.m.: At last, something to punctuate the tasteful sea of archival Chanel: Doja Cat, paying homage to Choupette (ahem, Lagerfeld’s cat) via some feline facial prosthetics.

Doja, who is wearing Oscar de la Renta tonight, was also spotted vaping as she walked the carpet. A legend.

7:25 p.m.: Sydney Sweeney, star of “Euphoria” and emerging Hollywood superstar, has a contract with Miu Miu, so a Karl-designed look wasn’t in the cards for the actor tonight.

She’s sticking to her go-to body-con silhouette with this bedazzled number, and we can read the black hair ribbon as an attempt at Chanel-esque styling.

7:20 p.m.: Olivia Wilde’s stylist, Canadian phenom Karla Welch, went the non-Chanel route with a pick from the 1983 Chloé collection.

Fun fact: a version of this “Violin” dress was worn back in 2013 by fashion darling Chloë Sevigny. Margaret Zhang, the editor-in-chief of “Vogue China,” is also wearing a similar violin dress, in black. With so many stars opting for vintage instead of custom, double-ups seem more likely this year than in Met Galas past.

7:08 p.m.: Karlie Kloss — wearing Loewe — brought a plus one tonight: A wee baby bump! As pregnancy announcements go, it’s up there with Rihanna at the Super Bowl. (This is Karlie’s second with husband Joshua Kushner, btw.)

6:55 p.m.: One of the evening’s co-chairs, Michaela Coel, donned a custom Schiaparelli gown featuring 130,000 crystals.

The chains on the dress are an homage to Karl (perhaps a nod to the chains on a classic Chanel flap bag) and the whole thing took over 3,000 hours of work to create.

“I’m just a tourist on the fashion scene,” she told red-carpet host La La Anthony. But looking at her risk-taking, directional gown, we have to disagree.

6:51 p.m.: Vogue editor Anna Wintour says this Met Gala is “emotional” for her because of how much Karl Lagerfeld meant to her. “Karl was intrinsically the chicest designer you can ever imagine,” she tells Lala Anthony.

Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue since 1988 — respected and feared in equal measure — is rumoured to individually approve every outfit that walks the red carpet, or at very least, review initial sketches and concepts.

6:44 p.m.: While Choupette — Karl Lagerfeld’s beloved cat, maybe the only thing he truly loved — remains unconfirmed for this evening, we have had our first cat-shaped item on the red carpet, courtesy of SNL’s Chloe Fineman, doing interviews on the red carpet carrying a Barbie-pink, kitten-shaped Judith Lieber bag.

6:35 p.m.: “I’m wearing a dress that Karl designed for me 20 years ago. I’m very grateful to wear it. He was so much a part of my life as were his whole team,” Nicole Kidman said. “He was the one really sort of shepherded me … in terms of my love of fashion.”

In 2004, the Australian actor appeared in a three-minute Chanel No. 5 commercial shot by director Baz Luhrmann. Lagerfeld designed the costumes and also appeared in the short.

6:33 p.m.: If you’re wondering why Dua Lipa, ultimate cool Gen Z pop star, is unfashionably early? She’s one of the gala’s “hosts,” a group of celebrities who each year are anointed by Anna Wintour (editor of Vogue, arbiter of all things Met Gala since 1995) to chair the event. (Previous hosts have included Amanda Gorman, Billie Eilish, Timothee Chalamet and designers like Oscar de la Renta and Miuccia Prada.)

This year, Dua’s co-hosting with actor Penelope Cruz, the genius writer and actor Michaela Coel and some guy who plays tennis named Roger Federer.

6:30 p.m.: We’ve had a few early arrivals — hello, one of this evening’s hosts Dua Lipa in Cinderella-esque archival Chanel — but while we wait for the red carpet to get really interesting, a brief recap. Every year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art holds a fundraising gala to celebrate their big exhibition at the Costume Institute.

This year, that’s “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,” celebrating the iconoclastic designer’s body of work. The official dress code? “In Honour of Karl.”As themes go, however, choosing Karl Lagerfeld isn’t without controversy. His legacy, as Leanne Delap explored in this piece, is…complicated.

For more details, read Leanne Delap’s story here: Karl Lagerfeld, who will be honoured at the 2023 Met Gala, called women ‘fat’ and ‘ugly.’ And he was a fashion genius. How much does it matter?

6:20 p.m.: It’s the first Monday in May, which can only mean one thing: Welcome to The Star’s Met Gala red carpet live blog! This is Sarah Laing, contributing writer for The Kit, and I’ll be here with you all night as the “fashion Oscars” unfold. (O Rihanna, please bless us with another Pizza Dress moment…)

6:07 p.m.: Karl Lagerfeld was “a very kind person,” Anna Wintour — Vogue’s editor-in-chief and the host and mastermind behind the gala — said when asked what people misunderstand about the late designer.

She also said she hoped “he would understand how many people love and respect him.”

Wintour was escorted to the event by actor Bill Nighy.

5:45 p.m.: The worlds of fashion, Hollywood, sports and music are set to collide at the Met Gala tonight.

There will be supermodels, including Amber Valletta, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Carolyn Murphy, Emily Ratajkowski and Gigi Hadid walking alongside sports icons like Serena Williams, host Roger Federer, Dwyane Wade, Russell Westbrook, Patrick Mahomes and Andy Roddick. Along those lines: Yes, Gisele Bündchen will be there; no, Tom Brady isn’t on the list.

Stars from hit shows like “Succession,” including Jeremy Strong and Alexander Skarsgård and “The Last of Us,” with Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal are expected, as are several recent Oscar winners like “Everything Everywhere All At Once’s” Ke Huy Quan and Michelle Yeoh.

Broadway will be well represented with Phillipa Soo, Ben Platt, Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff as well as a host of movie stars, including the likes of Margot Robbie, Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Lopez, Rami Malek, Robert Pattinson, Hugh Jackman and Florence Pugh, directors (Baz Luhrmann, Taika Waititi, Olivia Wilde and Sofia Coppola among them) and even executives, like Disney CEO Bob Iger and Interscope co-founder Jimmy Iovine.

There will be designers like Miuccia Prada, Stella McCartney, Vera Wang, Donatella Versace, Prabal Gurung, Tommy Hilfiger and Alessandro Michele, heiresses like Paris Hilton and Ivy Getty and actual royalty, like Charlotte Casiraghi. And from the music world, Billie Eilish, FINNEAS, Lil Nas X, host Dua Lipa, Tems and Usher.

The guest list handed out to reporters was more than seven pages long — but there were some big names missing. The mononymous showstoppers from previous years — Beyoncé, Rihanna and Zendaya — were all absent, as well as Blake Lively.

4:55 p.m.: Unfounded rumours flew about whether the Kardashians were even invited to this year’s Met Gala; Kim put them at rest when she posted to Instagram a research trip to Paris (complete with a stop to pay fealty to Choupette).

But who else from the Kardashian-Jenner clan made the cut? According to the guest list provided to press at the venue, Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner are the only other attendees slated to come.

But what about the extended universe? Kendall’s rumoured beau Bad Bunny is on the list; Kylie’s — one Timothée Chalamet, a recent Met Gala host — is not. Also on the list: Kim’s ex, Pete Davidson. The pair walked the carpet last year, with Kim clad in the famous Marilyn Monroe dress.

3:55 p.m.: When New York’s glitterati sashay down the Met Gala red carpet tonight, the fashion will be ultra au courant — after all, this year’s theme pays homage to boundary-pushing designer Karl Lagerfeld. But the vibrant colours, prints and patterns on those cutting-edge frocks will likely have been made with the same toxic dyes and harmful chemicals that were used in Victorian times.

Colours are hugely important to us. They reflect moods, seasons, identity, ethnicity and emotions in fashion and other choices that shape our lives. Yet one awkward fact is often overlooked: the production of dyes can be extremely toxic — to people and the planet. If we want to ensure a vast palette remains part of our clothing choices, we must improve how we create colours for future generations. It’s time to give the dye industry a meaningful overhaul.

Read the full story here: Met Gala fashions will be cutting edge. But the dyes used to make them need an update

2 p.m.: The choice to honour Karl Lagerfeld at tonight’s Met Gala has been controversial, with some criticizing his harsh comments on a variety of topics, including xenophobic and fatphobic remarks.

If the late designer’s legacy is to be put in the spotlight, then let’s at least show the bad with the good.

Full story from Leanne Delap here

12:08 p.m.: The late Karl Lagerfeld’s fluffy pampered cat, Choupette, is a star in her own right — and still very much alive. So, naturally, there was much chatter about whether the fashion designer’s muse would attend Monday’s Met Gala honouring him — but the cat took to Instagram to dispel rumours that she would be escorted up the stairs in New York.

“Many people invited me to walk the red carpet of the #METGALA2023 in tribute to Daddy, but we preferred to stay peacefully & cosy at home,” the Choupette Lagerfeld account said in an Instagram post on Monday. “We pay tribute to my Daddy every day since his parting and we are very moved to see one more day dedicated to him.”

Full story from the Associated Press here: Pas de chat: Lagerfeld’s cat Choupette won’t be at Met Gala

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